{"id":1066,"date":"2016-12-08T12:19:26","date_gmt":"2016-12-08T16:19:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jparnell.com\/blog\/?p=1066"},"modified":"2016-12-08T12:19:26","modified_gmt":"2016-12-08T16:19:26","slug":"serious-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/?p=1066","title":{"rendered":"Serious Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

I understand why progressives feel disdain for the recent election. While President-elect Trump has some progressive tendencies, he\u2019s a far cry from President Obama or Secretary Clinton. But what frustrates me the most is the complete lack of understanding of anyone or anything in disagreement to the progressive agenda. This frustration can be seen clearly in CSU-Dominguez Hills biology professor Terry McGlynn\u2019s recent piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education<\/em>, the industry\u2019s legacy publication in terms of both news and opinion:<\/p>\n

Like free speech and freedom of the press, scholarly inquiry is an ingredient of a functional democracy. With our federal government careening toward an anti-intellectual autocracy \u2014 led by a science-denying president who panders to white male insecurities and prejudices \u2014 the open exchange of ideas is as essential as ever.<\/em><\/p>\n

https:\/\/chroniclevitae.com\/news\/1635-being-a-scholar-in-trumpian-times?cid=pm&utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=08b2a1c3ffeb4b67814506df7e0bbbf6&elq=96bea95fbd5a470ca463db0b24bb51fb&elqaid=11749&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=4682<\/a><\/p>\n

The entire article is a window into the progressive academic view of Trump and the Republican party. The hypocrisy seems evident at first glance. In the same breath that he defends the \u201copen exchange of ideas,\u201d McGlynn expresses personal contempt for Trump and his ideas. McGlynn doesn\u2019t explain why his ideas are superior, but instead tags Trump as racist, reckless, and hostile to science and academe. Perhaps this qualifies as the open exchange of ideas, but McGlynn\u2019s article is riddled with contempt and scorn, and displays no intellectual curiosity.<\/p>\n

But after reading McGlynn\u2019s article a couple of times, I\u2019ve reconsidered. McGlynn might not be a hypocrite after all. Maybe he\u2019s just ignorant of the opposition. His article reminds me of a young man I saw on CNN the day after the election. His name escapes me, but he was affiliated with a religious tolerance group and seemed to be a nice guy. He said he walked over to Trump Tower on election night \u201cto try to understand what Trump supporters were all about.\u201d Really? Apparently, he assumed they were all idiots or malcontents unworthy of his time when he thought Trump was going to lose anyway. I guess he spent the previous year as an avid Clinton supporter who never stopped to wonder why so many people between New York and Los Angeles were not going to vote for her.<\/p>\n

My message to the guy on CNN, McGlynn, or any other progressive is simple: There are other legitimate ways to view society, the economy, and national security. In fact, there\u2019s a lot of diversity in the Republican party, from Trump\u2019s populism to traditional conservatives to neo-cons to quasi-libertarians. Each perspective has a serious intellectual basis if you\u2019re willing to open your minds, treat people with respect, drop the blanket bigot claims, and engage in real dialogue. You\u2019ll learn something. You’ll probably find some common ground and meet some nice people while you’re at it.<\/p>\n

Or you can continue to label all non-progressives as bigots who just don\u2019t know better. So much for tolerance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I understand why progressives feel disdain for the recent election. While President-elect Trump has some progressive tendencies, he\u2019s a far cry from President Obama or Secretary Clinton. But what frustrates me the most is the complete lack of understanding of anyone or anything in disagreement to the progressive agenda. This frustration can be seen clearly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1066"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1066\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}