Letters to the Editor: Careful, college protesters — you may get Trump elected president
To the editor: Columnist Jonah Goldberg writes: “The nostalgic champions of the campus protests of the ’60s would have Americans believe they were a heroic success, stopping the Vietnam War. But what they actually helped achieve was Richard Nixon’s election and seven more years of war.”
Goldberg nails it.
No matter where you stand on the protests currently taking place on college campuses, those opposed to them will use the demonstrations as an argument to impose law and order. Those who want that tend to see former President Trump as the solution (except, of course, when they happen to be the disrupters, as on Jan. 6, 2021).
When Trump becomes president, what will the protesters do then?
John Goodman, Oak Park
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To the editor: For all of Goldberg’s well-taken points, he slips in some that trouble me: He loosely conflates progressives and elites, as if they’ve conspired to prod counterproductive and even violent protests, and adds that they have “shaped the narratives of ... entertainment.”
I heartily agree with Goldberg’s intimation that over the past 60 years, the downward spiral of entertainment has been tied to the devolution of our country’s politics. Perhaps the most distressing evidence is seen in pervasive degradation of the Walter Cronkite era’s gold standard of straightforward, unbiased news.
In recent decades, an abundance of “alternative news” sources has proliferated, with emphasis on titillating “infotainment” to supplant even-handed news presentations. That sad trend has accompanied the emergence of “reality” TV shows that serve the tawdry tastes of those who prefer biased news sources.
No doubt some progressive “elites” have exploited this woeful turn. But far more conservative elites have profited immensely from canonizing a onetime reality show impresario’s democracy-eroding rise to power.
Goldberg should concede that their targeted audiences would never think of protesting wars that powerful conservatives are loath to condemn.
P. Jane Weil, Sacramento
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To the editor: Goldberg trivializes student protests as a fashionable rite of passage for college students who are oftentimes ignorant of the issues they are protesting. I beg to differ.
The gross injustice of canceling the valedictorian’s speech at USC starkly represented how our government and university institutions have allowed the depraved Gaza tragedy to continue by silencing dissident voices.
Students are galvanized to protest this tragic injustice through peaceful demonstrations. The object of their fury is Zionism, not members of the Jewish community, many of whom are the leaders of this resistance.
I believe that Goldberg and some politicians are minimizing the passionate determination of our students. We have only to look back to the Vietnam War when protests helped to bring that tragedy to an end.
Joseph Tillotson, Redondo Beach
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To the editor: I wish Goldberg had “salted this column with examples of today’s protesters revealing how little they know about the issues supposedly motivating them — or of fawning coverage of mobs siding with terrorists.”
What’s so upsetting about these protests is that I imagine that the majority of these students have no idea that Hamas wants to annihilate Jews across the world. Do they understand that Hamas is willing to sacrifice its own people to achieve that goal?
I protested the Vietnam War and totally support the right to gather, but this isn’t the same. Then, no one feared going on campus or attending classes.
I wish for peace and the release of the hostages. I wish for the end of suffering on both sides. I wish for a two-state solution, if that’s possible. My mother was a Holocaust survivor. She used to say “never again,” but it’s again and again and again.
Margie Friedman, Santa Monica
