Holier than Mao

Sam Graham-Felsen criticizes the Center for American Progress's recent Campus Progress National Student Conference in the pages of The Nation. As a participant in that conference, I feel a bit of a need to defend myself, but also a need to question Sam. See, Sam falls into one of the oldest traps of liberalism, which is grabbing and embracing a holier-than-thou line.

Sam criticizes his cohorts for giving President Bill Clinton four standing ovations during his hour long speech. I'll never be considered one of Clinton's greatest defenders, but my rough memory is that Clinton made at least four good arguments (he also rambled for a while, so I left the room for a bit). But Sam takes a bit of comfort in the fact that he was one of a handful who never stood for the President. Congrats, Sam, you have your purity.

But his criticism of Clinton gets downright petty. When Clinton tells people to talk to Red America (read: my state), Sam declares it another Clintonistic "mov[e] to the center." Nevermind that the way Bernie Sanders, no Clintonista, has won in Vermont is by taking his populist progressive message to every Vermonter. Of course, given the self-righteous tone, maybe we should be grateful that Graham-Felsen considers talking to people selling out the cause, it'll make it a lot easier to keep him away from the regular people all across America more bothered by progressive arrogance than by progressive policy.

Sam sneers at Paul Begala's invocation of faith. He denigrates the idea that progressives must show conviction and strength. Thankfully, Sam credits my panel with offering "a more diverse spectrum of opinion" than other forums during the day, but he can't even resist snidely maligning the Genocide Intervention Fund, the students organizing against genocide in Darfur, as their cause is not sufficiently partisan -- a pretty rich critique from a Clinton-basher.

The Conference was far from perfect, but the students (and many of the panelists) truly represented the broad range of progressive tought. We had Clinton and vanden Heuvel. We had Begala and Frank. We had Penniman and Teixeira. And virtually everone I talked to was upset with one panelist or the other. Some students weren't. Sam at least ends on a positive note, explaining that the full-range of students left the conference "energized and teeming with hope." Well, that's what matters, isn't it?

--Matt Singer

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