Frampton Commies Alive: An Update
Powerline
In "Frampton Commies Alive" we discussed the case of one Thomas Frampton, Yale '06, now better known as the Ivy Leaguer who assaulted Vice President Cheney at the Republican Convention this past September. A reader writes to update us and ask, "Where’s the Outrage?":
To write anything about the liberal bias of college campuses (especially at the elite/ivy league schools) is borderline cliché. After all, when a non-partisan poll of Ivy League professors finds that more than 80 percent of those who voted in 2000 had cast their ballots for Democrat Al Gore while just 9 percent backed Republican George W. Bush, there’s not even much point on writing about it.
From my own experience (as a Yale graduate in May 2004), many professors aren’t teaching, but rather indoctrinating. I’ve had a professor tell a class of 600 students, with a straight face, that if someone doesn’t support affirmative action, he is the moral equivalent of a Klansman.
And after telling a smaller class of students that my car stereo had been stolen (and my window smashed), I suffered through 45 minutes of unanimous lecturing – from the teacher and 90% of the students – that society had forced the thief into his profession. Because we hadn’t provided the individual with a large enough welfare check, a nice enough apartment via public housing, or the job skills necessary to find a well-paying job, he had no choice but to steal car stereos. In this instance, when I explained to the class that countless restaurants and retail establishments had “help wanted signs” in their windows, I was lectured, by the teacher, about how demeaning it would be for someone to take a low-paying job… so I certainly couldn’t expect the thief to go flip burgers.
But with that in mind, the hypocrisy of liberal academia is still worth pointing out.
Case in point: At the Republican National Convention, a rich, white Yale student - Thomas Frampton – threatened the physical security of Vice President Dick Cheney. As you may remember, after months of posing as an RNC volunteer, Frampton jumped over the wall of the vice-presidential box, got within feet of the Vice President and his wife, and assaulted a federal officer. We should all be grateful that the Vice President didn’t have a heart attack.
What was his punishment? Last Wednesday, a federal court in Manhattan agreed to drop all charges against Frampton (click here.)
As you could probably guess, Yale students are indoctrinated daily on the evils of our criminal justice system. In fact, in “Crime and Punishment” – the same class where all students opposed to Affirmative Action were placed on the same moral plane as Klansman, there seemed to be no other topic on the syllabus. For example, time and time again, our nation’s drug laws were described as our “New Jim Crow” system. The statistic that African Americans comprise 12.2 percent of the population, 13 percent of drug users, and 75% of the U.S. prison population became so ingrained in my head that I can still recite it.
Moreoever, when introduced to the huge disparity of today’s prison system, we were told that there were two leading theories on the topic. And thus, we were only taught those two theories. The first, as I’ve mentioned, is that it arose as a way for American society to replace Jim Crow/Slavery. The second theory, rooted in Marx, is that our prison system exists as a method for the upper classes to keep down the lower classes, and, as an added bonus, to “pad” our nation’s unemployment figures!
And unfortunately, this class is emblematic of most classes at Yale.
On a daily basis, Yale students and professors express the moral outrage they feel toward our criminal justice system. Every day, young black men go to prison for crimes that shouldn’t be illegal (in the opinion of professors and students), while their white counterparts rarely see prison. So in their calls for justice (and I certainly agree wholeheartedly) they argue passionately that our justice system should be colorblind.
But don’t ever bring up marijuana, because liberal, white kids at Yale smoke it quite freely, and never face repercussions. Nevermind the fact that their black counterparts go to prison for the same exact crime.
And naturally, Thomas Frampton. Why were charges dropped? Because he’s rich and white. But has there been a single protest on this injustice? Have any of the countless, “social justice” clubs at Yale pointed out this case as a perfect example of our society’s disparity in punishing criminals?
Of course not. Because this Yale student is one of them. As my friend Jamie Kirchick (Off the Fence) pointed out facetiously in September, this “Yale undergraduate sought to stand up to the political establishment and speak truth to power.” So, because he’s a “martyr for democracy,” Yale’s liberal establishment is completely willing to overlook this example of “injustice.”
On a similar note, how’s this for another example of hypocrisy? Last week, the Yale Daily News published an op-ed (click here) with an astonishing opening line: “Is Condoleeza Rice really a black woman?”
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