Response to Jacob Laksin's review of our conference
| By ajentleson - Jul 19th, 2006 at 12:39 pm EDT |
| Also listed in: Horowitz Watch | Campus Progress Blog |
We at Campus Progress were very pleased that Jacob Laksin, senior editor at FrontPageMag.com and researcher for David Horowitz's book The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America, was able to attend our conference last week. We especially enjoyed Mr. Laksin's participation in an engaging and informative panel discussion on academic freedom. And we are happy to see that Mr. Laksin posted a thoughtful review of our conference ("Crashing Progressive Camp") on the popular FrontPageMag.com earlier this week.
Indeed, we enthusiastically agree with Mr. Laksin's conclusion--that the overall impressiveness of the students at our conference was an "encouraging" sign of the emergence of a active, and effective progressive community on college campuses (and in America).
In short, we encourage our readers to read Mr. Laksin's review. However, we'd also like to take the liberty of pointing out two inaccuracies in it.
First, contrary to what Mr. Laksin writes, Senator Obama (the conference's keynote speaker) did not describe "the Left's unwillingness thoughtfully to consider conservative arguments as a 'poverty of ambition.'" Rather, Senator Obama used the phrase "poverty of ambition" to make the point that there is more to life than making money--a good message, we think, for young people about to enter to embark on their careers.
Senator Obama's full statement was, "It's easy to just take that diploma, forget about all this progressive politics stuff, and go chasing after the big house and the large salary and the nice suits and all the other things that our money culture says you should buy," he said. "But I hope you don't. Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself, and it will leave you unfulfilled."
Nothing in there about conservative ideas -- we wish Mr. Laksin had been a bit clearer about that.
Second, Mr. Laksin states that "slogans, rather than reflection, were the order of the day." Mr Laksin is referring to the fact that our conference featured one panel on press strategy and one on marketing--two elements we consider crucial to any successful campaign, progressive or otherwise.
However, Mr. Laksin conveys the impression that press and messaging was the main focus of our conference--writing that "not one" of the panels at our conference the day "focused on the substance of the message that students were to commit their energies to publicizing."
This is simply not true. Our conference featured nine panels on issues ranging from poverty, to foreign policy, to immigration, to science, to college affordability, to academic freedom--as anyone can see from the conference schedule.
Our differences notwithstanding, we enjoyed having Mr. Laksin at our conference. In the interest of fostering a free exchange of ideas--something we at Campus Progress are deeply committed to--we continue to welcome him and his colleagues to any and all Campus Progress events, and look forward to working with him and other conservatives in the future.
Indeed, we enthusiastically agree with Mr. Laksin's conclusion--that the overall impressiveness of the students at our conference was an "encouraging" sign of the emergence of a active, and effective progressive community on college campuses (and in America).
In short, we encourage our readers to read Mr. Laksin's review. However, we'd also like to take the liberty of pointing out two inaccuracies in it.
First, contrary to what Mr. Laksin writes, Senator Obama (the conference's keynote speaker) did not describe "the Left's unwillingness thoughtfully to consider conservative arguments as a 'poverty of ambition.'" Rather, Senator Obama used the phrase "poverty of ambition" to make the point that there is more to life than making money--a good message, we think, for young people about to enter to embark on their careers.
Senator Obama's full statement was, "It's easy to just take that diploma, forget about all this progressive politics stuff, and go chasing after the big house and the large salary and the nice suits and all the other things that our money culture says you should buy," he said. "But I hope you don't. Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself, and it will leave you unfulfilled."
Nothing in there about conservative ideas -- we wish Mr. Laksin had been a bit clearer about that.
Second, Mr. Laksin states that "slogans, rather than reflection, were the order of the day." Mr Laksin is referring to the fact that our conference featured one panel on press strategy and one on marketing--two elements we consider crucial to any successful campaign, progressive or otherwise.
However, Mr. Laksin conveys the impression that press and messaging was the main focus of our conference--writing that "not one" of the panels at our conference the day "focused on the substance of the message that students were to commit their energies to publicizing."
This is simply not true. Our conference featured nine panels on issues ranging from poverty, to foreign policy, to immigration, to science, to college affordability, to academic freedom--as anyone can see from the conference schedule.
Our differences notwithstanding, we enjoyed having Mr. Laksin at our conference. In the interest of fostering a free exchange of ideas--something we at Campus Progress are deeply committed to--we continue to welcome him and his colleagues to any and all Campus Progress events, and look forward to working with him and other conservatives in the future.
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Comments are closed for this post.
As a senior editor, Laskin probably has some standards - I hope that if you e-mail him regarding the two points of inaccuracy, he'll correct.