A number of years ago, former congressman John LeBoutellier wrote a book about his alma mater which he titled Harvard Hates America. The thesis is worth revisiting.
Since then, (1978), a quartet of Harvard grads have run for president, two of them successfully, displaying varying degrees of affection for their native soil. The last Crimson candidate, who now occupies the White House, matriculated from Harvard Law. “On this faculty, there are around 100 professors or assistant professors, and of that 100, I think you’d have to estimate there would be maybe eight registered Republicans,” Harvard law professor Richard D. Parker said last year. “I’m a registered Independent…and there’s on one else in the 100 who would identify as a populist.”
“I’ve been here almost 35 years, so it’s not as if I’m suddenly coming into a situation.” Parker described himself in a June 2009 interview with American Legion magazine as “a populist, which in a way is more troubling than being a conservative.”
“There are many friendships I’ve built on the faculty,” Parker said. “I think if you wanted to ask who is more irritated by my views or their views, I would say they regard my views as sort of quirky.”
“But on political and certain political and certain legal dimensions, I’m so outnumbered that I don’t think they’re troubled.” The feeling is not mutual.
“I, on the other hand, sometimes find it hard to take what they simply assume about politics,” Parker explains. “For example, in the (2008 presidential election), the ferocity of the denigration of Gov. (Sarah) Palin is quite irritating to me.”
“When you break it down, it’s really just bringing out the prejudices against ordinary Americans that I’ve been trying to oppose for a long time.” Some might conclude that, at the very least, Harvard Law hates Americans.
Malcolm A. Kline is the Executive Director of Accuracy in Academia.
