The Campus Crusades

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David Horowitz, and his writing partner Peter Collier, were well-known lefties in the 1960s. Horowitz was a Black Panther supporter and editor of Ramparts magazine, the premier left-wing publication of the period. He and Collier, co-founder of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture (CSPC), came out as Reagan Republicans in a highly controversial 1985 Washington Post article called “Lefties for Reagan.” Since then, Horowitz has blended Dr. Laura-like pomposity with an extraordinary ability to self-promote.

Over the past few years, David Horowitz has made a number of appearances on college campuses and he doesn’t like what he’s been seeing. These visits have triggered the launching of the National Campaign to Take Back Our Campuses. In a new booklet titled Political Bias in America’s Universities, Horowitz describes “what’s wrong in academics today,” and the “steps you and I can take to restore sanity to our colleges and universities.”

Taking issue with “leftist professors” who question President Bush’s “war on terrorism” and “liberal bias” on campus is nothing new for this right-winger. This time around, what’s unique is Horowitz’s intention to involve alumni and legislators—the people he says control the purse strings at America’s universities.

While the campaign is framed around silencing “blame America” academics, there is another, albeit larger, agenda. It includes the future of collective bargaining on campuses, the nature of tenure, academic standards and curricula selection, and government funding for university projects.

At his website, Horowitz explained the reasons for his new campus-focused campaign. Since the mid-1960s, he writes, “the left made a concerted effort to take over our colleges and universities. The turmoil surrounding the Viet Nam war made our schools ripe for leftist pickings…. As they’ve taken control, they’ve trampled free speech, virtually banished conservative professors, and turned our schools into little more than huge megaphones for anti-American rhetoric from coast to coast. Today you can do or say anything you want on our campuses—provided it’s laced with negative sentiment about our nation, our Bill of Rights, our Constitution, our culture.”

Horowitz’s plan calls for a “four-pronged information assault” which will:

(1)“Investigate and expose the hiring practices and tenure selection criteria used at universities and colleges…. A pattern of discrimination against conservatives is becoming more and more evident, and I’m going to make sure the American public knows about it.

(2)“Publish and distribute 300,000 copies of my new booklet, Political Bias in America’s Universities, onto campuses in every state…. This booklet is a powerful weapon in our fight to get the truth out to leaders, alumni and legislators

(3)“Conduct a National Survey On The State Of America’s Universities, then compile and publish the results on our powerhouse web magazine, FrontPage.... Send the results to two groups that hold real power over our schools: school alumni and state legislators! Alumni associations hold the purse strings to the largest private contributions colleges receive. And state legislators hold the biggest financial bag—your tax dollars!”

(4)“Continue to travel onto campuses and deliver the truth about America, about the conservative principles this country was founded on and the remarkable society shaped by those principles.”

Horowitz claims he needs $325,500 to “enable us to build upon our success and fully fund the National Campaign to Take Back our Campuses.” Before you rush to write a check, understand that between 1991 and 2001, according to Media Transparency, a website focusing on the money behind right-wing politics, Horowitz’s CSPC received more than $10.2 million in support from conservative foundations. (According to the Center’s 2000 tax return, from 1996 through 1999 the Center received nearly four times the amount of money from contributions and grants—$8.7 million—compared to $2.2 million from services performed. Horo- witz received $253,000 in compensation for 1999.)

Re-Orienting Universities

Two invited guests (as of this writing) to CSPC’s gala mid-November Restoration Weekend in Palm Springs, Florida are Florida’s Gov. Jeb Bush and Lynne Cheney, the wife of the vice president. Both share a vision for America’s universities.

During the summer of 2001, Gov. Bush reorganized Florida’s state university’s system of governance. He summarily dismissed the state’s Board of Regents and replaced it with handpicked and corporate-dominated Boards of Trustees who rule over each of the system’s 11 colleges.

In 1995, Lynne Cheney and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) founded the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA). At its website, ACTA points out that its members contributed $3.4 billion to colleges and universities last year, making the organization “the largest private source of support for higher education.” Large donors are frequently advised by ACTA staff as to what kind of influence their money can buy over courses and departments at colleges and universities.

ACTA played a role in smoothing the transition from a Regents-run to a Board of Trustees- run university system in Florida. Anne Neal, a vice president and lawyer for ACTA, led orientation sessions for all of the state’s new trustees. Neal told them that they now had the power over their schools’ budgets and academic standards and will also be able to select their schools’ presidents. She pointed out that one of the most difficult tasks would be revising their schools’ policies and examining their personal and business relationships to assure there isn’t even the appearance of impropriety.

A Shared Agenda

Horowitz is not alone in zeroing in on college campuses. In November 2001, ACTA launched its Defense of Civilization Fund “to support the study of American history and civics and of Western civilization.” Its first project was the notorious pamphlet “Defending Civilization: How Our Universities Are Failing America and What Can Be Done About It,” which claimed that college and university faculty have been the weak link in America’s response to September 11. ACTA is a Washington, DC-based group dedicated to countering “political correctness,” keeping its eye on campus “radicals,” and changing the way universities throughout the country govern themselves.

In March 2002, former Drug Czar and Education Secretary William J. Bennett founded and became chairperson of Americans for Victory Over Terrorism (AVOT), a project of his Washington, DC-based think tank, EMPOWER.org. AVOT’s stated mission is “to sustain and strengthen American public opinion as the war on terrorism moves forward.” In June, AVOT released its nation-wide survey of college and university students’ attitudes and opinions about various facets of the war against terrorism.

In announcing “the first comprehensive poll of American college students’ attitudes and opinions about the war on terrorism this year,” Bennett said, “The findings reveal that our college students, to say nothing of our high school students, need to know many things better: the virtues of American democracy, the role we play in the world, and the names of players in that role. This poll shows that we—parents, teachers, professors, and leaders—have a great deal of work to do.”

The Clare Booth Luce Policy Institute has organized the Bring a Conservative Speaker to Your College Campus campaign. The Institute, which describes its mission as “prepar[ing] young women for effective conservative leadership and…promot[ing] school choice opportunities for all K-12 children in America,” also sponsors a Conservative Women Speakers Program. Conservative columnist and author Ann Coulter, recently said that through the speaker’s program, “thousands of college students are able to help bring a balance to issue debates, see that there are conservative women and challenge the intimidating dominance of liberals and radical feminists on their campuses.”

On The Go and In Demand

Since September 11, David Horowitz has been busy. He launched a McCarthy-like tirade against Democratic Congress-person Barbara Lee—the only congressional representative to vote against Bush’s open-ended “war on terrorism.” In a column called “The Enemy Within,” Horowitz branded Lee an “anti-American communist who supports America’s enemies and has actively collaborated with them in their war against America.”

On his FrontPage website he labeled the Congressional Black Caucus a “fifth-column” and dubbed the recently-defeated Rep. Cynthia McKinney “Hanoi Jane.” Horowitz railed against the “so-called Peace Movement,” an effort that landed him a three-hour stint with Dr. Laura Schlessinger on her radio program. As part of the National Call to Support the War, Horowitz initiated the Think Twice campaign, a no-holds- barred advertising effort to convince students on college campuses not to protest against Bush’s “war on terrorism.”

Horowitz’s recent pamphlet titled “How the Left Undermined America’s Security” claims that the Democratic Party cannot be “trusted” with national security issues and that the Clinton administration turned its back on dealing with terrorism. During an appearance on the Arizona-based television program “Fox 10 Newsmaker Sunday,” Horowitz called Clinton the “most reckless and irresponsible” president ever to occupy the White House.

Horowitz crusaded against Noam Chomsky. In a late-September 2001 column titled “The Sick Mind of Noam Chomsky,” posted at his regular slot on Salon.com, Horowitz wrote: “Without question, the most devious, the most dishonest and—in this hour of his nation’s grave crisis—the most treacherous intellect in America belongs to MIT professor Noam Chomsky.” A month later, he pressed the attack with a pamphlet on Chomsky called “The World’s Most Shameless Liar Unloads Some More.”

Horowitz’s take back our college campuses campaign will no doubt be part of the Restoration Weekend agenda. The Breakers in Palm Beach may be a bit pricey, but the CSPC assures attendees that the $1,500 individual fee, or $2,600 fee for couples, will cover all conference events. The list of confirmed speakers qualifies as a who’s who on the Right, and includes congressional representatives, conservative media personalities, former CIA Director, James Woolsey, terrorism expert Steven Emerson, the Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol, and everyone’s favorite author, Ann Coulter.

Over the years, Horowitz has perfected the art of the pre-emptive strike—rhetorical drive-bys aimed at the quick hit. He nabs a few mainstream press headlines, attains the attention of the conservative media, delights his right- wing financial base, and moves on to his next target. If he can bring Lynne Cheney, Jeb Bush, and Bill Bennett on board, his new campaign could have a great deal more staying power.

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Bill Berkowitz is a freelance writer covering conservative movements.