Re: “Santorum Calls Protests Disrupting Lecture Sign of ‘Liberal Intolerance’ at Cornell,” News, Nov. 23
To the Editor:
Wednesday, I attended the Cornell Republican’s event that brought Rick Santorum to campus, a move criticized in a previous letter due to his “extremist” views. The night promised dialogue concerning our country’s current political climate and future under the next administration. What I experienced instead was wholly different from this mission and will be ingrained in my memory for many years.
I am a registered Democrat from New York and have always been liberal, especially on social policies. By no means am I intimately familiar with Santorum’s political history, and went into the evening armed only with what I remember vaguely from his presidential campaign in 2012 and what I read on Wikipedia a few hours before arriving at the Statler. I know that Santorum is extremely anti-LGBTQ, pro-life, against contraceptive use and supports a slew of other principles with which I wholeheartedly disagree. But I also know that he played a major role in important welfare reform in the 1990s, and was a respected lawyer and former high-ranking politician. Prior to the event, I was generally interested in what he had to say about Donald Trump and the outlook for the next four years. I hoped that his extreme social views would be only a slight detraction from an otherwise intelligent conversation.
“Rick Santorum go away! Racist, sexist, anti-gay!”
While waiting on line, it was impossible to ignore a small, albeit loud, group of protestors. I was aware that there was a movement opposing his invitation to come speak, particularly due to his socially conservative views. The protestors outside of Statler did not seem to care about any positive impacts his career may have had, only about his bigoted statements. Inside, while Santorum was speaking, he was shouted at by a group of audience members over almost every sentence. Even the chairwoman of the Cornell Republicans could not get through her introduction without being interrupted. Chants of “Shame, shame, shame” and claims of his racism, misogyny, discrimination and hate speech continued throughout the night.
I support all peaceful protests, and think political activism is extremely important. The protestors outside were exhibiting their views without being rude or otherwise detracting from the event. If anything, they brought a tinge of necessary controversy that is to be expected with any polarizing speaker at Cornell. However, the level of disrespect and intolerance that was shown towards Santorum inside during his speech is not an effective vehicle for real political or social change. It is incredibly difficult for me to stand behind these protestors, whose values I support, when this is how they choose to demonstrate.
Santorum directly addressed the shouting by pointing out that these protestors preach tolerance, but clearly refuse to hear the opposition. To my surprise, I found myself applauding him. I am embarrassed to attend a university where someone cannot share their views freely and uninterrupted. High quality political discourse does not come from shutting out opposing perspectives, it comes from listening and at least attempting to understand.
Aside from the hecklers, Santorum made a handful of decent arguments with which I agreed, but 10 times as many that were extremely agitating. On the good side: His discussion of how Trump came to be president-elect and what the Democrats did wrong was mostly valid, and I understood many of his points.
The talk’s highlight came when Santorum criticized the Republican economic principle that “A rising tide will raise all ships … But not when your ship has a hole in it,” Santorum said. I agree that a growing economy is good for everyone, but not for those who are already disadvantaged and for whom the system simply does not work.
Unfortunately, I began to see why people despise him so much during the Q&A segment.
When asked about the possibility of any of his grandchildren being LGBT, Santorum rightfully defended his views against gay marriage as a product of his faith. He lost all of my support when he discussed his hopes that he could put his imaginary gay grandchild on the “right” path. An audience member challenged this notion, sharing his personal experience with years of conversion therapy. Even upon mention of the method’s fraudulent and abusive measures, Santorum maintained his support of the practice.
Even worse, his climate change denial was full of the logical fallacies of, well, all climate change deniers. Rick: “The climate is always changing.” I wish I could’ve demanded whether he’d ever seen a graph of atmospheric CO2 over the past ten thousand years. I needed to know how he could possibly suggest that the current state of change is equal to all past climate change. I am a Policy Analysis & Management major, and have devoted much of my studies to climate and energy policy, so his flippant dismissal of this fact was infuriating. He then went on to claim that climate change is just a way for third world countries to extract money and resources from the United States and other developed nations. No comment.
To further deny science, a question was asked about his “Teach the Controversy” policy. Rick Santorum believes that when evolution is taught in schools, the holes in the theory should also be taught. When asked to support this given the overwhelming scientific evidence that evolution is real, he responded, “What scientific theory does not have flaws?” to which my favorite heckler of the night shouted, “Gravity!”
Lastly, I struggle to reconcile with his views on family. Santorum claimed that children who grow up without a father in their home fare far worse than their peers with two nice, loving heterosexual parents. My parents have been divorced since I was two. I did not grow up living with my father, and I am about to graduate from Cornell University in the top 10 percent of my class.
Santorum is correct that children who grow up in single parent homes are more likely to perform worse on a variety of health and education outcomes. However, correlation does not prove causation, and there are many other factors obscuring this claim: It is not the lack of a “nuclear family” that causes these outcomes. For example, single parents tend to be poorer and less educated, and there are fewer resources available to a child of a single parent because there is only one income earner in the family. There are other factors such as mental health problems or other personal characteristics that lead to divorce, and subsequently, worse outcomes for the child. Again, it is not the divorce that causes these negative effects.
Despite the overwhelming multitude of points that challenged my own beliefs, I kept mostly silent apart from side comments to my friends during this event. I cannot help but admire Santorum for his adherence to his value set, which has been cultivated over many years and stems from a religious upbringing to which I cannot relate. I respect his passion for his beliefs and the years of public service he has dedicated to achieving his goals.
I also admire the protestors for their commitment to their values, and I sympathize with their anger. However, without a clear message and policy agenda, their words are powerless. If anything, their actions deter people like me, who support a similar ideology from a less extreme perspective.
In an ILR class this week, I watched a movie about the freedom riders and civil rights activists in Mississippi in the 1960s. I, along with my classmates, could not help but draw a parallel between then and now. Then, activists united toward one common goal and used political channels to achieve equal voting rights, even in the face of intense discrimination and oppression from party elites. Now, we post on social media about injustices and maybe join a protest, but we do not collectively march on Washington and we do not actively engage in the political process.
I am acutely aware of the fact that this article is not going to inspire any real change, but my intended future career in public service is where I will make an impact. I encourage those disgusted by Mr. Santorum’s commentary tonight to organize more seriously. I urge those who are as aggravated as I am to discuss real policy reform and an agenda to get there. Whether it’s fixing the criminal justice system or clean energy or expanding healthcare and abortion access, there are a number of real policy changes in line with our goals. I encourage you to research pending state and federal legislation and find at least one bill that you truly support. Contact the bill sponsors, reach out to friends and family and see what you can do to help a cause you care about. Your efforts might not make a difference, but they will be much more respected than shouting.
Gabriella Rocco ’17