In both this week’s and last week’s issues of The Cynic, there has been considerable debate about whether there is enough diversity of opinion on the UVM campus. Some students believe that the departure of Professor Kaufman heralds the end of what little conservative voice there was at UVM. Others believe that his departure was long in coming, and that the biggest threat to truth and free expression at UVM is the tireless effort of all six College Republicans to bring about Dinesh D’Souza’s yearly visits to UVM. If you ask me, the only thing worse than a campus filled with racist rhetoric such as that spouted by Mr. D’Souza, is one filled with extreme leftists and devoid of any really ignorant conservatives. Sure, we’ve got a few, but they usually keep their mouths shut because of their small numbers. The worst thing for an institution, be it a political organization or a University, is for all the individuals within it to be totally in agreement with one another. If everyone is in agreement, there is no need for discussion. Or rather, discussions become moot, with the conversations diminishing to merely ego-stroking and idle chatter at high volumes. Take the members of the ISO, for instance. Granted, they take a lot of flak on campus for that silly paper; and I probably shouldn’t be piling on the hate, as they are the select few at this school with the desire to actually do something positive. But my God! Have you ever seen them talking amongst themselves? This situation generally involves one person, really excited, talking about something that everyone else in the group has already heard and already agrees with. The audience nods in agreement, and then another person steps up to the plate for another few minutes of recitation, party line, and feather pluming. I hate conservatives. I think that for the most part, their ideas are simpleminded and fundamentally racist, sexist, and homophobic. But I would much rather see a fundamentalist Christian-conservative yelling about the evils of gay marriage and affirmative action, than I would listen to one more ISO member tell me what’s in this week’s issue of The Socialist Worker. It would be something new, something to actually think about; rather than an opportunity to merely nod my head like a monkey that really wants a banana. We cannot have political conversation when all involved are coming from the same perspective. Then we get arguments like: “What’s better? Marxist-Leninism, or Marxist-Trotskyism?” An interesting debate certainly, but not one I would care to listen to. For this reason, I would like to thank the College Republicans for bringing a racist, ignorant, evil bastard (He worked for Reagan!) to campus two years in a row. At least you guys are keeping things interesting. I would also like to thank the ISO for making all leftists seem like close-minded jerks. It’s one thing to protest outside of someone’s speech; it’s another thing entirely to heckle the speaker and take over the “question and answer” period with canned questions and long diatribes. That’s called ignorance: Just what you accuse the College Republicans of trying to bring onto our campus. It’s a refusal to listen to other people’s opinions. I think it’s wholly right to protest Dinesh D’Souza. Not because he shouldn’t come to campus; but because he’s wrong. I also think it’s wholly right to bring Dinesh D’Souza to speak, because without dissenting voices we wind up with too many self-righteous assholes.