OH WHAT a tangled web we weave when at first we practice to hate. Bob Jones University in South Carolina specializes in hatred. Three presidential candidates have chosen to speak there -- one last week and two more in the weeks to come.
BJU, a fundamentalist Christian school, has a storied tradition of hatred and discrimination. In blatant ignorance of the fact that it's the year 2000, BJU continues to prohibit interracial dating. In 1998, the school sent a letter to an "out of the closet" alumnus stating, "With grief we must tell you that as long as you are living as a homosexual, you, of course, would not be welcome on the campus ("At Bob Jones University, Gay Means 'Non Grata,'" Nov. 4, 1998, The Washington Post)." Of course.
The first of the three presidential candidates to speak at BJU, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, addressed a crowd of 6,000 mostly straight and mostly white students and faculty Wednesday. The message he delivered was clear, yet possibly unintended: It's all right to hate, as long as you only hate the right people at the right place at the right time. Governor, you are no Adolf Hitler and this is not Nazi Germany.
Alan Keyes and Steve Forbes both are not Adolf Hitler, yet both intend to speak at BJU as the South Carolina primary approaches. One's presence at an institution does not necessarily equal approval of everything that institution stands for. In an age of "chatheads" and political shows called "Hardball," however, presidential candidates should be wary of crowding the plate. Columnists, their brethren in electronic media, and opposing candidates just might brush them back.
As though channeling Sisyphus; Bush, Forbes and Keyes have found their rock and have begun to push it up the mountain. Unfortunately for them, the Sisyphus analogy doesn't end there. Speaking at BJU may be the bump that causes the rock to roll over their candidacies on its descent. Within the Republican ranks, speaking at BJU might not be a mortal sin. Among liberals, however, such information could send their candidacies straight to hell. One can bet that Gore or Bradley will try to pass that judgment once general election campaigning begins.
Compounding this mistake is the fact that these candidacies may be going to hell in a marginally populist hand basket. South Carolinians may have no problem with prohibiting interracial dating or shutting the closet door on gays. Fortunately or unfortunately, South Carolina's secession efforts failed and they are still a part of the United States. What happens in South Carolina happens in the United States, and most American voters aren't big fans of overt discrimination.
Neither are they big fans of subversive politicians. The Lewinsky scandal proved that politicians can be buried by public dishonesty. These candidates probably won't tout their trip to the antebellum ground of BJU and the first lesson in the Clinton handbook is don't have relations you don't wish to discuss publicly. "That school" could be just as damaging as "that woman."
The most bizarre element of this story is Alan Keyes' involvement as an African-American candidate. If he were a student, he would be forbidden from dating the vast majority of the student body at BJU. Of course, he could date one of the handful of black students because at BJU, they don't discriminate within races, only across them. Keyes shouldn't affirm such actions. Nonetheless, Keyes will add an extra slice of irony by appearing at BJU on Valentine's Day. Maybe one of the preachers at BJU will make Keyes his Valentine, but it's doubtful. Don't count on seeing Keyes sharing a Valentine's dance with anyone either - such a "worldly" activity as dancing is forbidden at BJU.
By "dancing" with BJU before Forbes and Keyes, Bush may have secured his position as the quintessential conservative candidate. The same man once railed against current education policy as "the soft bigotry of low expectations." Apparently, he's a proponent of the hard bigotry of no expectations. Then again, Bush's speech on education this November took place in New Hampshire and New Hampshire is hardly South Carolina. It will be interesting to see what Bush has to say in New York and California. Maybe he'll don all of the gang colors at once.
It seems the art of consistency has been lost in politics. Put money on the revival of that art once the general elections get into full swing. For now, Bush, Forbes and Keyes are appearing at a school that prides itself on being "separatist." In doing so, they run the risk of separating themselves from the presidential election.
(Chris DelGrosso's column appears Mondays in The Cavalier Daily.)
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