I direct my readers, particularly Suffolk faculty and alumni, to a column by James Carroll in the December 26, 2011 edition of the Boston Globe:  http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2011/12/26/battles-add-deeper-crisis/2mBnjqsTJ7vpOWtMqOkQXL/story.html.  Carroll holds the title "Distinguished Scholar in Residence," at Suffolk University, where I serve as Chairman and Professor of Economics.

Carroll's column illustrates the argument that I made in my recent post about another prominent Suffolk figure, Michael Avery:  to wit, that Suffolk and universities everywhere have turned themselves into incubators and enablers of Leftist ideologues.  Let's see how Carroll's column makes my case.

According to Carroll "the news story of the year" is not what you might think (say, the killing of Osama bin Laden) but rather the "political polarization" that has "gripped Washington, driving the United States ever closer to an edge of disaster."  According to Carroll there is one set of villains to be blamed for this approaching disaster.  They are the people associated with the Tea Party, most especially Eric Cantor, who serves as majority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, and the Koch brothers, Charles and David.

The Kochs are identified as members of "a handful of extraordinarily wealthy activists, whose shrewd investments in political contributions and selective campaign support have empowered a new culture of social radicalism."  We are told be to wary of these  "extremists," who — horrors! — are prepared to spend money in order to defeat Barack Obama next year.

Now if we were to pause a moment and consider how a scholar, certainly a "distinguished" one, would approach this issue, we might expect recognition of the fact that there are two poles, not just one, that pull on the political compass.  We might expect some mention of Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Obama himself, all of whom would seem to  deserve a place in Carroll's pantheon of polarizers.  And if the Koch brothers spend on politics, so does George Soros.

But no.  the current gridlock is all the fault of the people who stand at one of the two poles.  If those people would just get out of the way, then Washington could clean up the mess in which the country has been mired, just coincidentally, since Obama was elected in 2008.

The Koch brothers are indeed wealthy and influential, and they don't need any help from me.  I do wish, however, to point out a couple of facts that Carroll left out of his column.  One is that David Koch gave M.I.T. $100 million to fund an "Institute for Integrative Cancer Research."  Another is that the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation has provided funding to Suffolk — funding that has gone to support one of our most prolific and popular faculty members, along with several PhD students.

In my post about Michael Avery, I foreswore any suggestion that Avery should be fired over his ill-considered remarks.  Nor would I deny Suffolk the appearances that Carroll deigns to make at university events every so often.  (As I understand it, the university compensates Carroll quite generously for this service, though apparently not generously enough to merit acknowledgement in his weekly Globe column.)  I do wish, however, to suggest that, among his many accomplishments, what distinguishes Carroll is his own writings in the service of the radical Left.

The difference is that I don't try to hoodwink my readers into believing that that Left is the only radical element that stands in the way of progress.  I am happy to do what little I can to bring Washington to a halt until such time as we restore rational leadership to the Executive branch and the Senate.