For those reasons, the books chosen were indeed more than appropriate for a national library in the home of our chief executive. But what is the real issue is their very presence evidently sets off alarm bells among many contemporary conservatives, whose outlook- to put it mildly- is anti-intellectual. Indeed, their immediate negative response reminds one of the shame put on our nation when at the taxpayer’s expense in the 1950’s, Roy Cohn and G. David Schine took a tour of American governmental libraries abroad, and compiled lists of “subversive” books they found on the shelves which they urged be removed. The image of Joe McCarthy’s top aide and his friend cavorting through Europe led to charges of “bookburning,” and even President Dwight D. Eisenhower later made a public statement condemning the antics of the duo and the harm they brought to our nation’s image as a bastion of freedom.
Port and those who supported his original finding now have egg on their face, and for good reason. Shouldn’t advocates of freedom not be afraid of ideas in books, even those with which they disagree? This is even more true when in this case, those commenting were completely unaware of the contents of these volumes. What does it say about the attitude of so many on the political right that finding such books in The White House sets them off on a crusade that fortunately was aborted before it could be carried on any longer?
It is time, I suggest, for conservatives to make criticism of policy when they find it lacking in substance or just plain wrong, and stop this rather silly game of gotcha based on a fallacious reading of history.
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