January 12, 2007

Got Education? Must Be Liberal

To the Editor:

John Nirenberg's explanation that most college professors are liberal because "knowledge opens one's eyes" struck me, an academic, as ivory-tower claptrap ("Liberalism Among Academics Is No Surprise," Letters, The Chronicle, December 1). He tricks the reader by confounding the very different ideas of classical liberalism and contemporary, political liberalism, as though to say that those who preferred Kerry to Bush in the last presidential election are somehow carrying