Dinesh D'Souza

Reading Dinesh D’Souza’s take on Obama in Forbes is embarrassing. It’s not just a question of the way the argument is made or the axioms underlying the disapprobation of Obama. It’s not just the fact that Newt Gingrich and Glenn Beck, media coprophiles par excellence have given screen time to this article. Ultimately, on a personal level it has to do with his Indianness. I would probably classify him with the Coulters and Pamela Gellers and the other crackpots in the US with a microphone – if I thought of him at all - if he was not born in Bombay.
The first time I encountered D’Souza was a mention in the Hindu about the reaction to his book “The End of Racism”. What I took away from the article was that he had written a book saying that all racial problems had ended in the US –and filed him away as a flash in the pan kook. I was wrong – about what he had written and about his tenacity.
D’Souza popped up again a few years back – when I was watching back episodes of the
Colbert Report. He was on his book pimp tour – the book in question being “The
Enemy at Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11”. He contended that "The cultural left in this country (such people as Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, George Soros, Michael Moore, Bill Moyers, and Noam Chomsky) is responsible for causing 9/11". The argument was - Osama hated American culture with its gay marrying abortion having hippies - and it was to punish the Americans for bringing sin to the world. Support for Israel, troops in Saudi Arabia, propping up oppressive Middle East regimes had very little to do with it.
Yep. You got that right.
Osama got planes to fly into buildings because of Rock Hudson and the Village People.
After the first reaction of "Huh", I got curious. Here was a guy from India, a Bombayite of Goan extraction, obviously upper middle class and well educated - who had been in the US since college. So why was he behaving like a Jerry Falwell or a Pat Robertson?
Why was he blaming liberals - of all people for America being targeted by Al Q?
It gets dirtier. D'Souza was a Dartmouth alumnus. Dartmouth, has been one of the few Ivy League institutions that have dedicated programs to work with Native American tribes - and is also famous for the amount of beer consumed by its student populace. Sounds quite laid back, doesn't it?
Not exactly. Dartmouth has a conservative newspaper - the Dartmouth Review, established
in 1980, that became infamous for it's positions on minorities- gays, native americans, jews etc. Our man was one of those who worked for the Review - others include Laura Ingraham. So, why would a dark skinned alien participate whole heartedly in an enterprise that seemed created by and for rich whites?  The only thing I can think of was that he wanted to be one of them.  But join them he
did, and among the things he did for the Review was the publication of a list of gays on campus, including names of those still closeted.  How choothish can you get.