Listen to the Silly Academic Bias — Professor Hints That Ted Cruz’s ‘New York Values’ Comment Is Anti-Semitic

A friend of mine, former Arizona state representative Adam Kwasman, forwarded me the recording below. According to Kwasman, the voice you hear is noted criminal law professor Joshua Dressler providing a bit of extraneous political commentary to his class at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. During a class period, he briefly addressed Ted Cruz’s use of the term “New York Values.”

The exchange is interesting on a number of levels. First, it presents a classic example of how academics attempt to influence their students. He says he doesn’t want to “get into” the political fray, but then he dives right in. And how else but by racializing the controversy? Dressler says, “I will tell you that a whole lot of people in my milieu took ‘New York values’ to mean ( dramatic pause, followed by whisper) Jewish.”

Second, however, it shows the value of an immediate response. Kwasman punched back twice as hard. His voice is the next you hear, and it begins with, “You’ve got to be kidding me! I’m a Jewish member of Ted Cruz’s state leadership team. Come on. No, come on, guy.” Rather than engage, the professor ends the exchange by saying, “If you want to continue, we’ll talk about it later.”

Finally, note that the professor doesn’t justify his inflammatory rhetoric by a single citation to a single fact, but rather by an appeal to the consensus of his own leftist cocoon. Welcome to the modern academy, where the “milieu” is never wrong.