Academe: Kunstler’s Children

William Kunstler addressing the Yale Political Union—and for a minute, it almost feels like six years ago, when some of the people in this room were in seventh grade. An enormous audience—Kunstler has packed a room about the size of a small train station. Double rows fill the aisles, and a few perch in the windows. Sharing the podium, Jerry Paul—who, in case you spent your summer in Tibet, was the defense lawyer in the Joanne Little case. As I spent most of my summer listening to soul stations, I already know. (“And now the latest from NBN News: another juror picked in the joanne little case. Russia nukes Peking.”) And finally, Kunstler himself —no question about it, Kunstler is an excellent speaker. He projects an Old Testament intensity, a Puritanical fervor such as no one else these days outside the clergy radiates.

Yet tonight the fervor is strangely wasted. Kunstler’s voice breathes death

About the Author

Richard Brookhiser

Historian Richard Brookhiser is a senior editor of National Review and a senior fellow at the National Review Institute.

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William Kunstler addressing the Yale Political Union—and for a minute, it almost feels like six years ago, when some of the people in this room were in seventh grade. An enormous audience—Kunstler has packed a room about the size of a small train station. Double rows fill the aisles, and a few perch in the windows. Sharing the podium, Jerry Paul—who, in case you spent your summer in Tibet, was the defense lawyer in the Joanne Little case. As I spent most of my summer listening to soul stations, I already know. (“And now the latest from NBN News: another juror picked in the joanne little case. Russia nukes Peking.”) And finally, Kunstler himself —no question about it, Kunstler is an excellent speaker. He projects an Old Testament intensity, a Puritanical fervor such as no one else these days outside the clergy radiates.

Yet tonight the fervor is strangely wasted. Kunstler’s voice breathes death