Kristol and Reich show up at CSUMB

Neoconservative editor of The Weekly Standard William Kristol and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich joined the perpetually balanced Panetta lecture series at CSU Monterey Bay on May 8. The theme was ostensibly “The Relationship between Our Economy and Democracy,” however the participants for the most part held to this theme unlike previous panels which degenerated into discussions on whatever seemed to be tickling their fancy at the moment. Kristol frequently alluded to his being the only conservative between the liberals Reich and Panetta, however Panetta has shown that in his role as moderator he is to remain as moderate as is humanly possible. Reich and Kristol attacked and defended President Bush, usually in jest, and strayed away from the naked partisanship that they usually show in such forums as the Fox News Channel, which both regularly panel on.

The portion of the lecture series that takes place at CSUMB is a forum for students from several local educational institutions, both high school and university, to ask questions and receive a version of the much better attended lecture that occurs at 7 p.m. at the Steinbeck Forum of the Monterey Conference Center. The students were predominantly high schoolers, however representatives from CSUMB, Santa Clara University, UC Santa Cruz, and Hartnell College were in attendance.

Kristol displayed some less-than-conservative planks on his platform, perhaps showing that his neoconservative background puts him at odds with “traditional values” conservatives on issues not relating to his hard-line foreign policy views. Kristol said he supports a liberal immigration policy, one which allows for a steady stream of immigrants and a path to citizenship for those already here. He also supports the firing of Donald Rumsfeld, however this position is more for his belief that Rumsfeld has failed to articulate a clear vision than opposition to the Iraq policy itself. He supports the economic growth of China and India, and sees outsourcing as a valuable part of that, and generally believes in the strength and vitality of the American economic model.

Reich, a liberal economic professor at UC Berkeley, advocated for the usual liberal economic policies that everyone and their mother would expect him to support. He supports an increase in the minimum wage, decreases in corporate welfare, a closing of the gap between rich and poor, etc. His academic status allowed him to cite copious data from studies, such as that the presence of illegal immigrants decreases the wages of native born people in the surrounding area, and that increasing the minimum wage slightly does not have a deleterious effect on businesses.

Kristol seemed to be out of his element on some issues, essentially stating that he had no opinion on issues such as the minimum wage , again an indication that the scope and focus of the lecture series was perhaps out of his traditional range of focus.

The general level of excitement in this particular lecture underscores that Panetta should focus his topics down to specific areas rather than focusing on the massive issues of “economy” and “democracy” and the like.