Re: Verbum Ultimum: We are Missing the Right
Over the past year, Dartmouth has rolled out the red carpet for three right-wing bigots: the anti-Semitic Harmeet Dhillon ’89, the anti-LGBTQIA+ Laura Ingraham ’85 and the anti-Black Jerry Hughes ’88. And it’s about to award an honorary degree to a transphobe.
Donald Trump’s brand of conservatism rules the White House, Congress, the Supreme Court, 26 governors’ mansions and 28 state legislatures. Now that the Voting Rights Act is gone, the GOP can gerrymander itself into overrepresentation, regardless of the popular vote in the 2026 midterms and the results of the 2030 census.
The reason Trump voters aren’t writing for The Dartmouth is not that they’re afraid of “backlash or retribution.” It’s because they have zero incentive to debate their ideas until they have been removed from power.
Inviting right-leaning “thinker[s] of any stripe” to write op-eds and serve on staff also misses the point.
What divides Gen Z is not “left vs. right.” It’s to be or not to be nihilistic. To quote the Harvard Youth Poll, “Political engagement is still present, but its meaning is changing. Fewer young Americans believe participation delivers results, and most see elected officials as driven by self-interest.” Where there is partisanship, it exists along racial lines more than ideological ones. That is why no Democratic candidate for the presidency has won the white vote since 1964, and why churchgoing Black, Indigenous and people of color vote for Democratic candidates who support abortion rights.
What the Editorial Board needs is more Black voices, but I digress.
I disagree that The Dartmouth’s Editorial Board is “not of any faction of this campus.” It most assuredly is. The members of the Editorial Board are classic liberals, as political scientists and philosophers define the term. You’re pining for “the right,” but not for “the left,” because you are not interested in debates over capitalism and private property, or individual versus collective rights. I have yet to see a series of articles that convince me that you wouldn’t rather speak favorably about Zohran Mamdani’s electability from the vantage point of his social media skills as opposed to his socialism. Based on what I’ve seen, it feels safe to conclude that you’re more likely to write about need-based scholarships than you are to make the case for reparations.
If The Dartmouth’s opinion section is falling short of the Editorial Board’s expectations, then please consider that the problem is the result of the moral vacuum that results when so-called “institutional restraint” is the only thing allowed to take hold.
Commencement is upon us. I would be remiss if I didn’t note that the only time my parents ever traveled to Hanover was for my graduation. While a student at the College, I worked for Dartmouth Dining Services. I cleaned dorm rooms over spring break and in the summer ahead of reunions. And I consider myself immensely privileged because there are now first-generation students whose parents cannot see them graduate. It’s not just the cost of the plane and hotel. It’s the cost of an attorney and the loss of income that would come from being detained by Customs and Border Protection or a cop authorized to act on behalf of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
What the Editorial Board needs are more directly impacted voices, but I digress again.
Some pine for letters-to-the-editor from Trump voters and libertarians. I long for a newspaper that interviews Dartmouth workers who have had their lives upended by campus-wide budget cuts, while the College pays for an artificial intelligence contract with Anthropic. I long for a Big Green that spends as much to support the Coalition for Immigration Reform and Equality at Dartmouth as it does on President Sian Leah Beilock’s global conference participation and public communications. And I long for a community of volunteers and donors that stops accepting excuses. Leon Black’s name should have been covered or taken it down by now. The fact it hasn’t, proves that both “left” and “right” opinions fall on deaf ears.
At Beilock’s Dartmouth, only money talks.
Unai Montes-Irueste is a member of the Class of 1998, Dartmouth Association of Latino Alumni and Dartmouth Alumni Council. Guest columns represent the views of their author(s), which are not necessarily those of The Dartmouth.
