The city of Madison prides itself on being a beacon of progressivism, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison is much the same. An ideology dating back to the early 20th century, the Wisconsin Idea declared the university should be used as a tool geared toward the social benefit of the entire state. As time has passed, however, we seem to have transformed the idealistic nature of early progressivism into a dogmatic, political, liberal ideology that leaves little room for defection.

State Rep. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) summed it up nicely in an editorial in the UW-Madison newspaper last year: The "days of balance on campus have now been replaced by a liberal theology that has no room for independent or conservative ideas." Nass even says this "has begun to transform the educational process, — particularly at UW-Madison." While I certainly veer strongly away from the policies Nass advocates, he does make an interesting point regarding the lack of ideological diversity on campus.

For such a "liberal" place, we tend to be extremely close-minded, rejecting, and in some cases threatening, to those who offer different viewpoints. Our community demonstrates this in its reaction to scholarly speakers who reflect ideas that contrast with typical UW-Madison opinion. Whenever such an apparently confrontational speaker comes to town, he or she is habitually met with attacks not on their judgment but on their inherent racism, prejudice or whatever-ism is deemed appropriate. It's an example of UW-Madison liberals using radical us-versus-them tactics to scare away anyone who threatens the vitality of the so-called progressivism of UW-Madison.

Last week, Robert Spencer spoke at UW-Madison about his book, in which he questions how we view Islamic fundamentalism. His ideas were politically incorrect, but did not warrant such strong opposition. Spencer offered a logically coherent thesis and laid out the intellectual background of his research, yet no logically coherent counterargument was made. He was simply cast off as a prejudiced hack representing fear-mongering and hate speech.

When we react this way to someone who simply offers a viewpoint opposed to ours, we severely hinder our chances for successful personal growth and immersion into the world outside of UW-Madison's borders. Yet, we do this with astonishing frequency, and it is certainly not limited to campus visitors. It should be noted that the amount of hatred that someone like Spencer calls for is nothing compared to the utter animosity a student would face on campus for wearing a Sen. John McCain pin on their jacket. While many have lambasted Gov. Sarah Palin for her us-versus-them mentality when she childishly said she only likes visiting the "pro-American" places of our country, we commit the same atrocity on a daily basis. We simply do not question why our opponents hold the political stances that they do; we attack them personally. We laugh at, ridicule and respond without reasoned thought toward anyone who holds contrasting viewpoints. If you find this hard to believe, simply read the hate-filled responses to the extremely limited number of editorials advocating the McCain-Palin ticket in our student newspapers.

In 2007, conservative author Dinesh D'Souza came to UW-Madison to speak, well aware of the liberal tradition prevalent at the university. He said then that UW-Madison "is where my ideas are most needed, [and] what I'm going to do is challenge assumptions and force people to defend their views." What D'Souza probably noticed, however, is that our assumptions have gotten so deep that people see no need to defend them; this is an unfortunate problem.

I believe the policy positions of the left lead to the society I desire, so I tend to vote Democratic. The fact that others envision a different society than I do, however, does not attest to their inherent malevolence. It is unfair and irrational to suppose that because someone disagrees with you, they are somehow not worthy of respectful and reasoned opposition. We have a culture in Madison in which those who think differently than us are castigated as backward, stupid or ignorant; but when we immediately dismiss one's ideas without consideration, we do nothing but demonstrate our own lack of reason and our own ignorance.

Ben White is a columnist for The Badger Herald at University of Wisconsin-Madison. This column first appeared there.