Free Speech? Not If You’re A Conservative

Ann Coulter—the attractive, talented pundit extraordinaire—was on Hannity and Colmes last night talking about the recent incident at the University of St. Thomas. Ann was invited to the campus to speak, but immediately after the speech, and subsequent Q & A session, what she had to say was attacked as hate speech. Now, we all know that Ann usually raises the level of ire among the Left (usually to near-nuclear proportions) when she speaks or writes. A frothing hatred bubbles to the surface when liberals engage her because they know in a one-on-one debate, she will kick their @$$.

Hecklers verbally assailed her to the point where Ann refused to speak. It’s not that she was afraid to confront them, or even engage them. They acted like any other liberal that deals with her. They shout, they try to talk over her, and eventually they devolve to name calling, insults, and obscenities. Based on what the blogosphere has covered, including several letters from people at the address, it wasn’t Ann that was in the wrong. It was the hecklers, and then it was the administration when they called into question whether Ann had violated campus policy.

This whole incident, and subsequent ones before it—Ann having pies thrown at her, David Horowitz having salad dressing thrown on him, Bill Kristol and Pat Buchanan being physically attacked in a similar fashion—are showing America just how far the Left is willing to go to silence our side of the debate. Anyone who has argued or debated with a person solidly on the Left side of the aisle knows that these people eventually get downright nasty during that exchange. And anyone who disagrees with them are savagely assaulted; if possible, done so by the press.

And they do it because they know that in a straight-up debate, their entire ideology will be crushed. It has no survival rate in the realm of ideas, and is already on the endangered species list. And all too often, the extreme liberals are what is driving people away. This is not what politics is about in America. We have the ability—and one would hope, civility—to engage in intelligent, sound debate. They can’t do it. And these attacks to silence our side will only get worse.

But it’s typical, especially on college campuses, for conservatives to endure such abuse. For years, academia has built itself a fortress based on an ideology they are only too happy to teach as though it were fact, as opposed to opinion. The deconstruction of our history and our laws, the injection of multiculturalism into the learning process, and the promotion of promiscuous subjects are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what the academics are doing. And God forbid you are a conservative.

But what these students are doing, and at times professors are encouraging, is anarchy on a campus. If anyone in the latest incident involving Ann Coulter violated campus policy that would be the students for incessantly disrupting the proceedings. The "you’re stupid" arguments weren’t working with her, so they resorted to obscenities. The one student that was arrested for disorderly conduct dropped an F-Bomb on her, and made masturbation motions before the police took him into custody. Yes. I’m sure Ward Churchill thinks that’s "intellectual", but to the rest of us, you’re a little animal that should have had your @$$ whooped a couple more times by mommy and daddy. Speaking of which, I wonder what mommy and daddy have to say when the police explain the behavior of Junior? If it were my parents, I’d rather stay in jail than face punishment from my father.
But then again, I don’t act like that.

"Civil" has been removed from civilized society. I have seen what the youth right now, and for every one high school-age kid that is walking the right line, there are five to seven that aren’t even close to the line. It’s sad. Marcie—my partner here—is an anomaly. Unlike her friends, Friday and Saturday weren’t an every week party ritual. Shopping was not a subject she excelled in at school. She studied hard to get into college, and she’s far better writer than myself, at times. I may have the years of experience on her, but as long as she stays true to her work ethic and herself, I guarantee she will surpass me one day.

And those five to seven are the same morons that are perpetuating these idiotic, inept attacks on conservatives. I have news for you wacky moonbats: We’re not going anywhere, moron. We’re going to stand for our free speech. And that is what really makes me shudder.

These fools don’t get the concept of free speech because it’s proper interpretation is shunned by academia. When the Framers established the Constitution, the First Amendment revolved around our free participation in the realm of politics. When they wrote that we have the "freedom of speech" they were referring to our political speech. In other words, we have the ability to debate, and argue, and even criticize our elected representatives. But over the last fifty years or so, that has been eroded to what the Left has pushed as "freedom of expression". That is not what the First Amendment addressed. Freedom of speech doesn’t mean art that is offensive, or nude protesters, or acting like animals that should be caged up, or obscene clothing.

But they don’t get that. None of that applies to "freedom of speech". Our free speech rights allow to call into question our government when we see them doing something that we’re not sure is right. In some cases, we know we’re right. A person with common sense can look at the situation surrounding the coming Constitutional Option in the Senate, and agree that the Democrats are violating the Constitution.

Besides, right now these campus idiots (as opposed to Hillary’s "village" idiot) are using food and obscenities to cause disruptions, or attack conservatives. Fine. Throw a pie at me, and try to run by me if I’m on a stage. I’m not apologizing after I clothesline you, then kick your @$$ on the stage in front of an auditorium full of students. And when I’m done, I’ll go back to what I was talking about. Probably something along the lines of why appeasement doesn’t work.

But the question I have is this: What happens when these fools escalate this? What if the next incident doesn’t involve a student throwing food, or shouting the F-Bomb a dozen times? What if the next incident involves a student pulling a firearm on a speaker, and attempting to kill them? I have said this before, and I’ll say it again. It’s time for the campuses to start taking this seriously, and it needs to end before it reaches that point.

I know it sounds melodramatic, but I don’t want to see a story like that on my news pages, in the blogosphere, or even on the off-occasion that I do tune into the news. I want this stopped right now, and if that means that the Board of Regents of each university has to go over teacher records, and boot the ones fostering this. They should also review the records of students that are causing these problems, and if necessary, they get booted to. I’m sick of people like Ward Churchill, like Bill Whitney, and like Ian Reifowitz. These people are not readying the next generation to take up responsible leadership and stewardship of this nation. They fermenting the next generation of radicals that will be worse than what we see from the Left right now.

Publius II