Conservative Events on Campus Now Disrupted 3 Times As Frequently

IJR has a statistic that should come as no surprise to people who have been watching the news since the election of President Donald Trump:

Today, a whopping 46 percent of events with conservative speakers hosted by Young America’s Foundation (YAF) were disrupted. In the year before the election, this number was less than 15 percent.

These events were either disrupted by protesters, stalled by university administrators, or outright canceled. This intolerance toward conservative views is the greatest threat to free speech on our nation’s college campuses today.

Aggression toward conservatives on campus is at an unprecedented and unsustainable level. It should not be the case that 1-in-5 students are afraid to express controversial opinions on campus, according to a poll conducted by The Polling Company, Inc. on behalf of Young America’s Foundation.

The epitome of this growing threat is the recent unconstitutional suppression of free speech by the University of California, Berkeley. The University stymied every effort to provide a venue to host Ann Coulter, a prominent conservative author and speaker, and then used viewpoint-discriminatory restrictions by selectively enforcing an unwritten “high-profile speakers” policy.

The university used this unwritten policy only twice. First against David Horowitz, also a prominent conservative and New York Times rated best-selling conservative author, then against Coulter. Furthermore, the University of California Police Department at Berkeley has an official “stand-down” policy, effectively giving protesters permission to veto conservative speech.

Free speech violations may be on the rise, but conservative’s readiness to fight back should be too. We need to fight and be ready to go the distance. This is why YAF, along with the Berkeley College Republicans, is taking legal action against Berkeley to protect students’ First Amendment rights and ensure future conservative groups do not face these unconstitutional obstacles.

I’m all for fighting back, and here’s why. Leftists always move towards fascism. And when it’s happening this rapidly, this obviously, we should be concerned. All Americans, not just conservatives or parents of conservative students.  The universities are where tomorrow’s leaders are being educated brainwashed to lead this nation forward.  Free speech and the marketplace of ideas is foundational to America’s greatness.

As Professor Mike Adams tweeted:

College kids used to be ignorant of the first amendment. Now it’s much worse … they are opposed to it.

— Mike S. Adams (@MikeSAdams) June 19, 2017

Image Credit: Jonathan Ichikawa on Flickr