The University of Connecticut is in the midst of the toils and troubles that always comes
with having a conservative speaker. This is your example of a typical reaction, as
the Campus Establishment (by which I mean, the liberals) are
alleging that those in the student government who voted to bring
Coulter to campus have a conflict of interest given that they are
also members, leaders even, of the College Republicans.
The UConn handbook requires the neutrality of its students, but
there's hardly a conflict of interest; for one thing it's not like
conservative voices abound in Storrs. The other is that on a
content-neutral basis, Ann Coulter's national standing is enough to
warrant the use of student funds. If there are meek university
students concerned with Coulter's tendency to abrogate the common,
clean, healthily open-minded environment with her brand of honesty,
then they can stay at home and listen to their racially-charged
gangsta rap while watching reciting their favorite David Chapelle
jokes. The open-minded and discursive Students Against Hate is
planning a counter-event, designed to pull people away from the
Coulter speech.
Much of the pomp is being celebrated under a speech code in the
university handbook: "Every member of the University shall
refrain from actions that intimidate humiliate or demean persons or
groups, or that undermine their security or self-esteem." This
anti-harassment policy has been repeatedly proven a violation of
the First Amendment, as both the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
(FIRE) has shown time and again at various colleges.
Ann Coulter is hardly a cute widdle puppy. But even if her
rhetoric can be largely offensive, that's because the offended are
only listening to her rhetoric, designed to infuriate people who
aren't willing to laugh at the absurdity of politics. If you
actually look past the obvious jokes, which no reasonable person
would take as absolute seriousness, you'll see a brilliant mind at
work. She is a lawyer, after all, one who went to Cornell
(natch!).
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