NYT: The Conservative Force Behind Speeches Roiling College Campuses

[Badger]

Great.  I love free speech.  This warms my heart.

Look at the money and donors behind this. This speech is anything but "free".

I think this is the one reason conservatives get so jacked up over George Soros. He's the one Bonafide rich guy out there other than Hollywood actors, and frankly none of them I can think of give me or the same kind of money Soros does, who backs liberal and left-wing causes. Literally 100 + right-wing billionaires - - because it's kind of part and parcel to be far right-wing when you're a billionaire - - who give vastly greater sums than Soros. He's the one guy we were publicans can look at it and tell ourselves that big money is a bipartisan issue.

When in reality I think it's just my party despising Soros for being a traitor to his class. Much like FDR was criticized buy Blue Bloods back in the thirties

Having worked for the Koch brother's private army (pays well for a high school gig), this is exactly why people hate Soros. He's literally the only person who supports the Democratic Party financially through motivating the grassroots, where as the others are a shadowy, unknown clique of various industry lobbyists and corporate figures who go directly to the party's political leadership.

That is refreshing brutal honesty in your assessment. It's also every bit as sad as it is accurate

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Great.  I love free speech.  This warms my heart.

Look at the money and donors behind this. This speech is anything but "free".

I think this is the one reason conservatives get so jacked up over George Soros. He's the one Bonafide rich guy out there other than Hollywood actors, and frankly none of them I can think of give me or the same kind of money Soros does, who backs liberal and left-wing causes. Literally 100 + right-wing billionaires - - because it's kind of part and parcel to be far right-wing when you're a billionaire - - who give vastly greater sums than Soros. He's the one guy we were publicans can look at it and tell ourselves that big money is a bipartisan issue.

When in reality I think it's just my party despising Soros for being a traitor to his class. Much like FDR was criticized buy Blue Bloods back in the thirties

Having worked for the Koch brother's private army (pays well for a high school gig), this is exactly why people hate Soros. He's literally the only person who supports the Democratic Party financially through motivating the grassroots, where as the others are a shadowy, unknown clique of various industry lobbyists and corporate figures who go directly to the party's political leadership.

If you can call giving millions to Hillary's SuperPAC in the primary motivating the grassroots.

[Badger]

What about Steyer? He has given massive amounts of money to liberal PACs and party organizations. Soros seems to spread a lot of money around to groups involved in things other than elections, while Steyer dumps more than 75 million every 2 years into various election-related efforts.

Once Soros passes away, my guess is Steyer will take his place in this regard.

Honestly not familiar with the guy. I remember the Men's Wearhouse guy with the and you're going to like it tagline from the commercials - - that is before the board of directors dumped his ass a few years ago - - was one of the biggest givers to the Democrats Nationwide. At any rate, okay maybe there are two millionaires who give heavily to the Democrats in lieu of an entire Republican Network of billionaires. It's still comes out to most people is both sides are just as bad

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Great.  I love free speech.  This warms my heart.

Look at the money and donors behind this. This speech is anything but "free".

I think this is the one reason conservatives get so jacked up over George Soros. He's the one Bonafide rich guy out there other than Hollywood actors, and frankly none of them I can think of give me or the same kind of money Soros does, who backs liberal and left-wing causes. Literally 100 + right-wing billionaires - - because it's kind of part and parcel to be far right-wing when you're a billionaire - - who give vastly greater sums than Soros. He's the one guy we were publicans can look at it and tell ourselves that big money is a bipartisan issue.

When in reality I think it's just my party despising Soros for being a traitor to his class. Much like FDR was criticized buy Blue Bloods back in the thirties

Having worked for the Koch brother's private army (pays well for a high school gig), this is exactly why people hate Soros. He's literally the only person who supports the Democratic Party financially through motivating the grassroots, where as the others are a shadowy, unknown clique of various industry lobbyists and corporate figures who go directly to the party's political leadership.

If you can call giving millions to Hillary's SuperPAC in the primary motivating the grassroots.

Oh, I'm no Soros-lover, if that isn't clear enough. But he does support causes that engage people directly. Americans for Prosperity is a corporate funded entity, yet it elicits genuine grassroots support from tens of thousands of committed activists who are the backbone of the organization. I was paid to go door to door in the week and collect polls and information, but on the weekend I always had five volunteers under my command (it was like herding cats).

The business model used by AFP is very similar to the Transcendental Meditation cult that I got sucked into a few years back, actually.

[Mike Thick]

I attended one of their conferences at the Reagan Ranch last summer. Some notes:

 - My roommate was one of those "The UN is going to invade Texas" guys. He's the nicest, sweetest guy you'll ever meet, and he thinks that the UN is going to invade Texas.

 - As stated in the article, they actively *try* to incite liberal outrage, and the fracas over Ann Coulter was something approaching a dream made reality for them -- massive national publicity, a ton of debate on campus, etc. We were taught by officials from all over the country how, step by step, to stir things up on-campus.

 - The headliner at the Reagan Ranch was Sam Brownback. On the 35th anniversary of Reagan's tax cuts, he was lauded across the board by speakers and attendees alike for "continuing Reagan's legacy" -- when I tried to broach how the cuts weren't actually 100% Terrific Awesome Wow to the other kids, I was met with scorn and raised eyebrows. He was even asked if he would consider running for President in 2020.

 - Ron Robinson thinks that gay marriage will lead to incest and polygamy, and he has said as much to a room full of high school kids.

 - During a "bull session" with Jake Jacobs where gay marriage came up, one gentleman called homosexuality a "mental illness." Another young man said that he was gay, and that comments like that had made him suicidal the previous year, before storming out. Most of the other kids reacted by deriding and mocking him behind his back the next day.

I went there excited that I would be able to finally get involved in movement conservatism. I left mildly disgusted by the prospect.

[Virginiá]

Soros has a son, who I fully expect will take up the mantle.

I've really been wondering about that. Soros passing on would leave a fairly large gap in some areas, but I did notice his son giving a million here and there last year, so it has got me curious since then.

I do also recall seeing Soros having some upcoming money issues:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-30/george-soros-s-tax-bill

No idea what that means for their future political spending, though.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I attended one of their conferences at the Reagan Ranch last summer. Some notes:

 - My roommate was one of those "The UN is going to invade Texas" guys. He's the nicest, sweetest guy you'll ever meet, and he thinks that the UN is going to invade Texas.

 - As stated in the article, they actively *try* to incite liberal outrage, and the fracas over Ann Coulter was something approaching a dream made reality for them -- massive national publicity, a ton of debate on campus, etc. We were taught by officials from all over the country how, step by step, to stir things up on-campus.

 - The headliner at the Reagan Ranch was Sam Brownback. On the 35th anniversary of Reagan's tax cuts, he was lauded across the board by speakers and attendees alike for "continuing Reagan's legacy" -- when I tried to broach how the cuts weren't actually 100% Terrific Awesome Wow to the other kids, I was met with scorn and raised eyebrows. He was even asked if he would consider running for President in 2020.

 - Ron Robinson thinks that gay marriage will lead to incest and polygamy, and he has said as much to a room full of high school kids.

 - During a "bull session" with Jake Jacobs where gay marriage came up, one gentleman called homosexuality a "mental illness." Another young man said that he was gay, and that comments like that had made him suicidal the previous year, before storming out. Most of the other kids reacted by deriding and mocking him behind his back the next day.

I went there excited that I would be able to finally get involved in movement conservatism. I left mildly disgusted by the prospect.

The most blue-blazer story I've ever heard. I guarantee you that each kid in the room thinks he'll (note the word he'll) be President. The Students for Rubio President here in Florida was a real piece of work.

[Mike Thick]

I attended one of their conferences at the Reagan Ranch last summer. Some notes:

 - My roommate was one of those "The UN is going to invade Texas" guys. He's the nicest, sweetest guy you'll ever meet, and he thinks that the UN is going to invade Texas.

 - As stated in the article, they actively *try* to incite liberal outrage, and the fracas over Ann Coulter was something approaching a dream made reality for them -- massive national publicity, a ton of debate on campus, etc. We were taught by officials from all over the country how, step by step, to stir things up on-campus.

 - The headliner at the Reagan Ranch was Sam Brownback. On the 35th anniversary of Reagan's tax cuts, he was lauded across the board by speakers and attendees alike for "continuing Reagan's legacy" -- when I tried to broach how the cuts weren't actually 100% Terrific Awesome Wow to the other kids, I was met with scorn and raised eyebrows. He was even asked if he would consider running for President in 2020.

 - Ron Robinson thinks that gay marriage will lead to incest and polygamy, and he has said as much to a room full of high school kids.

 - During a "bull session" with Jake Jacobs where gay marriage came up, one gentleman called homosexuality a "mental illness." Another young man said that he was gay, and that comments like that had made him suicidal the previous year, before storming out. Most of the other kids reacted by deriding and mocking him behind his back the next day.

I went there excited that I would be able to finally get involved in movement conservatism. I left mildly disgusted by the prospect.

The most blue-blazer story I've ever heard. I guarantee you that each kid in the room thinks he'll (note the word he'll) be President. The Students for Rubio President here in Florida was a real piece of work.

That too. Like, if you looked up "bourgeoisie" in the dictionary, you would see a YAF conference staring back at you. It made me realize how white, male, and upper middle-class I really am.

You definitely got that "I'm going to be President/the next Milo" vibe from most of the dudes, even though none of them actually gave two sh**ts about public policy. The girls, and the rest of the guys, were just there because their rich and politically involved parents made them go.

[The_Doctor]

Surprisingly aside from trade Trump is essentially a president who recognizes that movement conservatism dating to the 80s underpin the GOP. Even his immigration platform, while to the right of Reagan, is within the mainstream of the 80s GOP.

I think that actually a lot of Trump's core voters are not conservative but politically nomadic Perot-Buchananite in ideology. Trump spoke to them and they turned out. On the flip side they remain a minority within the GOP.  There is only so much mileage in maximizing the rural and exurban vote and its clearly not a long term source of votes (the House GOP won by 1% in 2016).

Obviously the conservative movement needs to rebrand and change. I would propose the following.

1. Retain a pro life and pro gun GOP but move towards the secular votes by agreeing gay marriage is fine and stop the fights over transgender rights and gay adoptions. There's no need to litigate these issues and drive away young conservatives and urban voters. It is also past time we took evolution and contraceptives off the table by dropping the creationist stuff and backing local governments making them either available or saying we'll back contraceptives as an alternative to abortion. And end the war on drugs.

2. Expand the GOP's foothold among conservative minorities. I don't understand why the GOP insists on being a white party in a country that's 35-40% minority. This means expanding the EITC, backing programs to help pay off student loans in return for either military service or community service or even a program where a company helps pay off a loan in return for an internship with a stipend.

3. Take healthcare off the table with a Swiss/Dutch model that encourages everyone to purchase insurance and makes their 8% of income contributions part of a sustainable healthcare system. Just solve the problem and head off single payer.

4. Repeal Medicare in conjunction with #3. This could mean having seniors pay 5% of their income into their healthcare coverage but instead of Medicare have them pay into an insurance plan. Basically RyanCare.

5. Back a revenue neutral carbon tax that caps emissions and sends revenue back to small businesses and consumers.

6. End the grip of the taxi and local urban unions by supporting Uber, Lyft, and other upstart companies. Reform the gig tax system by making it viable to actually be a gig employee instead of paying more taxes.

7. On trade, help dislocated workers find new jobs through helping paying for community college and trade school. Make sure our trade deals aren't benefiting industries that undercut domestic businesses by making it way too cheap to outsource and do business overseas.

Taking these seven moves would really go a long way to making the party and movement competitive in many parts of the country.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I attended one of their conferences at the Reagan Ranch last summer. Some notes:

 - My roommate was one of those "The UN is going to invade Texas" guys. He's the nicest, sweetest guy you'll ever meet, and he thinks that the UN is going to invade Texas.

 - As stated in the article, they actively *try* to incite liberal outrage, and the fracas over Ann Coulter was something approaching a dream made reality for them -- massive national publicity, a ton of debate on campus, etc. We were taught by officials from all over the country how, step by step, to stir things up on-campus.

 - The headliner at the Reagan Ranch was Sam Brownback. On the 35th anniversary of Reagan's tax cuts, he was lauded across the board by speakers and attendees alike for "continuing Reagan's legacy" -- when I tried to broach how the cuts weren't actually 100% Terrific Awesome Wow to the other kids, I was met with scorn and raised eyebrows. He was even asked if he would consider running for President in 2020.

 - Ron Robinson thinks that gay marriage will lead to incest and polygamy, and he has said as much to a room full of high school kids.

 - During a "bull session" with Jake Jacobs where gay marriage came up, one gentleman called homosexuality a "mental illness." Another young man said that he was gay, and that comments like that had made him suicidal the previous year, before storming out. Most of the other kids reacted by deriding and mocking him behind his back the next day.

I went there excited that I would be able to finally get involved in movement conservatism. I left mildly disgusted by the prospect.

The most blue-blazer story I've ever heard. I guarantee you that each kid in the room thinks he'll (note the word he'll) be President. The Students for Rubio President here in Florida was a real piece of work.

That too. Like, if you looked up "bourgeoisie" in the dictionary, you would see a YAF conference staring back at you. It made me realize how white, male, and upper middle-class I really am.

You definitely got that "I'm going to be President/the next Milo" vibe from most of the dudes, even though none of them actually gave two sh**ts about public policy. The girls, and the rest of the guys, were just there because their rich and politically involved parents made them go.

What is particularly hilarious is that they all manage to know their local State Rep/State Senator on a personal basis, and yet, you'll never see them in the campaign office except maybe a week before election day.

I worked for a congressional candidate for nine months. In the last two weeks a bunch of them started showing up, and they very quickly tried to remove me as the campaign's main overzealous teenager. Fortunately I'd fostered a friendship with most of the staffers (besides the personal assistant to the candidate. That dude was a dick), especially the Political Director due to our shared love of the Grateful Dead and Ron Paul. So I was able to mantain a supervisory type position over them and made sure that every task they completed (spreadsheets, phone call check lists, etc) were handed over to me so I could deliver it personally to whomever it was meant for.

Office politics is fun. 2012 was such a freaking awesome year .

[dead0man]

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Regarding ^ - Generally I don't have a problem if conservatives want to pay various conservatives' speaking fees to go speak at universities that they hope to influence, but if they are paying people like Milo and/or Coulter and other people like that to go speak there, I would have to question the financiers' motives as well. People like Coulter are garbage trolls who seek to profit off of outrage. There is really no educational value in listening to those kinds of people.

But there is political value in it, but only if a bunch of children throw a fit in protest and that makes the news.  Again, none of us would know who Milo ever was and Coulter would be a fading memory like Ja Rule and Pokemon Go if it wasn't for the dummies at college acting a fool.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

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Regarding ^ - Generally I don't have a problem if conservatives want to pay various conservatives' speaking fees to go speak at universities that they hope to influence, but if they are paying people like Milo and/or Coulter and other people like that to go speak there, I would have to question the financiers' motives as well. People like Coulter are garbage trolls who seek to profit off of outrage. There is really no educational value in listening to those kinds of people.

I would only be as suspect of their motives as I would those who actually participate into turning college campuses into smoldering Hellscapes.

[KingSweden]

I generally view YAF as being in the right here. If universities invite them to speak they are within their rights to do so. I would personally never attend any of their speakers (I wouldn't attend most left-oriented speakers either) but rioting over people speaking on campus is so, so bad. I really can't defend it.

[publicunofficial]

Conservatives like to treat people like children. Talking down to them, lecturing them, feeling the need to punish any back-talk or deviancy, all the while insisting that the stupid and mean things they do to them are really for their own good and they brought this on themselves. Minorities, the poor, and especially college students all get this treatment.

Good on anyone willing to call out these speeches for what they are, and I hope they're inspired to dedicate their lives fighting against those who insist they know better.

[Associate Justice PiT]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Regarding ^ - Generally I don't have a problem if conservatives want to pay various conservatives' speaking fees to go speak at universities that they hope to influence, but if they are paying people like Milo and/or Coulter and other people like that to go speak there, I would have to question the financiers' motives as well. People like Coulter are garbage trolls who seek to profit off of outrage. There is really no educational value in listening to those kinds of people.

I would only be as suspect of their motives as I would those who actually participate into turning college campuses into smoldering Hellscapes.

     It amuses me to question the motives of others, as if it should be meant to demean them in some fashion; the ones we need to be worried about are those who believe in what they are doing.

[EnglishPete]

Conservatives Leftists like me like to treat people like children. Talking down to them, lecturing them, feeling the need to punish any back-talk or deviancy, all the while insisting we insist that the stupid and mean things they we do to them are really for their own good and they brought this on themselves. Minorities, the poor, and especially college students Conservatives, right wingers and Trump supporters all get this treatment.

Good on anyone willing to call out harass and intimidate these speeches for what they are opinions I don't like, and I hope they're inspired to dedicate their lives fighting against those who insist they know better. to this kind of thuggish criminal behaviour.

FTFY

[EnglishPete]

As I pointed out on another thread a lot of the trouble around many of the confronations, violence and cancellations around conservative speakers on campus is caused by a loophole in the law. Mass picketing in industrial strikes is banned by the Taft Hartley Act and equivalent legislation in the UK and other countries. These rules are strictly enforced and as a result the kind of large scale threatening and violent mobs that were seen on picket lines, as recently as the 1980s in the UK, are now a thing of the past. Would be violent picketers know that law enforcement will make it utterly hopeless for them to even attempt this course of action so they don't even bother trying.

There is however a serious loophole in the legislation in that non strike related 'political' pickets, such as the antifa mobs seen in places like Berkeley. Now I can understand why Democratic politicians don't want to close this loophole. They want the threat of violence to remain there so it can be used as an excuse to apply a "heckler's veto" to political speech they don't like. For Republican politicians to fail to close this loophole however is short sighted .

Here is exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about. An article in HuffPo by someone called Michelangelo Signorile

Quote "Starting today and from here on, no elected official ― certainly those in the GOP defending and supporting Trump on a variety of issues, for example ― should be able to sit down for a nice, quiet lunch or dinner in a Washington, DC eatery or even in their own homes. They should be hounded by protestors everywhere, especially in public ― in restaurants, in shopping centers, in their districts, and yes, on the public property outside their homes and apartments, in Washington and back in their home states.

These people also attend functions and fundraisers at night (which are easy to locate), and these events should be disrupted, inside and out, until these politicians answer to the recklessness in which they are engaged. Paul Ryan, the House Speaker, should not be able to attend any function, eat in public, or enjoy dinner at home without hearing people expressing how his actions are harming their lives and their families’ lives in terrible ways. " End Quote

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/protesting-donald-trump-comey_us_591313d1e4b050bdca61270c

Now if a union organiser were to organise this kind of behaviour during a strike, aggressive mass harassment and intimidation of management and strike breakers then he could expect a heavy police response followed by some time in jail. There aren't many people arguing that those laws should be changed.
There really isn't any good reason why Republican lawmakers should continue to allow this loophole in picketing law that exempts non industrial 'political' pickets from the same laws that apply to union strike pickets.