Cincinnati College Democrats Wanted William Bennett Censored

From the University of Cincinnati News Record:

Radio talk show host and former Secretary of Education Bill Bennett on Sunday canceled his campus appearance amid controversy over comments he made on his radio show last week.

Since the show, Bennett has received national media attention after high-level Democrats spoke in outrage on the comments.

In a letter obtained by The News Record, Bennett said the controversy over his remarks would have clouded the message of his planned speech, “Politics, War and Culture.”

OK, Bennett can cancel his speech if he wants. Had we been him, we would have happily spoken at what would have been a very high-profile and well-attended event.

But what is especially interesting is the reactions of the University of Cincinnati College Republicans and College Democrats:

Kevin Welch, chairman of the College Republicans, said they will be working with the university of reschedule the event.

“We’re disappointed that we had to cancel it, but we remain committed to rescheduling,” Welch said.

Erich Sreckfuss, president of the College Democrats, said the group will still hold a protest on whichever day Bennett comes to campus. Streckfuss also said the way the event was canceled disappointed his group.

“We’re glad that Bennett will not have a forum at the University of Cincinnati,” Streckfuss said. “However, it’s unfortunate that he cancelled on the College Republicans and they didn’t cancel on their own.”

Streckfuss said Friday that Bennett’s comments qualify him as someone whose ideas are counter to the mission of UC.

“We definitely feel that his comments do not reflect the attitudes of the University of Cincinnati and have no place here,” he said.

In other words, the College Democrats wanted to ban him from the campus, and forbid him to speak. Had they simply wanted to demonstrate and oppose his positions, that would be dandy.

But they wanted him shut up.

Interestingly, the administration took a tolerant line:

The university, however, is not taking any position.

“Just because we bring someone in who’s controversial, doesn’t mean we support his views,” said UC Spokesman Greg Hand.

Hand went on to say that students tend to like controversial speakers who come to campus because they can disagree with them.

This is all too typical on a modern university campus. The liberals believe they are empowered to shut up people they disagree with.

That’s certainly true of many of the student activists at Marquette -- although not the College Democrats (unless the ones we know are grossly atypical).