Snowflakes aren’t just on the Left.
A few months back, alt-right and alt-lite snowflakes descended on a production of Julius Caesar in Central Park that depicted the eponymous assassinated dictator as Donald Trump; they proclaimed that such speech amounted to violence, and therefore had to be shut down. Last week, Trump supporters in Whittier, California did the same thing to radical leftist California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Assembly Leader Ian Calderon. According to Reason:
They had pledged to answer questions from the general public, but several irate MAGA-hat-wearing audience members were intent on hijacking the event from the get-go. Arthur Schaper, a pro-Trump activist, interrupted the speakers constantly with cries of “Respect our president!” and “Build the wall!” and also accusations like “Corruption!” and “Pothead!” At one point he told the woman seated in front of him—who wanted to actually hear Calderon and Becerra—that she was a lying twat.
This is stupidity of the highest order, and demonstrates that lack of commitment to the First Amendment unfortunately crosses party lines. But we already knew that: polls show that 22% of Republicans said that it was fine to silence a speaker who says “offensive and hurtful things.”
This is why it’s important for conservatives not only to demonstrate their bona fides with regard to commitment to free speech against violent groups like Antifa, but against supposed conservatives who don’t want to allow leftists to speak. I think Xavier Becerra is a misguided dolt — he’s the same man who attempted to prosecute Planned Parenthood investigative journalism activist David Daleiden — but he has every right to speak at Whittier College. Opposing someone’s political viewpoint on a public campus doesn’t give you the right to shut them down.