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Former Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann never backs down from a fight.
On Thursday, only days after a Transylvania University alumni who now works for the ACLU’s Kentucky branch slammed the university for accepting Sandmann as a student, the precocious 18-year-old published a lengthy op-ed in Fox News letting the world know that he won’t allow left-wing activists to cancel or silence him.
He started the piece by outlining what had happened.
“I recently began my freshman year at Transylvania University in Kentucky. But unbelievably, an official of the American Civil Liberties Union — a liberal group that claims to be dedicated to defending free speech — criticized the university last week for admitting me, saying my admission was a ‘stain’ on the school,” he wrote.
“In a Facebook post, Kentucky ACLU staffer Samuel Crankshaw wrote of me that ‘this kid clearly is a provocateur in training with no intention of learning. He exists only to troll, intimidate and play victim.'”
— Nicholas Sandmann (@N1ckSandmann) September 10, 2020
There’s no evidence to back up Crankshaw’s description of Sandmann, unless of course you’re among the far-left members of the media who still think — in complete contradiction to the evidence — that the then-16-year-old teen had been the aggressor during the infamous Lincoln Memorial confrontation that happened last year.
The lack of evidence therefore raises the question of why Crankshaw had chosen to attack the young man. According to Sandmann, it’s likely because of his values.
“I have never met Crankshaw. He knows nothing about me besides news stories regarding my trip to Washington and lawsuit. Yet still, he tries to cancel me and demand that I be denied admission to college. Why? Because he seems outraged that my conservative values don’t align with his left-wing ideology,” he wrote.
“So should only liberals and those on the far-left be able to get a college education? Should there be an ideological purity test required that bars conservatives and Republicans? That’s a pretty frightening idea and sounds like something you would expect in a totalitarian state, not a democracy where we are all guaranteed free speech by the First Amendment to the Constitution.”
Actually, a growing illiberal movement among leftists does posit that conservatives, in general, should be ostracized from society and treated like lepers. And as Crankshaw’s attack on Sandmann demonstrates, this movement is mainstream.
Sandmann continued his piece by noting the growing hypocrisy of the ACLU and other corrupted left-wing organizations that believe in free speech, but only for those whose political and ideological views perfectly mirror theirs.
He isn’t alone in noting this discrepancy. Jonathan Turley, a classic liberal attorney who’s found himself alienated from the modern Democrat Party, wrote earlier his week about how the ACLU “has abandoned its famed neutrality and has not supported some on the right while supporting those on the left.”
Instead of being a free speech organization, the ACLU is now a far-left political organization that essentially serves as an extension of the Democrat Party.
I realize this is a junior comms staffer, but it’s still a troubling position for an ACLU person to take—that Sandmann doesn’t belong at Transy U because he has conservative views. I hope it does not reflect the entire organization. https://t.co/AlHxgpWHWT via @JonathanTurley pic.twitter.com/ZguVuJbYRP
— Robby Soave (@robbysoave) September 8, 2020
In his defense, Crankshaw has argued that he’d simply been expressing his personal views on his personal Facebook page. While that’s a valid point, it’s also true that he’s a man with power and privilege who believes, as noted by Turley, “that the university should have barred the admission of Sandmann due to his views.”
“Indeed, he was expressing outrage that Sandmann was allowed to attend such an institution of higher education. While we have been discussing the intolerance for opposing views expressed at colleges, Crankshaw apparently does not even want to see people like Sandmann allowed into college,” Turley added.
And this matters especially given the preponderance of examples of conservatives being purposefully targeted, censored, silenced, fired, etc., just for their views.
Continuing his op-ed, Sandmann rightly noted that he’s not alone.
“Sadly, I’m not the only young Republican being attacked for my political beliefs. Conservative students on college campuses across America face attacks just for speaking out and exercising their First Amendment rights,” he said.
“If the threats to students like me don’t come from the left-leaning administrators, the threats come from fellow students who call on-campus leadership to cancel events or shut down student organizations that dare challenge their left-wing view of the world.”
Fact-check: TRUE.
Concluding his piece, Sandmann said bluntly that, unlike his ideological opponents, he doesn’t want to see Democrats — even the crazy ones — be silenced.
“I don’t advocate barring liberals or even socialists from going to college. It is wrong for any of us to demean people who hold different beliefs,” he wrote.
“Now more than ever, we need more speech, not less. We need to hear new ideas and to learn from others. That is exactly what I and so many students returning to school want to do. I invite Democrats to join us.”
Will they, though?
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V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.
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