President of the CCLEFT Club Daniel Maltzer protested at renowned author Dan Flynn's speech on Monday. Over four hundred students were in the audience watching the event. (Pace)
Dan Flynn Sparks Controversy on Conn's Campus
By Sarah Armstrong, Staff Writer
College Republicans shook up the campus this past Monday night when they brought fiery speaker Dan Flynn to the Cro's Nest; his name is not one Connecticut College will soon forget. Flynn spoke about his book Why the Left Hates America, and provoked acute excitement on campus. The event, which one student described as "World War V" is a landmark in recent Connecticut College history. With 400 students packed into Cro's Nest at one point in the evening, almost 20% of campus attended the event.
Flynn Arrived on campus at approximately 6:00 PM on Monday and met with several members of the College Republicans, who treated him to dinner at Chili's. Dinner conversation revealed that Flynn attended UMass Amherst, served in the Marine Reserves, recently ended his tenure as the executive director for Accuracy in Academia, and currently lives in Boston. Conversation also turned toward the atmosphere Flynn should expect upon returning to campus. News that several groups had plans to show up, on threatening a protest, found Flynn unphased. For this 210lb, 6' speaker, any disgruntled audience at CC would be another to add to an impressive list; as he later shared with the audience, Flynn has been bitten, mooned, heckled, and his books have been the main element in a "Nazi-styled book burning at Berkeley...Berkeley is like Rome for the Left."
By the time Flynn arrived to speak, activity around Cro was already in full gear. Inside the Nest, College Republicans, many sporting skirts or ties and jackets, provided cookies and drinks. To get inside, however, students first had to literally cross a line of members of CCLEFT, a new student club that is not officially registered with SGA, who were wearing t-shirts reading "Ask me why the Left loves America." The group was passing out pie on plates with Leftist quips written on them. To the question, "Want some pie?" even College Republicans said yes.
"I took some pie," said sophomore Trish said with a grin. "It was good pie, I enjoyed it."
The table CCLEFT swarmed about also had fliers that they inserted into the hands of passerbys very eagerly. Behind CCLEFT, it was easy to see that the Nest was very full, even at 7:15.
Owen Kloter, Vice-Chair of College Republicans, introduced Flynn to the audience, adding that the CR "would so graciously like to thank CCLEFT for the refreshments!"
Flynn opened his remarks with an unusual tactic, asking students to call out names of "well-known liberals." Ironically, it took some coaxing to have the audience call out names at first, but eventually, Howard Dean, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, and even Jerry Garcia, to chuckles of laughter, were named. But Flynn had reason to use this tactic. "Aside from some minor differences, most of the people mentioned are virtually identical to, say, President Bush," cautioned Flynn. "My book is called Why the Left Hates America- I'm NOT saying liberals. It is more Gore Vidal than Al Gore."
An energetic speaker, Flynn used no notes, and spoke easily to the college audience, respecting that the students in the room were more against him than with him, and knowing that he had to be provocative to appeal to them. He spoke at length about Leftist activity in academia, towards the nation, and in Hollywood, and took heat from the audience in doing so.
Once Flynn's speech was underway, he thrice invited people clogged in the back of the room and the doorway to move forward, and sit along the sides of the stage or against the walls around the stage.
To enhance his point, Flynn brought along visual and audio media. Three items were of particular note. Flynn held up the cover of a University of Wisconsin magazine, in which a student of color had been cut and paste in with a group of Caucasian students, highlighting academia's desperate longing to appear multi-cultural. For Flynn, this incident illustrates the "fraud diversity" rampant on college campuses "Real diversity is diversity of ideas and diversity of viewpoints." While speaking of academia, Flynn expressed that "the kind of diversity you get at a place like CC, or any other liberal arts college in the country, seeks to have a faculty that looks like the UN, but with a mindset of a San Francisco coffee house," and also called attention to the fact that many politically conservative faculty are outnumbered by liberal faculty by more than 10 to one on most college campuses.
The second particularly interesting media, Flynn played several audio clips of protesters demonstrating against the Iraq war, 47 of which he had recorded at protests. "A lot of people said the same crazy things," said Flynn. "These [people] are not the second coming of Einstein." Flynn also mentioned banners reading "We support our troops when they shoot their officers." Said Flynn, "That's pretty sick."
Showing a scene from Monty Python's "Life of Brian" was arguably the most effective of Flynn's examples. This scene showed how the People's Front of Judea, in plotting to rebel against the Romans, disregarded all that Rome had done for them, and in doing so drew parallels to the Left's relationship with America. As Flynn sees it, "America has its own 'People's Front of Judea'"
The scene so enraged some members of CCLEFT that, when the lights were restored, the audience and speaker found one individual from CCLEFT, front and center, standing with his back toward Flynn. The individual loudly refused repeated invitations to sit down and respect those he was blocking, those who paid Flynn to speak, and Flynn himself. The individual had been disruptive earlier in Flynn's speech as well, but shortly after a Campus Safety Officer attempted to intervene, Flynn offered, "Officer, if he wants to stand up there and make a fool of himself, that's fine. I don't want to make a scene for anyone," and Flynn moved to a section of the stage where he could be seen.
CCLEFT, whose noisome and juvenile obstructions of Flynn's speech provoked even CCLefters to call for reason and to "get over yourself," also invited Flynn to pronounce, "Folks, if you want to see the Left in action, there it is." Flynn's comment was met with cheers and applause from some audience members.
Several more members of CCLEFT stood and turned their backs shortly thereafter, as Flynn was being actively heckled by the audience and forced to deal with questions that were not on the topic of his discussion.
Afterwards, Flynn mentioned that he could not have asked for a better prop to help make the point of his address, referring to the "spastic outbursts" and attempted "hijack" of the event.
Flynn began his speaking engagement at 7:30, spoke for nearly an hour and a half - longer than usual due to frequent verbal interjections from an inflamed audience. When making an argument for what America has done for the world, Flynn pointed out that the adolescents in Tiannanmen Square "were not quoting from Mao's Little Red Book. They were quoting from the Declaration of Independence." For emphasis, he added "What was unique about America at the time [of the founding],...[was that the] founders planted the germ of freedom and democracy, and it spread to around the country."
At the close of his speech, Flynn quoted Jeanne Kirkpatrick, saying "Americans need to face the truth about their nation...no matter how pleasant that truth nay be, and I do hope some of you guys take that to heart."
He then spent the next hour answering questions from the audience. At 10:00, after speaking for 2 hours, Flynn invited those who still had questions to approach him as he signed books.
The Q&A, for all of the tough questions for Flynn, also stimulated students to reflect on the actions of CCLEFT. Senior Noah Silverman, eloquent per usual, expressed "I consider myself quite a leftist, and I am ashamed of the way CCLEFT conducted itself." Silverman went on to ask a provocative question on US immigration policy. Someone else told Flynn, the "best thing you said tonight was that the Republicans wouldn't do that if CCLEFT had a speaker."
"Buzzy" Napoli asserted "While I disagree with you, I do think it's interesting that you have this perspectiveand that you came tonight. I was really surprised that he didn't support the Iraq War, that was something I didn't expect." However, like many students that night, Buzzy cautioned Flynn away from using childish names to describe those on the Left, or members of CCLEFT that Flynn had called moronic. "You would just be more effective if you used more educated language," Napoli, a freshman, told Flynn.
That evening, Flynn quickly sold out of all the books he had brought with him. As he signed them, Flynn answered questions and did not leave Cro's Nest until 11:00 PM, three hours after he began his speech.
In a message to College Republicans later that evening, Kloter mused, "The turnout was just fantastic, and it really looks like everyone got almost as excited as they did about self-scheduled exams by the numbers that turned out to see Mr. Flynn. So thanks to everyone again for coming... and making this a really memorable event."
Flynn's remarks were forefront in the minds of CC students even on Thursday afternoon, as they chattered about the event before professors began class three days after the event. As Napoli mentioned, many students were enraged over language employed to describe Leftist elite Noam Chomsky, others on the Left, and disruptive students. "Part of me is here to give a show," Flynn responded to questions on the subject, "I'm not a punching bag - I'm gonna give back. My nature is not to be a shrinking violet."
One other element about Flynn that students could not get over was the title of his book, which many felt was an un-intellectual and a gross generalization. "It's a hard hitting title. But also its only five words." While speaking afterwards with a student, Flynn said the "nature of a title is that it generalizes, and it's a catch."
For what is considered a painfully apathetic school, especially in terms of politics, members of the student body have been surprisingly opinionated about this engagement. Jamie, a freshman had "about as much fun as a skin-eating plague..." While Ryan Kelley, also freshman, said, "It was entertaining... I liked the collision." Sophomore Colin Foote hopes "after tonight people are going to go home and are going to start a real Democrats club that represents educated liberal ideas," because he was so maddened by the behavior of some present. On the whole, Maxwell Housman sums up well what many people thought regardless of whether they agreed with Flynn. "I thought it was great that our campus finally has some diversity where another side of the political spectrum that isn't usual seen on campuses was seen and heard."
The College Republicans feel as though they have lived up to their motto "Make a Difference" once again. Next semester, the club hopes to bring to speakers to campus.