Dinesh D'Souza coming to UMM? Really?

Dinesh D'Souza

I suppose we have been through worse times. As bizarre as the Trump presidency has been - I'm tempted to put "presidency" in quotes - let's compare to LBJ. The distraction of Trump's obnoxiousness seems small potatoes next to LBJ's prosecution of the Vietnam war, n'est-ce pas? We aren't literally risking the lives of so many young men today. We aren't really on new ground with a disturbing presidency.
But there does appear to be something ominous out there. It's like the signs of impending eruption of a volcano like Mount St. Helen's. Everything seems calm for a long time, then, boom!
There is a movement out there that likes to call itself conservatism. It is highly reactionary and emotional. The new media give a platform that empowers it greatly. People of a more sensible stripe are put on the defensive. A perfect example of the strident, reactionary element is Dinesh D'Souza. And now our University of Minnesota-Morris is allowing him to come here and speak.
My idea of a reasonable conservative is Jeff Flake or Joe Scarborough. I might include Mitt Romney but he capitulates too easily to the dark elements. Romney might have been a Ronald Reagan type of president had he been elected. Today's self-identifying conservatives, i.e. the Fox News or Breitbart crowd, might shove aside Reagan. Maybe in favor of Pat Robertson or Pat Buchanan. They'd probably get on the "he's senile" bandwagon like Bill O'Reilly eventually did, drawing the ire of George Will who I'd put in the same category as Flake and Scarborough.
Today's "conservatives" seem like a racket where its adherents compete to try to get attention by saying outrageous things. Look at Laura Ingraham. First Ace Hardware says it's ceasing advertising on the show, then it gets cold feet and backs off. I will personally try to avoid doing business at Ace Hardware in Morris and instead will try to support Eul's. I went to high school with Mike Eul who was a loyal Catholic Democrat! I mean that as a serious compliment. I enjoyed seeing Mike at the "Chase" band reunion concert in St. Paul in 2007. It was the night when the bridge fell into the river. My party had to call home to assure family we were OK, that we hadn't fallen into the drink.
I don't even want to report the date when Dinesh D'Souza will speak at UMM. The appearance is sponsored by College Republicans? I'm quite sure these people would talk up Donald Trump. But why? Trump is assuredly not a fiscal conservative because he signed that big spending bill. So if it's not fiscal, on what grounds might Trump be deemed conservative? Maybe he sets an example on a moral level? With his background of screwing women all over the place and having his lawyer arrange to have the women paid for their silence? What about his choice of language as he insults and degrades so many people in his "tweets?" Comey is a "slime ball."
Based on the empirical exhibit, Trump himself would seem to fit the definition of "slime ball." Or do we have no scruples remaining in our society of today? Is it just a matter of white people recoiling at the changes we have been subjected to in our society and economy? The tribulation caused by globalization and automation! So we just lash out in desperation? We elect a would-be despot? Is this Germany in the year 1930? Fine, then let's recognize what's happening and leave the term "conservatism" out of it.
We see "Eddie Munster" (a.k.a. Paul Ryan) act like a deficit hawk for years, when it was easy to blame Democrats for high spending, but then turn tail and run when his own party gets total power and spends money like it has a printing press.
Republicans are oh so pathetic as they try to justify the spending bill on the simple basis that "we get more military spending." So let's be like Germany of the mid-20th Century and flex our muscles with military might. Of course Germany ended up in rubble. Why the need to build up the military so much? Are we really close to a major conventional war, a "Saving Private Ryan" type of war? A war with the standard bombs, grenades and machine guns? Do you really understand what kind of a hell that type of war is? We handle conflicts today with special ops and economic sanctions. Real war is an absolute last resort. It wasn't even necessary for us to invade Iraq.
We seem to want to show "we can still do it" like we did in World War II. "We've still got it." Never mind that the veterans themselves would say that war is virtual hell and something to be avoided at all costs.
Dinesh D'Souza has become a right wing troll, coming at us with offensive Twitter-based commentary. He recently responded to a photo of Florida school-shooting survivors who were crying after Florida's legislators voted down an assault weapons ban. D'Souza regurgitated the following: "Worst news since their parents told them to get summer jobs." He described the Charlottesville thing as a "staged event" meant to make the political right look bad. I could list more such exhibits of objectionable statements by this wacko.
Our UMM puts up with his appearance because it's scared of D'Souza's constituency, the type of people who have put out "NorthStar" on the UMM campus. This has nothing to do with real conservatism or libertarianism. It's about college kids going through a phase where they easily develop emotions on political matters.
UMM is scared because it might be targeted by the extreme folks as "liberal" and all that garbage, if they were to be skeptical of D'Souza. So UMM announces the upcoming lecture on its own web pages. Trying to resist D'Souza's crowd might get you "exposed" on a Fox News show, thereby having hell to pay, whether you have done anything bad or not. A Fox News "ambush interviewer" once literally chased the Syracuse University president through campus. We saw that scene on Bill O'Reilly who later got forced off the air because it was disclosed he paid $32 million to a woman to avoid a sexual harassment lawsuit. What a crowd those people are.
Enjoy your upcoming lecture night, "College Republicans" - enjoy your night of ideological masturbation.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com