Aryn Plax
Metro Editor
Shaikha Almawlani
Staff Writer
The University of La Verne College Republicans hosted Shawn Steel in Morgan Auditorium Wednesday as a speaker of “Conservatism of Today.”
Steel, a member of the Republican National Committee from California, shared his views on several matters, such as liberal bias in academia, mainstream media, central intelligence and emergence of a “deep state,” Planned Parenthood, and his prediction of the downfall of universities, with reference to Republicans and conservatism.
Steel described himself as a libertarian who works with conservatives and doesn’t like power concentrated with anyone. He said that, in the wake of Donald Trump’s campaign and election, he studied the recent rise of Antifa, an anti-fascist movement that originated in 1920s Germany and has sprung up in reaction to Trump’s election.
“It’s an excuse for thugs to go out and crack heads open and break bones, and that’s really the theory of it, then they adapt to find some ideological causes that they think will justify that action,” Steel said. “You got the extreme ‘hate America’ crowd, then you got the nutcases of Black Lives Matter, and then you throw in a little dash of ISIS, and Students For Palestine, and then you put in a whole bunch of alienated leftists, and then you get some old fashioned socialists, and you mix them together, and you give them a bunch of boots and black jackets and face masks, and suddenly you got a whole other element, and they call themselves ‘Antifa’.”
Steel talked about what he describes as a liberal bias in both academia and media, saying that conservatives “need not apply” in the soft sciences, such as political science and history. He said that the predominantly liberal mainstream media is largely discredited as “fake news,” while news organizations like Fox News are rising in prominence, connecting the subject with the media’s reaction to Trump’s claims of being wiretapped by Obama.
Jonathan Rios, sophomore business administration major, did not completely disagree with Steel’s ideology that “the soft sciences in universities are nothing more than propaganda machines.”
“I believe that to an extent being that some professors seem to be extremely biased and do not come in with a neutral standpoint which can be interpreted as a propaganda source,” Rios said. “However, I do not believe their main motive behind their biases are propaganda.”
Though Steel did not say that Obama wiretapped Trump, he said that Obama brought “like-minded ideologies” into his administration that are willing to put his political enemies under surveillance without being explicitly asked to do so. He cited Lois Lerner as an example, saying that she had intentionally made it difficult for tea party groups to get tax exempt status on the basis of their conservative politics.
Steel said that Director of Federal Bureau of Investigation James Comey lied about there being no evidence of Trump being spied on by the federal government.
“This is a federal offense,” Steel said. “This is a firing offense. It’s a prosecutable offense, and that the director of the FBI is lying is fascinating times to be living in. What’s happening is that the Obama crowd is still infested in the federal government on all levels.”
Steel said the justice department was the most corrupt department in the federal government, describing it as full of “hardcore, remorseless, vicious left wingers.”
“It’ll take six months to identify them, to hunt them down, and to expel them,” Steel said. “Because they’re political appointees, because they have an agenda, and their agenda is to screw with Donald Trump every day.”
Steel talked about the emergence of what he called the “deep state,” which he defined as a shadow government made up of self important high level government officials usually in the military or intelligence sector. He said that the current intelligence agencies are “sympathetic to the left” and that is creating something we have never seen before in America.
“There is a civil war going on right now,” said Steel. “When you have one intelligence faction attacking another intelligence faction. They are scared to death that Trump would ruin their lives and ruin the country so they think they have a duty.”
Steel talked about Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger’s involvement in the eugenics movement, which emphasized improving the human race through selective breeding and was a major part of scientific racism. He also said that in the future, people who support abortions will be considered villains and mass murderers.
“She formed the very first abortion clinic in America in Harlem,” Steel said.
“Planned Parenthood was planned to reduce the black population of America and they did a spectacular job. To this day, the primary area that you get abortions is through Planned Parenthood.”
“I’m against Planned Parenthood, but I thought a lot of his reasoning for that just didn’t really seem sound to me,” said Eric Lees, sophomore English major. “He didn’t have any really solid statistics to back it up, and that just kind of rubbed me the wrong way. I’m conflicted because I do want conservative voices, but I’m also afraid that having too radical, too much of that just suddenly put in, would kind of alienate people that maybe aren’t really so sure about where they stand.”
Steel talked about an incident at Orange Coast college in which student Caleb O’Neil filmed his human sexuality professor Olga Perez Stable Cox calling voting for Trump “an act of terrorism” and showed the video to members of the College Republicans club. O’Neil and other club members were suspended after they uploaded the video online.
“It was a liberal, cunning, nasty approach by the faculty that really runs the administration, demanding the retribution to teach young conservatives not just there, but here and everywhere. ‘Don’t mess with us, we’re more powerful than you,’” Steel said.
Steel added that young conservatives have the potential to organize in the current political climate.
“We’re seeing more College Republicans active than ever in California and all over the country. We’re seeing really sharp new leaders that are emerging.”
Christopher Padilla, senior speech communications major and vice president of the College Republicans, said he disagreed with Steel’s pro-Trump stance and finds Trump unprofessional.
“He’s too far out there, he’s not as calculated as he should be,” Padilla said. “He needs to get off his Twitter account. He’s making a fool out of himself, and thus embarrassing our entire f*****g country.”
While Citrus College student Favian Fragoso agreed that there was a liberal bias at universities, he said that Steel did not provide a solution. Fragoso also said that he wished Steel talked about the Antifa movement from a constitutional perspective.
“I don’t think he really went into depth with the whole movement of Antifa, and how they still have the right to be able to gather,” Fragoso said.
“It’s still covered under the first amendment, and I feel like he put blanket statements on other groups like the Black Lives Matter. They’re not all destroying property, they’re not all going out to harm citizens, but those who do seem to be the ones that are garnering the most attention.”
Rios said he was disappointed by Steel’s lack of statistics behind his claims and stance on higher education.
“I think it was kind of sad because he was a proponent for education being diminished,” Rios said.
Although Rios said he was “slightly entertained” by Steel’s lecture and ideologies, he said he considers Steel an extremist in his political leniency.
“I was reminiscing throughout it of my grandparents, who were very conservative,” Rios said. “They had the same type of speak because they rely on the same type of news source.”
Steel concluded the meeting with a joke announcement of Milo Yiannopoulos’ surprise visit to La Verne in April.
Aryn Plax can be reached at aryn.plax@laverne.edu.
Shaikha Almawlani can be reached at shaikha.almawlani@laverne.edu.
