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Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

Malkin speaks on recent decrease in political civility

Roughly 500 students, teachers, workers and parents became acquainted with conservative blogger and journalist Michelle Malkin’s call to “hold up a mirror to the left” during her on-campus speech Monday night. Her speech, titled “Incivility in the Age of Obama,” presented the notion that only some people in politics practice civility because it is not required by everyone.

Sponsored by the College Republicans, Malkin’s speech in the Alumni Memorial Union Ballrooms touched on education, unions and patriotism, but her main goal was to stand against repressive civility. She said there is a huge problem of ad hominem attacks under a false guise of civility between political parties, and that she sees most of those are against conservatives.

Malkin noted a visceral reaction to the mere presence of a public figure, with an onslaught of disruption, again, mostly toward Republicans. However, she said regardless of thought being conservative or liberal, “The cure for hate speech is smarter speech, not repressive speech.”

State Rep. Bill Kramer (R-Madison) would agree, having spent the last six weeks in Madison.

“(Liberals) shouted us down every chance they had,” Kramer said. “I think it’s a really good question to ask. Where is the civility now, you know?”

There were no significant protests to the event, and at one point Malkin said those who believe the “liberal media” would have been scared to attend. Malkin said it is standard procedure to encounter protest, and her attitude seems to welcome it.

In a pre-speech interview, she said being a public figure improves her resiliency in the face of opposition and it lightens her disposition.

“Politics requires thick skin and a really good sense of humor,” she said in the interview.

Her speech reflected that criteria, as her animated and satirical humor toyed with the line between humility and self-deprecation.

As for her own political beliefs, Malkin admits they are very transparent.

“Everybody knows what my political leanings are and what I’m motivated by,” Malkin said in the interview. “It’s all out there in the open. I’ve got 20 years of a paper trail and an electronic trail.”

Since her career in print journalism started in 1992, Malkin still considers herself a journalist, even though she has propelled beyond that role. She does recognize that the visibility of her political beliefs doesn’t accommodate nonpartisan standards, but she maintains that, “it’s a great time to be a blogger.”

Malkin said technology, social media and networking have changed the landscape of her work over the last two decades. In fact, social networking is what brought her to Marquette, said Ethan Hollenberger, chair of the College Republicans.

“The reason we went after her to visit Marquette is that she was already blogging a lot about the state of Wisconsin,” Hollenberger said. “We tweeted her to come to Wisconsin, and then we secured some donor funds and got full MUSG funding to make it happen.”

Malkin said coming to a college campus with a message of incivility is nothing new, but “it’s so rare that students get to hear about political diversity that is more than skin-deep.”

Malkin considers college campuses to be good training ground for being open-minded, and her transparency resonated with students like sophomore Maria Meier in the College of Health Sciences, a member of the College Republicans.

“She’s very eye-opening and inspiring to the cause on campus,” Meier said. “There’s so much (rhetoric suppression) going on, and it’s good to talk openly about confronting others.”

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