You Are The Future…as long as you’re liberal!
America’s leading universities are skewing left when it comes to selecting speakers to deliver commencement addresses. The Young America’s Foundation’s (YAF) 24th annual Commencement Speakers Survey analyzed graduation speakers at the country’s top 100 universities and found that 45 speakers have a track record in supporting liberal stances while only 12 conservatives have been invited to speak.
A statement from the YAF, which promotes individual freedom, a strong national defense, free enterprise and traditional values, said: “Of our country’s top 10 schools, nine speakers were liberal. As usual our nation’s brightest students will reveal one final dose of liberalism from their progressive professors and administrators before heading out into the real world.”
“Liberal commencement speakers overwhelmingly outweigh conservative ones, analysis shows” coverage via @CollegeFix: https://t.co/H9iLZ9I2CQ
— YAF (@yaf) May 12, 2016
The YAF added that of the 12 conservative speakers, most were moderate conservatives, including former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (Michigan), Oracle Founder Larry Ellison (USC) and financier Joseph Perella (Lehigh). “There were no real conservatives in the list,” said a YAF spokeswoman.
The speakers also included a large number of present and former Obama Administration cabinet members including Secretary of State John Kerry (Northeastern), Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power (Yale), Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz (BC), Secretary of the Interior Secretary Sally Jewell (University of Washington), former Attorney General Eric Holder (Stony Brook University) and President Obama himself, who speaks at Rutgers on Sunday.
BTN will live stream Obama’s graduation speech at Rutgers on Sunday. Info here: https://t.co/LtUromv81b
— Dan Duggan (@DDuggan21) May 12, 2016
Other prominent liberals to deliver commencement addresses at universities include director Steven Spielberg (Harvard), New York Times editor Dean Baquet (Columbia), actor Matt Damon (MIT), filmmaker Spike Lee (John Hopkins), tech activist Sheryl Sandberg (Berkeley) and NBC chat show host Seth Meyers.
The YAF said the left tilt in commencement speakers is nothing new. In 2015 the ratio of liberal to conservative speakers was 6-to-1, in 2014 the ratio was 5-to-1, in 2013 the ratio was 4-to-1 and in 2012 7-1.
While the speaker ranks these days are dominated by politicians and journalists, a search on the speakers from 20 years ago turns up a much more eclectic list. Commencement addresses in 1996 included astronomer Carl Sagan (Cornell), author Salman Rushdie (Bard College), Libertarian actor Bruce Willis (Montclair State) and even Kermit the Frog (Southampton College).
Kermit’s speech is likely to be a lot funnier than anything Seth Meyers has to say.
