Dr. Mike Adams Makes a House Call to North Carolina State

by John Plecnik

This Tuesday, college professor and conservative columnist Dr. Mike Adams paid a visit to North Carolina State University and was greeted by a crowd of College Republicans that numbered in the hundreds. Locally famous for fighting liberal bias in the University of North Carolina system, Dr. Adams has gained national recognition for his work with the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), U.S. Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), and the College Republicans. Today, Dr. Adams is most noted for fighting unconstitutional speech codes and intervening on behalf of conservative students across the country.

Professors, politicians, and (Republican) state party officials joined a throng of College Republicans and curious liberals to hear from the spunky professor. And five minutes into his speech, there was nothing but standing room in the cavernous, chemistry classroom.

This event was a credit to Club Chairman Adam Downing of the N.C. State College Republicans. The Triangle ranks beside Harvard Yard and the People’s Republic of Berkeley as one of the most liberal locales in higher education. Drawing a crowd of 400 or so students for a CR speaker is more than a minor accomplishment—it’s practically unheard of.

The Pope Center for Higher Education, a conservative think tank in Raleigh, N.C., helped to finance Dr. Adams’ triumphant return to the Triangle. As of late, the Pope Center has come under heavy fire from liberal academics who are concerned by the Center’s growing influence in the Tar Heel State.

Between cracking jokes, Dr. Adams blasted the ivory tower’s recurring and “intentional” bias against conservative values and free speech. He spent the majority of his time describing instance-after-instance of liberal bias on campus. For example, he retold how UNC-Greensboro refused to finance conservative speakers, but paid a “porn star” $3,000 to come to campus and discuss “safe sodomy.”

Dr. Adams also discussed the liberal bias at his own university, UNC-Wilmington (or as the good doctor calls it, UNC-Wonderland). In a bonehead move that since became a thing of CR legend, the administration at UNC-Wilmington accused their resident CR chapter of discriminating against other political parties by limiting its membership to Republicans. The chapter was given the choice of admitting Democrats and Communists, or losing official recognition. Naturally, it chose the latter.

The more liberal (and less intelligent) professors at UNC-Wilmington were quick to accuse the recalcitrant CRs of discriminatory intent. One went so far as to label them as anti-Catholic. Amusingly, Club Chairman Michael Pomarico was a Catholic. And he refused to take his university’s ultimatum sitting down. Pomarico contacted the university and demanded its list of donors. It was clear that he was going to take the CRs’ case to their alumni base. And shortly thereafter, UNC-Wilmington decided to reverse its policy and return official recognition to the CRs.

Dr. Adams prefaced his praise of Pomarico by saying his cohort in conservatism was starting at law school. I would add that it’s no surprise that a student who defended the First Amendment rights of his peers went on to study the law and our Constitution.

As the good doctor boasted about his numerous mentions on Scarborough Country and Rush Limbaugh, a lone security officer patrolled the back of the room. Rumor had it that several liberals had planned to crash the College Republicans’ party and assault Dr. Adams with a pie or other foodstuffs, in Ann Coulter-like fashion. At one point, a student ran in front of Dr. Adams and everyone thought the liberal attack had begun. However, the student was only making a quick exit. Nothing came of it but a few jokes from Dr. Adams, followed by a round of boisterous laughter from the crowd.

Summing up his experience from battling Stalinist academics, Dr. Adams insisted that liberal bias on campus was the direct result of “intentional” discrimination, not mere ignorance. However, the good doctor was quick to quip that a good many liberal professors are less than intelligent, and very ignorant. He also laid out a three-prong strategy to combat liberal bias and unconstitutional speech codes. Based on his experience, Dr. Adams recommended that campus conservatives should (1) fight anti-conservative discrimination in the “court of public opinion,” (2) bring suit in “courts of law,” and (3) when all else fails, go directly to their school’s donors and let them know how their tax dollars (in the case of public universities) and contributions are being spent.

Dr. Adams closed by articulating his two “mid-term” goals for the UNC-system. First, he wants to shame or sue UNC-Wilmington and its peer schools into distributing a fair portion of their funding to inviting conservative speakers to lecture on campus. Second, he wants the system to erect a museum dedicated to the horrors of communism (to contrast the pro-communist arguments of liberal academia with a frank statement of history).

Only time will tell if the good doctor has the traction to accomplish these goals. But if his turnout on Tuesday is any indication of Dr. Adam’s growing influence, the columnist/author/professor is a rising star in the free speech movement.

Good luck, Dr. Adams.

John T. Plecnik (JTP) is a 21-year-old law student at Duke University, where he serves as Senior Note Editor of the Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy. Homeschooled from cradle to college, John graduated from Belmont Abbey at the age of 19. He finished summa cum laude, sharing the title of Valedictorian.