Malkin fires up PSU republicans

Portland’s political minority—conservatives and libertarians alike—found camaraderie on Friday when they welcomed a prominent right-wing media voice to Portland State.

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Michelle Malkin, conservative blogger, author and Fox News commentator, addresses a receptive crowd on campus. The event was organized by the College Republicans group four days before the election.

Michelle Malkin addressed a crowd of seniors and scattered college youth in the Smith Memorial Student Union, focusing on the snobbery and elitist attitude she claims the left maintains.

The event, titled “Culture of Corruption: How Obama’s Hope and Change was Dead on Arrival,” was organized by PSU’s small College Republicans group.

“You cannot make it up with these people [liberals],” Malkin said to whoops and claps. “They’re beyond Onion parody.”

Beginning her lecture with memories of her college days at Oberlin College in Ohio, Malkin described how she felt isolated as a conservative in a charged liberal environment.

“I saw firsthand how intolerant, bigoted and close-minded the progressive movement really is,” she said.

Malkin spoke of the “redneck style” racism that she experienced during her upbringing in rural South Jersey.

“None of that compared to the kind of condescending, entitlement mentality that I saw during the rise of multicultural studies, ethnic departments and straight-out apartheid on liberal campuses that was done by social engineers in the name of equality and progressive values,” she said.

Malkin went on to describe how she had been automatically assigned to Asia House, a residence hall at Oberlin, and paired with a Chinese-American girl from California because her maiden name was Maglalang.

“What? As if I had anything in common with her,” Malkin said.

“They look at our eye shape, they look at our skin color and they presume that they own us,” she added.

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Crowd members applaud Michelle Malkin’s speech at Friday’s event.

In her speech, Malkin also railed against Obama’s handling of the Benghazi embassy attack, the administration’s immigration policies, “Obamacare” and other conservative talking points.

“I can’t have four more years of this,” she said to thunderous cheers and applause. “Can you?”

Malkin did acknowledge that she was not a major supporter of the Republican presidential candidate. “I’ll admit Mitt Romney wasn’t my top candidate,” she said. “But he’s a lot better than what we’ve had.”

Speaking particularly to college students, Malkin explained how her Oberlin education had backfired on her, saying, “PSU is backfiring on the next generation of conservative activists.”

During a question-and-answer period, several students related to Malkin’s college experience and asked questions about how to respond to professors with anti-conservative prejudices.

One student even went as far to say that she was worried about her grades because of her political opinion.

Brittany Zika, a senior English major, described her experience at PSU’s predominantly-liberal college campus as horrible. “I feel constantly berated, marginalized and silenced,” she said.

The atmosphere of the lecture, named after Malkin’s New York Times best-selling book, was more a rally for Portland’s conservative political minority than geared toward her specific work.

Various Oregon Republican candidates were in attendance, such as James Buchal, who is running for the office of Oregon attorney general. Fliers and brochures were passed around.

Prior to Malkin’s speech, several bystanders pointed out the number of Republican supporters who were attending the event, a type of crowd one doesn’t usually see on PSU campus.

“I think because it is so close to the election, people are really fired up,” said Jared Dubois, a senior political science major who is part of the PSU College Republicans group.

“I’ve followed Michelle Malkin for a long time, even when I was younger, so it’s a big deal for me,” he added.

Malkin, who was born in Philadelphia to Filipino parents she described as Reagan supporters who were not particularly politically active, has worked in the media as a political commentator for Fox News in addition to running a personal blog.

She has also written several books, including Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies as well as the more controversial piece, In Defense of Internment, which makes a case for racial profiling.

Malkin frequently encouraged the audience to be more active in shaping the public political narrative by blogging and speaking out.

“Everyone is a citizen journalist,” she said. “We are our own checks and balances on the government.”