Quick Review: This documentary, about (but *not* by) Michael Moore being scheduled to speak at an unusually conservative college campus in Utah, left me swimming in thoughts about the state of our nation.

On an evening when Americans traditionally think about Ireland, I
ended up thinking intensely about America and Americans. Kynthia and
I departed early from a fun gathering of particularly open-minded
friends in order to see [The Ryder Film
Series](http://theryder.com/)’s screening of [*This Divided
State*](http://www.thisdividedstate.com/) at the Buskirk Chumley
Theater.

The film is a documentary *about* Michael Moore’s scheduled visit to
[Utah Valley State College](http://www.uvsc.edu/) (UVSC). The film was *not* made by
Michael Moore. Indeed, it’s not even very much about him. The only
bits of Michael Moore we see are clips of his public appearances
during the visit. The film *is* about UVSC and its hometown of Orem,
Utah. The first thing that struck me about the story was just how
different the campus seemed from anything I was familiar with. In a
word: very conservative. Neither of the post-secondary schools that
I’ve attended are known for being particularly liberal, and my visits
to other college/university campuses have corroborated the idea that
they are not. But, wow, the picture painted of UVSC in this film is *really*
conservative.

In a [previous
post](http://davidernst.net/blog/2006/02/09/ann-coulter-just-dont-go/)
I expressed support for conservative commetator Ann Coulter’s speaking
engagement at IU, and implored those who disagree with her to simply
stay away from the venue rather than be disruptive. This is what I
did. Sadly, though, as I feared, [many Coulter detractors did disrupt
the
event](http://www.idsnews.com/news/story.php?adid=search&id=34257),
and, apparently the [controversy continued long after the event
ended](http://www.idsnews.com/news/story.php?adid=search&id=34349).
It’s probably still going on.

*sigh*

On the vast majority of political issues, Ms. Coulter and I are
extremely opposed. However, I recognize her as a nationally known
author and commentator, and I support Universities being places where
the opinions of such people can be heard. Having taken that stance in
that case, it was very easy to feel indignation as the movie displayed
the tactics of many of the conservatives in Orem trying to keep
Michael Moore out of their town. The similarities and differences of
the two cases were fascinating. The detractors in both cases accused
the scheduled speakers of lying, fueling hate, spreading bigotry, and
of being evil. The similarity in much of the rhetoric should be
enough to give anyone pause. (“Do I ever sound like that? Is anyone
who sounds like that really approaching an issue with an open mind?”).
In both cases there were questions raised about the amounts of money
spent on the speakers. I’m sure there were other similarities that
I’m not remembering.

But the differences were also striking. The Moore detractors in Orem
were obviously far more motivated and more organized. They offered to
buy out the speaking engagement. They demanded the resignation of the
Student Body officials who booked Moore. They arranged that celebrity
conservative [Sean Hannity](http://www.hannity.com/) speak on campus
prior to Moore’s visit. And, in the end, they filed a legal suit
against the Student Body officials who booked Moore.

The basic position of these activists seemed to be “this speaker
disagrees with the values of this community, and therefore should not
be welcomed here.” Now, I do think there’s a case to be made that not
all speakers are invited to all campuses, and it’s worth discussing
whether any particular speaker is a good choice. But, the activists
in the film make it quite clear that the conflict is about ideology.
One of the activists goes so far as to claim that being exposed to
“evil” ideas will likely make his own children turn “evil”.

I feel visceral pain hearing this attitude espoused. I am such a
believer in free speech that I cannot believe that anyone who feels
proud to be a citizen of this nation is so afraid of ideas and
speech.

However, I sense the same general attitude from the other side of the
political spectrum. Watching the film, I found myself feeling
positively about anyone who was civil and open-minded and negatively
about anyone who was rude and restrictive. I don’t see this as a
matter of being in the political “center”. It’s more like a sense that
there’s a different way to divide the population into political
parties: those who want civil debate and dialog on the one hand, and
those who want ideas silenced on the other. I sure know which of
those groups I belong to.

By the way, it’s worth noting that the film showed no right-wing folks
interrupting Moore’s speech. Rather, the only people to heckle Moore
were supporters of Ralph Nader. The film made them look stupid, I
thought, and I don’t think filmmakers had much to do with that besides
including the footage of them. Those protesters can have the
satisfaction of knowing that some people are now aware that some
people on the far left felt that Moore betrayed Nader and “sold out”.
I already knew that. What else did that outburst accomplish? I can’t
think of anything. The left has got to rethink its tactics. At least
the anger-mongers on the right are a force to be reckoned with, and
you have to respect their organization even if it is for a very bad
cause. I didn’t see anything worth respecting in the tactics of these
Nader supporters.

In any event, anyone who cares about the political landscape in the US
right now should find this film to be very thought-provoking. The
action takes place in 2004, and it was hard to reopen some of the
emotions I felt about the election that year. But it also served as
good reflection. I certainly hope the Democrats can run better
campaigns this year than they did that year. We’ll see.

I must say that I found some of the film-making techniques to be
amateurish. I could imagine the same filmmakers making some very bad
films. But, my hat is off to them for recognizing early on that the
actions going on at UVSC in 2004 were worth documenting. They were
right, and they collecting some great footage. The film is a welcome
addition to our national debate.