01/30/2011
With good justification, Establishment conservatives sounded the alarm after the Giffords shooting that the Left was out to censor them by falsely tying them to the shooter, Jared Loughner.
But when the DHS and the Main Stream Media falsely reported that Jared Taylor’s American Renaissance newsletter was tied to Loughner, Establishment conservatives stayed silent — because they were afraid of being called "racist".
After a few days of hysteria, Politico ran a piece exposing the lie. However, only a handful of outlets who published the original claim ran a retraction. Fox News, the Associated Press, and NY Times all refused. The original false claim is still on Greta Van Susteren’s blog on Fox. Even Politico renegedon running a piece by Taylor on the craziness and Fox News, perhaps the worst offender, would not allow him as a guest.
Even after it was safely refuted, with a few exceptions such as Accuracy in Media, no conservatives or libertarians even reported this outrage, much less defended American Renaissance on civil libertarian grounds alone.
Now, Democratic politicians are blatantly blocking American Renaissance’s biannual conference, long set for Charlotte, NC on February 4-6. But the Conservative Establishment stays silent, as it prepares for the Conservative Political Action Conference (February 10-12), its annual rape of the trusting grassroots.
Tomorrow, January 31, at 1 pm, AmRen's Taylor will hold a press conference in Charlotte to discuss black City Councilman Patrick Cannon’s interference with private contracts to block the American Renaissance Conference — clearly denying AmRen’s basic civil rights of freedom of speech and assembly. (See VDARE.com blog reports here and here).
Over the last few years, the increasing ferocity of attacks leveled against Taylor and American Renaissance has evolved from smears by left wing "watch dog" organizations to outright thuggery and censorship — against which law enforcement authorities are apparently unwilling to protect them.
Memo to the Conservative Establishment: unless you start fighting back, and standing up for pioneers like American Renaissance, this Anarcho-Tyranny is coming for you.
Every two years from 1994 through 2008, American Renaissance’s Taylor has held conferences described by our friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center as "well-attended, suit-and-tie affairs that reflect his international reach." [40 to Watch: Leaders of the Radical Right, Mark Potok and Heidi Beirich, Intelligence Report, Fall 2003]
During these eight conferences, there has never been even an accusation of violence, vandalism, or even a racial slur being yelled at another hotel guest or employee or (richly deserved) a protester.
In 2010 neocon Jeffrey Imm and an assortment of loony lefties led a smear campaign against the hotels, including death threats to the employees. Four separate hotels cancelled contracts, despite the stiff fees they were obliged to pay.
After these experiences, Jared Taylor and AmRen decided to move the conference to Charlotte, North Carolina where there is not as much of a violent "anti-fa" community. ("Anti-fa" is these "anti-Fascist" groups' preferred nickname.)
Taylor made arrangements with the Charlotte Airport Sheraton Hotel, telling it about the past troubles and the controversial nature of the group. As an additional precaution, he did not disclose the location of the conference to the attendees and did not plan on doing so until a few days prior to the event.
But Sheraton abruptly cancelled its contract, with a single email, with less than two weeks before the conference was supposed to begin.
The Sheraton released a statement claiming that "upon learning of the controversy surrounding the organization and the impact that controversy may have on our guests…. [the hotel] promptly notified the organization that its booking has been canceled."
This is a lie. As Taylor responded, "We signed a contract with the hotel more than six months ago. We told them we were controversial, and that there might be protests." [White nationalist leader to discuss hotel cancellation, Charlotte Observer, January 29, 2010]]
He tells me that the manager of the hotel claimed to support AmRen’s rights to freedom of speech and explicitly undertook not to back down under pressure. Now the Sheraton will not respond to Taylor’s phone calls or e-mails.
It turns out that Sheraton had received communication from black City Council Member and Mayor Pro-Tempore Patrick D. Cannon. The Charlotte Observer reported:
"When a white nationalist magazine announced a conference in Charlotte, anarchists and other groups vowed to protest or disrupt the gathering.
"But behind the scenes the conference apparently met an unexpected obstacle: Charlotte City Council member Patrick Cannon.
"An e-mail Cannon sent to a constituent early this week suggested he was lobbying local hotels to refuse to book American Renaissance.
"Cannon wrote that he had contacted hotels and that 'they seem to be cooperating.'
"'An attempt was made for accommodations at another hotel but based on what I ask [sic] to take place they were denied again,' the e-mail said."
Cannon denied that he interfered, stating telling the Observer that he just wanted to "update a constituent on where things stood."
This, again, is clearly a lie — as his e-mail to the constituent makes it clear that the booking being denied is "what I ask[ed] to take place."
Cannon insisted, "By no means would I be in the business of trying to violate someone’s rights." [White nationalists' conference stymied; Host hotel cancels group’s reservation as Charlotte City Council member Patrick Cannon works behind scenes by Fred Clasen-Kelly,Charlotte Observer, January 26, 2011.]
In my opinion, Cannon probably believes he is telling the truth. To Black Democrats, "rights" does not mean hard fought Anglo-Saxon liberties such as freedom of association and freedom of speech. Rather they mean special privileges given to designated victim groups, that are not afforded to Whites, much less "racists". Not giving quotas or not enforcing hate crimes laws is a violation of "rights" — but interfering with private contracts to deny freedom of assembly is not.
One People’s Project, a far-left organization that posts home addresses and phone numbers of those they disagree with and has long advocated shutting down American Renaissance Conferences, has this view of how its actions are consistent with civil rights:
"And before you say it, everyone who opposes AmRen has freedom of speech and association too. People had a right to alert area hotels that this was going to take place and they might not want to have this going on. Hotels have the right to close their doors to unwelcome elements." [HERE WE GO AGAIN! 2011 AMERICAN RENAISSANCE CONFERENCE KICKED OUT OF ONE HOTEL, BLOCKED FROM OTHERS!, One Peoples Project, January 27, 2011]
Tell that to the Heart of Atlanta Motel — first victim of the new theory that the interstate commerce clause allowed the federal government to force integration. A major goal of the Civil Rights movement was exactly to force hotels to open their doors to people they did not want to let in.
Yes, hotels should have the right to deny service to who they want (although what about applying this principle consistently?). However, they should not be able to break contracts because of threats by elected officials.
The Charlotte Observer’s Fred Clasen-Kelly asked two local academics whether or not this constituted a violation of free speech.
Richard Toenjes, associate director of UNC Charlotte’s Center for Professional and Applied Ethics said, correctly:
"If the person used his or her name which would be recognized as the name of a council member, I'd say the member was functioning as a public official and hence out of line interfering with protected free speech".
Scott Huffmon, of Winthrop University was more evasive:
"Alerting the hotels and saying this isn’t good for our image is using the bully pulpit, but not necessarily unethical…If he tried to use the position to cajole, coerce or bully that would be different".[ White nationalists' conference stymied; Host hotel cancels group’s reservation as Charlotte City Council member Patrick Cannon works behind scenes by Fred Clasen-Kelly, Charlotte Observer, January 26, 2011]
Local news station WSOC-TV said that Cannon "feared violent opposition to the group’s presence in the Queen City" and quoted him as saying, "We've always been about trying to be as inclusive as we possibly can be, and I will tell you when you have extreme groups on any side coming, it should raise a red flag." [White Nationalist Group Banned From Charlotte Hotel, WSOC-TV, January 27, 2011]
This seems to be an acknowledgement that he is not really worried about violence coming from American Renaissance attendees — given their track record, he had no reason to — but by violent left-wing protesters.
This raises the question: why doesn’t he use his "bully pulpit", as an as an African American Democrat, to tell these left wing "anti-racist" activists to respect other’s rights?
Of course these commonsense questions are never asked by the Main Stream Media. In fact, outside of the local Charlotte media and publications like VDARE.com and AlternativeRight, absolutely no one is even mentioning the cancellation of the conference.
A commenter on one of the Charlotte Observer’s pieces said: "Sheraton must have thought this was a branch of the Tea Party when they accepted. They may be right."
To the Left, all conservatives are racists. Look at how the $PLC moved on from focusing on allegedly violent groups like the Ku Klux Klan (if it ever did) to peaceful advocacy groups like American Renaissance (and VDARE.com) to mainstream patriotic immigration reform groups like FAIR to now attacking social conservative groups like the Family Research Council as "hate groups." Outright censorship follows shortly behind.
Establishment conservatives who think they can ignore the repression of American Renaissance are W-R-O-N-G.
But then, they're always wrong — how else did the left come to dominate the culture?
Alexander Hart is a conservative journalist.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.