Former President of Mexico and UKIP Brexit architect to debate at the college: President Byerly urges community to “confront the opinions presented”
Nigel Farage (left) and Vicente Fox (right) share two differing perspectives on the way nations should interact with one another. Photos Courtesy of Gage Skidmore and Flickr
While the college keeps a list of alumni who ask questions about free speech on campus, Lafayette is aiming to achieve more viewpoint diversity in the thoughts presented on campus. Its latest effort is securing a debate between former President of Mexico Vicente Fox and former leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) Nigel Farage on April 6.
The debate is co-sponsored by the Steamboat Institute and the college’s viewpoint-diversity initiative, the Lafayette Symposium, which is funded by President Alison Byerly’s office through the annual budget.
Lafayette’s Colton Chapel will be the last stop on Farage’s and Fox’s “Nationalism vs. Globalism” debate’s Campus Liberty tour, lasting April 2 to 6.
The debate is meant to foster a discussion between Farage, the nationalist architect of the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union (Brexit), and Fox, a globalist who helped pass the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) during his presidential term from 2000-2006. NAFTA allows for free trade between Canada, Mexico and the U.S.
Fox was President of Mexico as a member of the National Action Party, a conservative political group. He worked to fight crime and drug lords in Mexico during his term, but Mexico was left with mixed feelings on his presidency partly due to the passage of NAFTA. Many saw NAFTA as hurting Mexico’s domestic agricultural production, especially for indigenous populations.
Recently, Fox has been in the spotlight for his criticisms of American President Donald Trump. When reports surfaced that Trump referred to African countries as well as Haiti and El Salvador as “shithole countries,” Fox fired back in a tweet, saying that Trump’s mouth was “the foulest shithole in the world.”
He also responded to Trump’s campaign claim that Mexico would pay for a border wall between it and the United States, saying in a YouTube video that Mexico would be doing no such thing.
Farage, the former leader of UKIP from 2006 to 2009 and 2010 to 2016 who successfully pushed for Brexit, has not had such animosity with Trump. On the contrary, Farage has been in support of Trump since before his electoral college win, having spoken at a campaign rally in August 2016 and most recently declaring on Fox News that Trump would be “very welcome” in the U.K.
UKIP’s 2015 manifesto sets goals such as “taking back control of our borders” and removing “funding from public bodies promoting multiculturalism.” The group was described by former Conservative prime minister of the U.K. David Cameron as a “bunch of fruitcakes and loonies and closet racists mostly” in 2006 to LBC radio.
Brexit negotiations are ongoing with the U.K. set to leave officially in March 2019.
The Steamboat Institute awarded government and law professor Brandon Van Dyck a “Courage in Education” award last semester for his work on The Mill Series, an “independent public charity” and speaker series aiming to bring “conservative, libertarian and religious perspectives” to the college, according its website. Bringing the two political figures to campus was something Van Dyck originally brought to the table at Lafayette.
“Last semester, Steamboat proposed to me that The Mill Series host Farage and Fox at Lafayette. I then proposed to President Byerly and Provost [Abu] Rizvi that the college partner with The Mill Series to co-host the debate,” Van dyck wrote in an email, but he added that Byerly thought it best for Lafayette itself to co-host and co-sponsor.
The CEO and chairman of Steamboat is Jennifer Schubert-Akin, who has previously served as Chairman of the Routt County Republican Central Committee, according to her online description. At events such as its annual Freedom Conference, Steamboat has previously hosted speakers including conservative political commentator Ann Coulter, former Republican presidential candidate and current Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, Republican political advisor Karl Rove and former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney.
President Byerly wrote in an email that the college has handled arrangements directly with the Steamboat Institute and is paying the speakers’ fees.
“I believe that the opportunity to hear a debate between two figures of international significance on a topic that is having a profound influence on our world can be of educational value to our students and community,” Byerly wrote in an email. She noted in her campus-wide email how it was unusual for Lafayette itself to sponsor an event, but that this is a “unique” occasion.
“The debate format makes it clear that the invited speakers are not being endorsed or given a special platform,” she added. “On the contrary, the stated goal of the occasion is to challenge and confront the opinions presented.”
cb_constitution, Stanford Law 21' • Apr 6, 2018 at 6:55 pm
I see. So based on your personal biased, unproven commentary, which is neither supported by fact or in your case fiction, we should practice abject censorship and impugn a perspective and viewpoint. Words like “disgraceful”, “white supremacist” – these are defaming and groundless accusations, unsupported by case facts or actual events. Again, much like your parties’ autocrats, you speak from a place of dogma and absolutes, intolerant and exclusionary, yet justified because of your superior sense of morality, which you have so very little to spare these days. So the next time you character assassinate and call people names for lack of a better explanation for your own displaced vitriol, why not make a solid case, based on facts and not your feelings, why someone is not fit to be given a speaking platform. And remember what you were told when you were four, “just use your words”.
A Proud Alumnus • Mar 20, 2018 at 3:21 pm
So, there appears to be two conservatives presenting their thoughts on stage.
One is a respected former elected president from a conservative party (PAN) which, while targeting smaller government and free market principles, also embraced programs to support the rights of his country’s indigenous people.
The second is a conservative who has decidedly used disparaging tactics to collectively condemn whole groups of people in a divisive agenda to win victory at the polls.
Which person is the true conservative and properly expresses the conservative point of view?
Does the second person really deserve a seat at the conservative table ( or any table for that manner)? Are his ideas the kind that need a public platform? Do true conservative really respect this divisive approach to promoting conservative principles? Can conservative principles be promoted without having to resort to disparaging tactics?
Henry • Mar 17, 2018 at 11:19 am
Very thoughtful and brave of Lafayette to host this debate. Fostering free speech and exchange of all ideas should be a mission for academia, which is sadly not the case in many instances nowadays.
- Lafayette '12 • Mar 9, 2018 at 3:45 pm
Giving a white supremacist an audience under the guise of “challenging the opinions presented” is, at the end of the day, still giving them a platform. He has openly admired some of the most disgraceful politicians in America (not just speaking of Trump, but Roy Moore). His hateful views don’t deserve a platform or engagement. Disappointed in you, Lafayette.
Jeremy T • Mar 10, 2018 at 7:46 pm
Source?
Alum • Mar 11, 2018 at 8:07 pm
Any simple Google search will provide multiple credible sources of his beliefs, platforms, and problematic alliances…
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/24/us/politics/nigel-farage-roy-moore.html