So why would the incredibly right-wing Liberty University (the place where Ted Cruz kicked off his campaign) invite the Democratic challenger to Hillary Clinton to address their students at a mandatory event — during a primary race? This has never been the kind of place where they welcome diversity (they revoked the charter for their student Democratic club), so I think you can figure it out:
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont will address a convocation next month at Liberty University, the evangelical school where the firebrand Senator Ted Cruz kicked off his own presidential campaign.
Liberty University, in Lynchburg, Va., was founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell and has been a requisite stop for many Republican presidential candidates over the years, and for some Democratic gubernatorial candidates in the state. But it is not typically a place that Democratic primary candidates have sought to visit.
“Liberty University was kind enough to invite me to address a convocation and I decided to accept,” Mr. Sanders said in a statement his spokesman provided. “It goes without saying that my views on many issues — women’s rights, gay rights, education and many other issues — are very different from the opinions of some in the Liberty University community. I think it is important, however, to see if we can reach consensus regarding the grotesque level of income and wealth inequality in our country, about the collapse of the middle class, about the high level of childhood poverty, about climate change and other issues.”
I’m a little slow on the uptake sometimes — why would Liberty U want its students to hear from Bernie Sanders? So they can call him a nut? Or so they can have a video that they can pass along to the Republican party for campaign ads? To somehow weaken Hillary? None of it really makes any sense.
Sanders is right — it’s easier to engage people you know will agree with you than people you know will mostly disagree with you. I’ll be curious to see how this plays out.