Ann Coulter stirs emotion in student body

As a technical institute, Stevens at first glance may not seem to appear politically active. However, the Stevens Institute of Technology College Republicans chapter hosted American conservative social Ann Coulter yesterday evening to jump-start conversation regarding politics.

Charles Shotmeyer, President of the College Republicans, commented “Most people would agree that Stevens is politically asleep. That’s why we brought Ann Coulter to campus.”

After her introduction, Coulter joked “You all thought I was here to talk about Brian Williams and ISIS.” She warned the audience, “ISIS poses no threat to America… as long as you don’t go to Syria.” Instead, she dove directly into her opinions regarding President Obama’s recent proposed immigration amnesty.

As it stands, the proposed immigration amnesty would benefit the 12 to 20 million undocumented illegal immigrants currently living in the United States. Coulter argued that amnesty will be an incorrigible mistake on the government’s doing and is actually devastating the low-income Americans.

Coulter believes that it is impossible to discuss immigration policy with Democrats. “We can’t have a rational discussion about immigration because Democrats will use that magical ‘racist’ word. Amnesty is going to hurt the low-income, African-American communities in America.” As a conservative, Coulter is critical of Democrats and Republicans alike. “I don’t understand why Republicans are helping them… Democrats just want the votes, Republicans want the campaign cash, and rich people want cheap labor.” She articulated that immigrants are the biggest supporters of big government, and therefore fuel the Democratic party. “Democrats care about immigrants only until they place their vote.

Coulter fears that amnesty will be the end of politics. Speaking directly to the technical students in the audience, she said half-jokingly, “You’re all engineers so maybe you won’t care. But if Republicans do not block Obama’s federal amnesty, there will be no reason to care about politics anymore.”

Coulter also went into detail regarding her views on the Affordable Healthcare Act. “For those who have an Obama-care waiver, you have no idea what is coming.” She believes that the current healthcare system is a “giant welfare program designed to look like healthcare.” She finds the system to be completely flawed, and argued that it is “mathematically impossible” to cover all of the costs that Obama-care currently encompasses. She verbalized her disappointment in the passing of the healthcare legislation. “Never has such a major piece of legislation been passed purely on party lines.”

Dino Favetta, Class of ’80 and adjunct professor at Stevens, agreed with Ms. Coulter’s perspective regarding healthcare. “Healthcare is an absolute socialist poison, bordering on communism. I agree with Ms. Coulter with respect to the healthcare system and how it is not benefiting anyone.”

Her solution? “The free market, where everything in the history of time, over time, gets better and cheaper, whereas everything provided by the government gets more expensive and worse.” She provided examples of free market solutions, such as the flat-screen TV, cell phones, Netflix, and air travel. “We need to get our healthcare on the system that created the iPhone and FedEx.” She blames Democrats for not recognizing the problems at large. “Mollusks can learn from what is in front of them. Clearly, Democrats cannot.”

Coulter ended her own presentation and opened the floor for questions from the audience. Slowly, students stepped up to the microphone to question the 10-time New York Times Best-Selling Author. Stevens student Hart Welles asked Coulter about robots taking jobs. She responded, “I’m all for it because it’s technology… I don’t have to pay welfare for robots.”

Another student questioned Coulter about whether her ideas about gender and race are bona-fide or just a method of getting attention. Ms. Coulter paused and said, “I don’t think my opinions are controversial. I do think we should take the women’s right to vote away, so maybe that’s controversial.” She clarified that denying women’s suffrage was a joke, however she did state, “women who have liberal ideals should not be able to vote.”

A Chinese student posed the question “If liberals and democrats all turned over to a more Republican and conservative view, do you think this country would improve?” to which Coulter replied, “I’d rather take the Chinese approach and kill them all.” Ms. Coulter did much to show the audience her stance on liberalism, and has dedicated several of her works including Demonic: How the Liberal Mob is Changing America and her newest book, Never Trust a Liberal Over Three—Especially a Republican.

After the Q&A session ended, Ms. Coulter thanked the audience and ended her time at Stevens with a book signing. Several students lingered in Bissinger, either to discuss Ms. Coulter’s opinions or to debate amongst themselves. TJ Walters, a Stevens undergraduate student, disagreed with much of what Ms. Coulter stands for: “I don’t agree with how she doesn’t view people as equals. Why shouldn’t you be allowed to vote if you have liberal ideals?”