I imagine that just about everyone out there has seen the video of the free speech outrage committed against Minuteman spokesman Jim Gilchrist at Columbia University. Well, get a load of this video of a similar outrage committed by BAMN (By Any Means Necessary), the radical organization trying to keep the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (which bans preferences) off the ballot. (You’ll see a description of what’s happening just above the video.)

We need to pay more attention to the courageous and important campaign being waged against preferences via the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI). Right now, this matter is in the hands of the voters of Michigan. Yet the battle over MCRI has national implications. As The Chronicle of Higher Education says in a major new (subscriber restricted) piece on MCRI, “It’s passage in November could inspire similar campaigns in other states, reviving a political movement that has been dormant since the late 1990′s, when it became apparent that the Supreme Court would soon take up the question….”

The intimidation we see in that BAMN video is real. And unfortunately, intimidation works. BAMN’s tactics have surely alienated some moderate voters, yet the Chronicle reports that the courageous Ward Connerly is now so exhausted and beaten down from his heroic efforts in Michigan that he is unlikely to introduce a similar initiative in another state any time soon. So while passage of MCRI will surely reopen the national fight against preferences, the violent and intimidating tactics of BAMN’s thugs have borne fruit. Remember, this is an organization whose very name (By Any Means Necessary) threatens violence.

I say Ward Connerly is a hero, whether he ever runs another state initiative or not. Connerly shouldn’t have to bear all the burden here. The real problem is that this one great man has been asked to do too much on his own. In Michigan, the only organizations fighting for the MCRI have been the one run by the courageous Jennifer Gratz (Go here to read more and/or to donate.) along with various campus Republican and Young Americans for Freedom groups. This is important and difficult work, which we need to publicly acknowledge. The typical college Republican activity of “affirmative action bake sales” (where cookies and pies cost more or less depending on your race or sex) are educational and fun. But fighting for the MCRI in a nationally significant battle, when no one else will step up to the plate, means that college Republicans have finally hit the big time. And if MRCI wins, college Republicans and YAF organizations in other states may someday get the chance to make a difference as well.

Sure, I wish Michigan’s Republican office holders were standing up for MCRI. Unfortunately, as in every other state where one of Ward Connerly’s initiatives has come up, Republican office holders are afraid to take a stand, for fear of alienating moderate voters. Does that make me want to stay home on election day? No way! Sure, Republican office holders are afraid of hot button issues like racial preferences. But what happens when the Democrats get in? I’ll tell you what happens. Democrats appoint and approve the liberal judges who allow so-called affirmative action to gain a foothold to begin with. And those are exactly the sort of judges BAMN has gone to trying to keep MRCI off the ballot. Oh what fools we are if we stay home on election day and let the Democrats take back control of this nations judiciary!

When it comes to affirmative action, Republican wishy washiness notwithstanding, there is an ocean’s worth of difference between the way Democratic and Republican office holders handle this issue. Just this year, the Bush Department of Justice put a stop to a minority hiring quota in the Pontiac Michigan fire department. I still remember how the Clinton administration turned Title IX into a quota on women’s sports. If Hillary becomes co-president again, her appointees will try to expand Title IX into a quota limiting male admissions to schools of engineering and departments of mathematics. So let’s give recognition and support to the courageous few doing battle in Michigan against reverse discrimination.