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Smerconish

Is It Time For Open Primaries. No Conservatives As Commencement Speakers?. Aired 9-10a ET

Aired May 23, 2026 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:00:41]

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN ANCHOR: It's America's primary problem. I'm Michael Smerconish in the Philly burbs.

Cassidy, Massie and Fetterman, it sounds like a law firm or a triple play combination, but those three names tell you everything you need to know about what's broken in American politics right now. Louisiana two term Senator Bill Cassidy was defeated in Saturday's Republican primary. Yes, it was a Trump loyalty test. The president settled a score with Cassidy, who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment.

But there's a deeper story here. Louisiana didn't always have closed party primaries. For 50 years, it ran a jungle system. Every candidate on one ballot, top two, advance regardless of party. And that's how Cassidy built coalitions that included Independents and moderate Democrats.

Then the state legislature killed it, partly as the Washington Post points out, to get rid of Cassidy. And it worked. Now each party has their own primary. And while anyone may vote in it, unaffiliated voters have to pick a side and stick to it through the runoff, cutting down on the crossover vote.

And it's not just Louisiana, it's a national pattern and both parties are guilty. California Democrats are pushing to eliminate their jungle primary. Alaska Republicans are trying to get rid of both ranked choice voting and an open primary. This in a state with over 60 percent Independent voters. Tennessee adding a loyalty oath signed under penalty of perjury, requiring voters to declare allegiance to the party whose primary it is. And in Washington, D.C. Democrats are simply ignoring a 2024 referendum that voters pass to open their primaries.

So both parties, when it suits them, they want the same thing, a vice grip like on who decides who gets nominated. Which brings us to Tuesday and the second name in this law firm, Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie. In office since 2012, he lost his primary. Massie was in Trump's crosshairs for having called for the release of the Epstein files and condemned the war in Iran. Trump endorsed former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein, who won the primary by almost 10 points. It was the most expensive House primary in American history, an estimated $32 million having been spent. Kentucky, a closed primary state. Registered Independents could not vote. And here's the thing, 75 percent of new voters in Kentucky last year, they registered as Independent.

In an open primary, Massie's cross partisan independence, it might have been an asset. In a closed primary system, it's a liability.

And now the third case study. First term Democratic Senator John Fetterman. Pennsylvania, currently a closed primary state, Independents don't get to vote in the party primaries.

Consider this number. A February 2026 Quinnipiac poll found that 73 percent of Pennsylvania Republicans approve of John Fetterman's job performance, compared to just 22 percent of Democrats in his own party. This despite the fact that he votes with his party 93 percent of the time. Let me say it again, he's more popular with the other party than his own. He almost certainly cannot survive a competitive Democratic primary in 2028.

But in an open primary Pennsylvania, he might. And arguably we don't have to wait until 2028 to see how this all plays out. Because just this week, Chris Rabb, a self-described Democratic socialist, won an upset victory in the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania's third congressional district. He got almost 45 percent of the vote. A key fact, there's no Republican in the race.

So Rabb is going to go to Washington having never faced a single Independent or Republican voter. Two more centrist candidates finished second and third. They received a combined vote of over 53 percent. The majority they chose differently, but the system just didn't care.

Now that's an extreme example of a common situation. In most congressional districts across the country, the primary is the only election that matters. It's worth noting that the fastest growing block of voters in Pennsylvania, those registering with no party affiliation. Since 2000, that number has more than doubled. And those registered in minor parties, if you add them in, you've got 1.5 million Pennsylvanians who are not registered as these or ours can't vote in primaries.

[09:05:16]

They're enough to determine many an election in this swing state. At present, both the Pennsylvania House and Senate are considering bills to allow Independent voters to participate in primaries. And this week, Democratic governor Josh Shapiro announced that he's open to getting a bill on his desk to open up the primaries. As he should, a Franklin and Marshall College poll shows that over 3/4 of Pennsylvanians favor an open primary.

And it's not just my state. According to Gallup, in 2025, a record high, 45 percent of U.S. adults self-identified as Independents, while equal shares just 27 percent identified as Republicans or Democrats. More than half of Gen Z and millennial voters are Independent. Voters are leaving both parties in droves. 10 States, 10 states have more registered Independents than any other group.

Full disclosure, I've got skin in this game. I'm the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit to open up the primary system in my home state of Pennsylvania. So when I tell you that this matters, understand that I believe it enough to put my name on it in court. Closed primaries may just have cost Bill Cassidy and Thomas Massie their offices. And unless something changes, they could cost Fetterman the Democratic nomination for the Senate in 2028.

The logic is simple, when more vote, when more choose, we water down the influence of the fringes. Independents should be able to vote in primary elections. That's not a partisan argument. Both sides prove it.

I want to know what you think. I want to compare those watching to that Gallup survey. So I'm asking today at smerconish.com, do you identify as a political Independent? We'll give you the results at the end of the hour.

Joining me now is senior vice president at Open Primaries, lawyer, writer, nationally recognized public policy advocate, Jeremy Gruber.

Jeremy, we are kindred spirits. OK? So I've got to play devil's advocate. You and I agree on this. Some are watching and they're saying, hey, anybody can vote in a closed primary, just join the party.

What do you say to them?

JEREMY GRUBER, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AT OPEN PRIMARIES: Imagine if the Republican Party sold voters that only Republicans could vote or Democratic voters that only Democratic voters could vote in their primaries, it is wrong. To be able to vote in an election, in a public, taxpayer funded election, everybody should have access, period. You shouldn't have to change who you are in America today in order to vote, period.

SMERCONISH: For the Lincoln Institute, Lowman Henry wrote the following. We'll put it up on the screen and I'll read it aloud. "As a registered Republican and one who has been active in the Republican Party my entire adult life, I do not want Democrats or anyone not a member of the Republican Party deciding any our standard bearer. Open primaries would in fact deprive us of the ability to select candidates who adhere to the principles and policies for which our party stands." Respond to that.

GRUBER: You know, Michael, 100 years ago, party bosses were picking who got elected and stayed in office. Primaries were a form enacted by the voters to ensure they had the ability to decide who represented them. Now the parties have co-opted that. But these are our elections. We pay for them.

We run them. Our government runs them. And they should be open to every American.

SMERCONISH: OK. So I get the argument because I make it. Hey, it's like Reagan in New Hampshire. Mr. Breen, I paid for this microphone, I think he said. I make that pitch as well, that I'm an Independent, but I'm paying in part for the staging of elections in my home state. I guess the response would be to say just because the state is picking up the tab, that doesn't mean they should interfere and determine who gets to vote in an election of one party or the other.

GRUBER: But it's not the party's elections. See, that's the problem. The framing that the parties have created, this fiction that it's their elections, it's not their elections. They're our elections. We created primaries.

We pay for primaries. We, the voters, run primaries. And closed party primaries are creating this polarization in our country that is at complete odds with who we are. Half of Americans aren't able to vote in closed primaries. Half of Americans, we don't have to run our elections that way.

[09:10:04]

We can change the rules so that they include all of us. That is the American way.

SMERCONISH: OK, here's another criticism.

GRUBER: You know, we're in a --

SMERCONISH: So you heard me say -- you heard me say in my opening today that we've got to water down the fringes and when more people participate, we water down the fringes and open primaries can do that. A critic would say, where's the evidence? California has had jungle primaries since Arnold put them on the books. Has it really changed anything in California or anywhere else? What's your response to that?

GRUBER: My response is that when you let all voters vote, anything becomes possible. California enacted open primaries at a time when they couldn't pass a balanced budget, they had to kick their former governor out of office. He couldn't run the state. The state was on fire. People forget how bad California has sunk.

Open primaries are not a panacea. They're not going to fix everything. But when you let every voter vote, new things are possible.

You know, we're in this era, Michael, of what I like to call trickle down democracy. The parties have taken away all the power from the voters of who gets elected and stay in office. And then they're saying, trust us, just trust us that it'll benefit you.

It's not benefiting me, and I'm sure it's not benefiting most Americans watching this program today. We need a new direction, one that lets every voter vote in every election. That's the American way.

SMERCONISH: Jeremy Gruber, thank you for your thoughts. I appreciate it. And to everybody at home, I'm curious as to what your reaction might be, including the poll question. Here's some social media reaction. Follow me on X. Pretending to be an Independent is nonsense. All it says is that you are withholding your position.

Minds, drawing minds, I so disagree with that. There's this perception that has been allowed to take hold that if you're Independent, well, you stay -- either you're lying, OK, because of course you lean one way or the other, or you stand for nothing because how could you possibly have any decided views? I have decided views on everything. They just don't line neatly up into those four faux ideological boxes for which there's, you know, there's no connection. And yet because you're on the right, you're assumed to be a number of things. And if you're on the left, you're assumed to be a number of things, when in fact, I believe that for most Americans it's a mixed bag, so why shouldn't they be better represented.

How many of you identify as an Independent? That's the simple poll question today. On this Memorial Day weekend, I want to know. Do you identify as a political Independent? Go to smerconish.com and tell me the answer.

I'll reveal at the end of the hour. And we'll do a comparison to that Gallup survey where the number was 45 percent.

Up ahead, who I believe delivered the real DNC autopsy this week and a member of Congress says he's going to kill President Trump's plan to establish a $1.8 billion fund to compensate victims of government weaponization. The surprise, he's a Republican and he's here next.

Sign up for the newsletter when you're voting at smerconish.com. You'll get the editorial work of Steve Breen and Eric Allie.

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[09:17:41]

SMERCONISH: Now for the latest on the backlash to the $1.8 billion "Anti-Weaponization" Fund set up to compensate what acting Attorney General Todd Blanche described as victims of lawfare and weaponization. In other words, people who claim they were unfairly targeted by the federal government. By Thursday, the announcement led to a GOP rebellion in the Senate, where a vote on a major immigration bill was delayed as senators turned their attention to the fund. On Friday, the president addressed the controversy in a Truth Social post, saying, "I gave up a lot of money in allowing the just announced "Anti-Weaponization" fund to go forward. I could have settled my case, including the illegal release of my tax returns and the equally illegal break in of Mar-a-Lago for an absolute fortune.

Instead, I am helping others who were so badly abused by an evil, corrupt and weaponized Biden administration receive at long last justice."

In the House, the leading Republican critic of the fund is Bucks County, Pennsylvania Representative Brian Fitzpatrick, who's drafting a bipartisan bill that aims to do away with it for good. Here's what he had to say to me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SMERCONISH: Congressman, thank you so much for being here. I thought I learned in civics class a long time ago that Congress controls the purse strings. Is that true? And if so, how can the president allocate 1.8 billion for this purpose?

REP. BRIAN FITZPATRICK (R-PA): Yes, it's a great question, Michael. And that's the subject of the questions that we put forward to Mr. Blanche with a tight turnaround. We want to know what, you know, where this money was appropriated from, what account specifically DOJ is it being pulled from, and what legal authority do they have to do so? You know, I think it's important that we get to the genesis of the source of funding because once we learn that, it'll tell us what our jurisdiction is in terms of remedial measures either to block it or to reverse it and fix it.

Congress does the appropriating. The executive branch of government does not have any money on its own. Every dollar that the executive branch possesses comes from Article 1. It comes from Congress through the appropriations process. So that's the first question is where is this money being pulled from?

Number two, what legal authority do they have to do it separate, apart from, you know, whether it even makes sense? We want to know the origins so we know how to fix it.

SMERCONISH: You're a former FBI agent, Congressman, it can't sit well with you that there's -- even the remotest of possibility that someone who tangled with law enforcement on January 6th could be compensated.

[09:20:13]

FITZPATRICK: Of course it's absurd. And that's why we're stopping it. That's why we're not going to let it happen. It's absurd on its face. I think everybody that's, you know, objective and viewing this through objective eyes knows that it's absurd.

And it's our job in Congress to not just sit by. We got to -- we got to step forward and, you know, reclaim our authority under Article 1, especially when it comes to appropriations. That's chiefly the responsibility, the constitutional authority of Congress. We control the money that comes in and out, both through taxation and through appropriations. And if the American taxpayer dollar is being used in a way that the American taxpayer does not consent to and does not approve of, and this certainly falls squarely within that category, it's our job to make sure that we ask the questions, identify what the source is so we can nip this problem in the bud.

SMERCONISH: The President said something to your fiancee relative to your voting. I think it was at Andrews.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you have a problem with Prime Minister Netanyahu?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When her husband votes against me all the time. Can you imagine? I don't know what's with him. You better ask him what's with him. Her husband, she's married to a certain congressman.

He votes again -- he likes voting against Trump. You know what happens with that? Doesn't work out well. I don't know why he does.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SMERCONISH: What response do you have to what the president said to your fiancee? My reaction when I heard it was to say, I don't think that the president understands your congressional district. Having been born and raised in that congressional district, people appreciate independence. He may have just done Brian Fitzpatrick a favor for the fall. That's obviously occurred to you.

FITZPATRICK: Now everybody's entitled to speak their mind and offer their opinions and I certainly respect everybody's right to do that. It's my job to represent my district. I know you're very familiar with our district, Michael, Bucks and Montgomery counties in Pennsylvania, very, very Independent minded people. Amazing people that live in that district who demand independent minded representatives and I'm certainly one of those and I'm going to do my job. I've heard from and talked to many people about this issue. They've made clear where they stand and I'm going to reflect their voice on the floor of the House and through, you know, legislation that we are introducing.

I think the bigger question is what impact will it have on the actions of members of Congress who are subject to all sorts of criticism from all different people.

SMERCONISH: A final question on this. I've heard the criticism of Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick. They say some, well, he'll vote against the president when the president really doesn't need the vote so that he can proclaim his independence. On this issue, you're out in front. I mean, it's not as if there's been a calculus and you can decide whether you can afford to be against him.

You're on the vanguard in this case. How come?

FITZPATRICK: Well, the critics are always going to spat out their talking points, Michael. I know you're probably victim of that all the time as well, right?

SMERCONISH: Right.

FITZPATRICK: You're a very centrist guy, and I'm sure you get attacked from the left and the right. That's no different from me. I get, you know, attacked from the right all the time. I get attacked from the left all the time. But my view of this job, I feel very strongly about this, is that our job is to call balls and strikes, strip away ideology, strip away party label and do your job.

And I also, you know, Michael, view things in terms of legacy more than the here and now. I know, you know, my brother Mike, we lost him way too soon. One of the many lessons my brother Mike taught me was, and I talked to him about this when he was literally on his deathbed, he said, when you make every decision in life, put yourself in my shoes when you're looking back at life and the decisions you made. So things like this, I mean, it's easy, right? I mean, it's a bad policy, it's a bad idea, it's bad for our country.

And I'm going to step up and I'm going to do the right thing. You know, it's that simple for me.

SMERCONISH: Yes. Your brother was a fine guy. I'm glad that you raised that.

Thank you, Congressman. We appreciate it.

FITZPATRICK: You bet, Michael. Thank you.

SMERCONISH: Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SMERCONISH: A little footnote here, just some local history, you've heard a lot of these names. I think Brian Fitzpatrick represents the first congressional district. When I was coming of age, politically, it was the eighth. It's always been a competitive district. Back in the '80s, there were a couple of epic battles between a progressive name, Peter Kostmayer, a businessman named Jim Coyne, they traded the seat back and forth.

If it sounds familiar, it's because history then repeated itself. Democrat Patrick Murphy was able to defeat Mike Fitzpatrick, Brian's brother, and then Mike won the seat back before Brian Fitzpatrick claimed the seat from his brother. And now Democrats have nominated a county commissioner. His name is Bob Harvie to face Brian.

Bucks is a genuine presidential barometer. Bush 41 carried it in '88, then it went Democrat for a number of presidential cycles. Trump was able to win it in 2024 by a hair. So think about it. Clinton, Biden, Trump, the county has called the popular vote winner each of those times. And those voters, they don't respond well to outside pressure, which is why I said to the representative that when the president calls him out, it probably helps him in the fall.

[09:25:19]

Let's see what you're saying at home via social media. You can find me on X. You can find me in all the usual social media platforms. Rather than getting thoughts on the fund from public, why not call Carter Page and ask his thoughts? One of many of those lives destroyed over the Russian collusion fake story.

Hey, Anne, I am not denying the fact that there's been a weaponization. Don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I don't -- I'm not denying that there's been a weaponization of the legal process in certain instances. And Carter Page is one of them. I haven't spoken to him for a long time, but I interviewed him here many, many times and I agree with you.

But somebody storming the Capitol, somebody who breached the Capitol, somebody who -- do I even need to say this? Somebody who was violent toward law enforcement on January 6 at the Capitol? That is such an easy call to say they should never be compensated. And I don't understand why Todd Blanche didn't say that. So as to salve.

Ted Cruz, I think I read this at the Hill this morning early said that they were screaming at the acting attorney general this week on the -- behind closed doors at the Capitol. I mean, that's a layup. Why didn't he simply say, of course not? Someone violent toward law enforcement, they'll never be compensated?

I want to remind you, go to my website at smerconish.com. Answer today's poll question. I'm curious. I'm polling you. I want to know, do you identify as a political Independent?

Yes or no? It's a simple up or down. We're going to have a percentage at the end of the hour and I'm going to compare it to Gallup because Gallup in a scientific survey says that number is 45 percent across the country.

Still to come, your social media reaction to my take earlier in the program. And also I want to say something about the long awaited release of that DNC autopsy. I'm going to get to that. Plus, as graduation season turned into disinvitation season with campuses afraid of controversial and conservative commencement speakers, those are two different things, our universities caving now to the loudest voices.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The rise of artificial intelligence is the next industrial revolution. What happened?

OK, I struck a record.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[09:32:11]

SMERCONISH: Washington spent the week picking apart the Democratic Party's long awaited 2024 autopsy, a document so riddled with errors and omissions that DNC chair Ken Martin released it while simultaneously disowning it. Martin called it, quote, "not ready for prime time."

The report skips Biden's debate collapse. It ignores Kamala Harris' nomination. Somehow contains not a single mention of Israel or Gaza. The man hired to write it hadn't worked on a presidential campaign in over two decades, and never interviewed the principals. This is the document that Democrats waited 18 months for.

Meanwhile, the real autopsy arrived just 21 days ago, and it came from a hospice room. Barney Frank died on Tuesday, but the sharp tongued Massachusetts congressman, who spent four decades in the arena, gave "The New York Times" an exit interview as he was dying. No consultants, no message testing, just a man with nothing left to lose and everything left to say.

And Barney Frank put it plainly. He said, the Democrats have allowed the perception to take hold that the entire party is committed to, quote, "a series of very drastic social reconstructions that go beyond the politically acceptable."

He said most mainstream colleagues privately agree, but they stay silent, fearing primary challenges from the left. He knew something about winning unpopular fights. Barney Frank helped lead the gay rights movement, and he noted that advocates were strategic about sequencing.

They started with the most broadly acceptable battles, gays in the military, employment protections. They saved, same sex marriage for last once public support had been built. And his analogy today is transgender rights. Lead with it. And you lose. Sequence it properly and you've got a chance.

The problem with today's left, Barney Frank said, is they want everything as a litmus test, and they want it immediately, forcing mainstream liberals to sign on before public opinion has moved, guaranteeing defeat.

Barney Frank wasn't offering a critique. He was offering a roadmap. The DNC paid for a flawed report from a D.C. insider. The real diagnosis came for free from a dying man who no longer had anything to fear. Democrats should be embarrassed that it took hospice and an interview with Barney Frank to tell them what they already knew or should have known.

Now, here's what some of you are saying during the course of today's program so far. From the world of X.

I'm an independent, and if I wanted to vote in a closed primary, I would simply register under that party. There. Problem solved.

Troy, why should you have to? Why should you have to? Why should you have to now fashion yourself as an R or a D so as to participate in that democratic process, which is going to determine the choices that you'll have in the general election? You know, I could have said something better at the outset of the program today.

[09:35:01]

I got a note, a text from Heather Manchin. You know, Joe Manchin, Joe's daughter Heather. And she gave me a note, which is a way to improve my presentation on this, a statistic 16 states and 106 districts, 16 states and 106 districts have more unaffiliated voters than Republicans or Democrats, but not a single representative in the Congress.

Think about that. There's a problem with our system. I think that her data is better than my own. One more. I think I've got time for it. Let's see.

Trump is correct. There were many in January 6th people that were overcharged. Kept in terrible conditions. And people forget that the Supreme Court declared many of the charges unconstitutional.

R.I., I'm open to the prospect that there were people who were overcharged, that there are the Carter Pages out there. I'm not close minded in this regard, but you've got to draw a line on violent offenders at the Capitol on January 6th. And to me, it's political malpractice for the president and for Todd Blanche not to have done so. To simply say like, give me the prototypical case that they're talking about, and I'll be open minded to it.

Don't forget to vote on today's poll question at Smerconish.com. Very simply, do you identify as a political independent? Not a leaner, by the way. I want to know the percentage of people who are watching right now who are legitimate Is.

Still to come, time to commence with commencement addresses. But are students only hearing half the story? What the data tells us about partisanship at graduation?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): As tens of millions of people have been telling us in the streets, we have no kings here. But our president tells us we live in a new golden age, and he's got a point. If you look around, there's a lot that has been covered in gold these days gilded Oval Office, gilded White House, gilded signage, gilded hotels, golden ballroom, golden statues on gilded golf courses, gilded limo, golden cell phones, gold bathrooms, and a golden toilet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:41:26]

SMERCONISH: It's that time of the year, commencement addresses being heard on campuses all across the country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC CHURCH, SINGER: The B string is about community. Your generation faces a temptation no generation before has ever faced, the temptation to perform for everyone and belong to no one, to be globally visible and locally invisible, to have thousands of followers and no one knows actually where you live.

Resist this. Plant yourself somewhere. Put down roots with the full intention of growing there. Learn the actual names, not user names of the people around you.

HENRY WINKLER, ACTOR: I live by two words, tenacity and gratitude. Tenacity will get you where you want to go and gratitude will make you enjoy the journey no matter how bumpy. TOM BRADY, FORMER PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL PLAYER: I said to myself, don't be a little bitch. Go out there and fight your ass off. Whether you win or lose, fight to the end.

QUEEN LATIFAH, SINGER: They said you have to be delusional. You have to have delusional amounts of belief to think you're going to be a rapper and a business person. You have to have delusional amounts of belief and faith to dream beyond your wildest dreams.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SMERCONISH: Commencement addresses can inspire and also challenge. However, a new report by the higher education news Web site The College Fix examined graduation ceremonies at elite universities across the country and found that democratic or Democratic leaning speakers made up 86 percent of partisan commencement speakers.

The report looked at universities ranked in U.S. News and World Report's top 100, and combed through public statements and donation records to determine where speakers stood on the political spectrum.

Robert P. George, the McCormick professor of jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, believes this lack of ideological diversity is a scandal. He's the author of this recent op- ed in "The Washington Post" "No conservatives at commencement? The message was unmistakable." And here's a bit of our conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SMERCONISH: So, with a colleague in 2022, you undertook a survey. What am I making reference to and what was the result?

ROBERT P. GEORGE, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR: Well, in 2022, my colleague Hope Leman and I decided we would have a look at the commencement speakers and the honorary degree recipients at the 25 U.S. News and World Report top ranked research universities and the 25 top ranked liberal arts colleges. So, we looked at 50 institutions.

When we looked at the commencement speakers, looked at the honorary degree recipients, there was a certain percentage we couldn't identify politically. We did searches online and tried to see whether there were voter registration records or statements of any kind that indicated a politics. A certain percentage you couldn't tell what the politics was at all.

But then a very high percentage, a majority had a political profile. We could easily find a political profile. One hundred percent of them were progressives, not a single conservative speaker among that sea of progressives.

And what this said to me as someone who's been in academic life now professionally for 41 years, is that universities are signaling to their constituencies because that's what you do at commencement -- with commencement speakers and honorary degree recipients, you're signaling to your parents, to your students, prospective students, alumni, faculty, what kind of institution you are, what you value, what kind of achievement you consider to be exemplary.

[09:45:01]

And if it's 100 percent or something approaching that on one side or the other, then you're sending a signal that you are ideologically and politically partisan. Despite any denials you may make, and they all deny that they are politically or ideologically partisan, you are giving evidence that you are in fact partisan.

So, we call for colleges and universities to do something about this and to start awarding these recognitions and honors on an ideologically nonpartisan basis. Stop being hypocritical.

SMERCONISH: When I pulled what you published four years ago, and I appreciated this, you said that Hope Leman -- the two of you were going to send out the list that you'd assembled to the 50 universities and colleges and give them the opportunity in case you'd mischaracterized or gotten anything wrong. I was just curious when I read that, was there any reaction when you sort of called them on the carpet?

GEORGE: Not a single response by way of correcting anything we said. No one challenged a word of our analysis. No one claimed that they, in fact, had a conservative or nonprogressive or nonliberal commencement speaker or honorary degree recipient. What do you have there, Michael? What did you find?

SMERCONISH: OK. So, mine is not an exhaustive list. I didn't look at all 50 and I had assistance from my producer on this. But just a couple of -- first of all, I'll cut to the chase.

I don't see any conservative names. There could be -- there could be conservative individuals on this list that I don't recognize as a conservative. I certainly recognize Jamie Raskin, and not as a conservative. Samantha Power, Ro Khanna, Steve Kornacki, who was great with the numbers, but I don't think he's a conservative. Al Roker, Scott Pelley, Admiral William J. Fallon from the -- retired from the U.S. Navy. Kerry Kennedy, human rights activist at Regis College.

Let me just see what else I've got. Oh, here's a name that I recognize delivering a commencement address at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. One President Barack Obama, Muriel Bowser, the mayor of D.C. at Howard. Abigail Spanberger, Virginia State University, the recently elected governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Hilary Duff is at Northeast. A lot of actors and actresses. Maybe that's really the takeaway. Harrison Ford at Arizona State University, et cetera, et cetera.

I'm not seeing a lot of political figures. But Professor George, the ones that I am seeing are decidedly on the left side of the aisle.

GEORGE: Well, by what you mentioned right there, it looks like 100 percent.

SMERCONISH: Yes. GEORGE: You didn't mention a single -- you didn't mention a single conservative. You mentioned some people whose politics I don't happen to know.

These decisions tend to be made by the upper administration of the university and the board of trustees. These are big, important decisions. They make a statement about what they conceive the mission of the institution to be.

If the mission is impartial truth seeking, the advancement of knowledge, the deepening of understanding, you would expect to see a spectrum of views on moral and political and religious and ideological issues represented. If you don't see that, if instead you see the same perspective represented, then what you can infer from that is whatever we may say, we're not really a truth seeking knowledge advancing institution.

Our real mission isn't that. It is ideological partisanship. What we want to hold up as exemplary for our students are people who move the needle in a left-wing direction.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SMERCONISH: All right. Let's check in on your social media reaction to the commencement conversation. What do we have?

From Facebook. As America becomes more polarized, it's less willing to hear multiple or neutral views.

So true. And P. Scott, can I tell you something else that I think is of interest? So this season I pay attention to these commencement addresses. They're great fodder for radio and television. I think the breakout star is Eric Church, and I have seen the Eric Church commencement address played on a loop at Fox, and for good reason. It's a great commencement speech.

But I think that some -- I heard this from radio callers on SiriusXM. Some therefore assume, oh, given the message and given that Fox also loves that speech, he must be a conservative. So, Michael, doesn't that defy your whole pitch here that, you know, the conservatives get shut out because he got to give a speech at UNC?

Actually, I just read an interview that he did with Rolling Stone and then more at Billboard. He, Eric Church, defended Bruce Springsteen's recent concert performances, which are so critical of President Trump. And then the part that takes me back to the beginning of the show today, talking about independence and open primaries, Eric Church told Rolling Stone that he thinks pledging unconditional allegiance to any one political party is total bullshit.

Truer words have never been spoken. I guess he believes in being an independent. Speaking of which you still have time to vote on today's poll question at Smerconish.com.

[09:50:04] I'm curious, do you identify as a political independent? Subscribe to my newsletter while you're there. It's free and it's worthy, and you will get the editorial cartoons from the likes of Rob Rogers and Jack Ohman, who, by the way, this week is receiving a big prize among the editorial cartoonists. And it's Rob Rogers who's going to do the presentation. How cool is that?

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SMERCONISH: OK, that's Gallup. That's scientific. That's how Americans said they self-identify. Forty-five percent say, I'm an I. Only 27 percent say I'm a D or I'm an R.

And now for comparison -- I hope -- can I just say I hope we exceed 45 percent. I have a rooting interest. I hope our number -- even though we're not scientific in what we do with this poll question, I hope we beat 45 percent.

[09:55:04]

That's the benchmark. Show it to me. What's the result from today's poll question so far, 39,000 the -- oh, all right, I love it. Two- thirds, 66 percent. I would have been bummed if it were anything different. Sixty-six percent of those who vote say, I'm an I, not an R or a D.

Real quick, show me the social media that I can respond to. What do we got?

There's no viable independent party to vote for. When you walk into a voting booth, you have two options. That's the problem. Voting for an independent candidate is a throw away vote.

That's not true. You know what we need? What we need -- we need a handful of them. We need a hand -- I referenced Joe Manchin earlier in the program. Imagine if you -- if you had a handful of men and women like Joe Manchin in the Senate, five of them, they would control the entire direction of the Congress if that were the case.

Gang, have a great long weekend. Please take a moment and remember those who gave everything, the fallen heroes who are no longer with us.

And if you missed any of today's program, you can always listen anywhere you get your podcasts. Thank you so much for watching. See you in a week.

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