Commencement speakers with wildly different views are making the same point this year
No, that's not the start of a bad joke. Rutgers University, Hillsdale College, and the University of Michigan chose the three men as their respective commencement speakers.
While the liberal two-term President, conservative Supreme Court justice, and Independent former New York City mayor may hold conflicting opinions about the world, their addresses to graduating seniors tapped into surprisingly similar themes: political correctness gone awry and the dangers of limiting free speech.
Obama, who spoke to Rutgers students on May 15, chided them for their role in pushing Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to drop out as the Rutgers commencement speaker in 2014. Students protested the school's choice of Rice, pointing to her involvement in the Iraq War.
"The notion that this community or the country would be better served by not hearing from a former Secretary of State, or shutting out what she had to say - I believe that's misguided," Obama said. "I don't think that's how democracy works best, when we're not even willing to listen to each other," he continued.
Bloomberg, too, called out student activists in his speech to the University of Michigan on April 30. He voiced his perception that college students are overly sensitive and shouldn't need safe spaces to deal with difficult situations.
"The fact that some university boards and administrations now bow to pressure and shield students from these ideas through 'safe spaces,' 'code words,' and 'trigger warnings' is, in my view, a terrible mistake," he said. "The whole purpose of college is to learn how to deal with difficult situations - not run away from them."
"Do not hide your faith and your beliefs under a bushel basket, especially in this world that seems to have gone mad with political correctness," he said.