New Political Science Summit Launches After Conservatives Sidelined by Left

Chapman University law professor John Eastman (L) watches as Rudy Giuliani speaks to supporters from The Ellipse near the White House in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

After a prestigious academic political science conference sidelined Stop-the-Steal attorney John Eastman and the conservative Claremont Institute in 2021, conservatives decided to organize their own summit.

That idea became a reality in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with the first American Politics and Government Summit held by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) on Feb. 23 and Feb. 24—with contributions from think tanks such as Claremont, the Acton Institute, and the Heritage Foundation.

Organizers billed the conference as a place for scholars to freely debate and discuss emerging research in politics, philosophy, and economics.

“The plan is to make this an annual conference,” said Claire Aguda, ISI director of alumni, faculty, and graduate students.

Claire Aguda (L) and Tom Sarrouf (R), who work for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, attended the organization's first American Politics and Government Summit in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Feb.23–24. Darlene Sanchez/The Epoch Times

The summit fills the vacuum left by the American Political Science Association conference, which used to host liberals and conservatives to debate scholarly ideas on political science, said ISI president John Burtka.

Aguda told The Epoch Times that when the institute heard what happened with APSA—one of the last instances where conservatives were included in an academic setting—the organization wanted to help.

Inside Higher Education reported in an article on Sept. 30, 2021, that an APSA spokesperson said the organization, “did not cancel the Claremont panels.”

APSA told the publication it moved all of Claremont’s panels to a virtual format due to “safety concerns with the meeting,” adding Claremont then canceled the panels instead of meeting virtually.

ISI, which has been involved in academic pursuits since its founding in 1953, has a network of some 4,000 faculty who are independent or conservative, so it was a natural fit, Aguda said.

The academic conference offers a place for professors to present scholarly papers and research, panel discussions, and key-note conservative speakers.

Burtka said the organization has been working to support causes at the collegiate level. ISI has helped establish 81 conservative student newspapers at universities across the United States and has 175 ISI societies.

‘Little Pockets of Sanity’

The institute helps independent or conservative students and professors network and it allows them to feel they aren’t alone in what has become an increasingly progressive landscape, Burtka said.

“There are little pockets of sanity,” he said.

Aguda said the conference had an overwhelming response from professors submitting papers for critique. For many, it is their only opportunity to get scholarly feedback.

Eastman, who attended the ISI summit, told The Epoch Times that silencing free speech by shouting people down or trying to cancel them is part of an authoritarian movement in the United States.

He added that mainstream media accounts of President Donald Trump staging a “coup” by appointing his acting attorney general exposed the media working in concert with unelected bureaucrats.

“Excuse me. He’s the boss; he gets to decide,” Eastman said.

He said that administrative agencies have been building on the idea that they are the experts with all the answers and know better than the public they are supposed to serve.

“They think they are the best and brightest,” he said, adding that citizens who question the government are considered anti-science and even anti-democratic.

"Parents rights first": Fairfax County resident Lin-Dai Kendall protests at a rally outside Luther Jackson Middle School before a Fairfax County Public Schools board meeting, in Falls Church, Va., on Sept. 15, 2022. Terri Wu/The Epoch Times

“This is authoritarianism,” he said. “And that’s what we’re seeing. We saw it in the notion that parents can’t criticize their school boards if they’re putting men in the girls’ showers.”

Eastman, who spoke at the Jan. 6 Capitol rally, said the APSA sidelined him during the 2021 conference because he advised Trump after the election leading up to Jan. 6.

He said the idea that no one can question the legality of the 2020 election is another example of authoritarianism.

A letter signed by 279 political science academics pressed APSA to sever ties with Eastman.

During the organization’s conference two years ago, he was slated to speak on two APSA panels organized by Claremont, a think tank.

Families protest any potential mask mandates before the Hillsborough County Schools Board meeting held at the district office on July 27, 2021, in Tampa, Florida. Octavio Jones/Getty Images

The 2021 letter, spearheaded by David Karp associate professor at George Washington University, quoted APSA as condemning Trump, Republican legislators, and all those who “endorsed and disseminated falsehoods” to overturn a “free and fair” 2020 presidential election.

Karp wrote that APSA’s condemnation should extend to Eastman, who gave the Trump campaign legal advice, and the Claremont Institute for questioning the 2020 election results.

The following week at its 2021 conference in Seattle, APSA suddenly changed all of Claremont’s in-person panel presentations, including Eastman’s, to virtual only, citing safety concerns that went unexplained.

The result was Claremont pulled out of the APSA after 35 years of presenting panel discussions, as did Eastman, who is a senior fellow at Claremont.

Protesters demonstrate at the University of Utah against an event featuring a conservative speaker in Salt Lake City on Sept. 27, 2017. George Frey/Getty Images

Eastman said they were trying to tie him to the “insurrection,” a term he calls “laughable.”

He said it was clear before Claremont left that APSA had been making it difficult for their conservative speakers, which more liberal speakers didn’t like.

In past conferences, Claremont speakers were scheduled to present in small cramped rooms with no air conditioning, although they drew the largest audiences, he explained.

“So that was the excuse for doing what they’ve been wanting to do for a long time,” Eastman said.