VDARE responds to conference cancellation at Cheyenne Mountain Resort

UPDATE (8/16):

An anti-immigration organization's planned conference in Colorado Springs next year has been canceled.

Cheyenne Mountain Resort canceled the conference following an outcry from many in the community who said they did not want a white nationalist or white nationalist-sympathetic group coming to Colorado Springs.

Cheyenne Mountain Resort issued a brief statement, but did not give an official reason for the event's cancellation.

"Cheyenne Mountain Resort will not be hosting the VDARE Foundation in April of next year. We remain committed to respecting the privacy of guests at the resort."

Nonetheless, Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers said he was pleased with the resort's decision and speculated why they may have made it.

"I think what happened here is that this conference was booked without their full knowledge of what the full nature of this organization was. Once they realized it, they made a business decision ... that this was not a group they wanted to host. And I applaud them for it.

"It's not the city dictating any particular result, but it's the marketplace ... I suspect they heard from members of their golf course, I suspect they heard from other potential conference attendees that were planning on conferences there that this could have repercussions for them."

Suthers had previously said that had the conference gone on as planned, the city would not provide any resources for it unless there had been any trouble at the event that law enforcement would have to respond to.

VDARE posted the following statement on its website Wednesday night:

On the night of Tuesday August 15, VDARE.com received an email from Cheyenne Mountain Resort in Colorado Springs, Colorado cancelling our April 2018 conference. Attached were a copy of the credit card receipt for our refunded deposit -- and a copy of a check for the very significant liquidated damages payment Cheyenne Mountain Lodge had to make to us for breaking its contract. After forty years in financial journalism (The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Fortune, Forbes, MarketWatch), the cowardice and stupidity of corporate America are no surprise to me. But I would like to pay tribute to the professionalism and courtesy of the individual staff members at Cheyenne Mountain Lodge over the several months we worked together. I regret that their innocent belief they live in a free country has proved unfounded. Cheyenne Mountain Resort’s cancellation is a further example of what President Trump has correctly called the Alt-Left: a conspiracy against the civil liberties of Americans by internet vigilantes (such as Media Matters, Southern Poverty Law Center), and their allied troll army, and the violent Communist gang (the so-called AntiFa), plus complicit elected officials. This has resulted in the extraordinary situation where policies that have won at the ballot box (a recent example: El Paso County voted overwhelmingly 56%-36% for Trump and his party controls both branches of Congress) can no longer be discussed in public meetings. Contrary to widely-repeated lies: VDARE.com has never advocated violence or any form of illegality (unlike AntiFa). We focus entirely on providing facts and analysis with the aim of influencing public debate. We believe the last election shows that this strategy has been working—which is why the Left’s Reign of Terror is intensifying. VDARE.com had absolutely nothing to do with last Saturday’s Unite The Right Rally in Charlottesville, VA. We were not invited to speak, we did not attend, we did not even publicize the event beforehand. There have been unscrupulous efforts to claim that because, early in the year, we published a few articles by a freelancer who subsequently helped organize the rally, we are somehow “linked” to it. But the DAILY CALLER also published articles by the same free-lancer. Is the DAILY CALLER “linked” to the rally? We have writers who are Democrats. Does that mean we are “linked” to James Hodgkins’ shooting up the GOP Congressional baseball team? VDARE.com is not a “white nationalist” site. We are a forum site, publishing writers of differing political persuasions, interests (and races) who agree only on one thing: that America’s post-1965 immigration policy has been a disaster. We certainly do include a few writers who are explicitly concerned with the interests of whites. This may not be a point of view often seen in the Main Stream Media, but its emergence is inevitable as immigration policy pushes whites into minority status, and every bit as legitimate as Black Nationalism or La Raza. Everyone should just get used to it. VDARE.com has been arguing for immigration control since 1999, but its position is substantially the same as President Trump’s immigration policy paper released in August 2015. Trump’s stand on immigration was key to his victory in the subsequent primaries and in the general election. Thus our position can no longer be dismissed as extreme or even unusual. The citizens of Colorado cannot reasonably have denied the opportunity to get to understand it better. If President Trump wanted to speak in Colorado Springs, would he be denied a platform? Of course, the answer is probably yes. A Totalitarian Left has emerged in America. It is above all desperate to suppress a debate on immigration policy—because it absolutely intends to Elect A New People (as per Bertolt Brecht). Cheyenne Mountain Resort, Mayor Suther and much of the media are helping them to achieve their goal. On a brighter note: each time a VDARE.com conference is cancelled, we see a great outpouring of support, new readers, donors etc. Thank you all.

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PREVIOUS (8/15):

Mayor John Suthers has released a statement in response to a planned conference by anti-immigration organization VDARE in Colorado Springs next year.

The event, scheduled at Cheyenne Mountain Resort for the 19th-22nd of April according to VDARE's website, has been under more scrutiny following a deadly clash between white supremacist groups and counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia over the weekend.

VDARE calls itself a "patriotic immigration reform" organization that believes diversity "is not strength, but vulnerability." Its founder has denied that the organization is white nationalist, but acknowledged in a 2006 article on VDARE.com that the site does publish some white nationalist writers. One of the site's contributors is the Charlottesville resident who organized the "Unite the Right" rally.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated VDARE.com an anti-immigration hate website.

Suthers released a statement to his website about the upcoming VDARE conference:

The City of Colorado Springs does not have the authority to restrict freedom of speech, nor to direct private businesses like the Cheyenne Mountain Resort as to which events they may host. That said, I would encourage local businesses to be attentive to the types of events they accept and the groups that they invite to our great city. The City of Colorado Springs will not provide any support or resources to this event, and does not condone hate speech in any fashion. The City remains steadfast in its commitment to the enforcement of Colorado law, which protects all individuals regardless of race, religion, color, ancestry, national origin, physical or mental disability, or sexual orientation to be secure and protected from fear, intimidation, harassment and physical harm.