In three years of attending this University, I can’t think of any time I’ve been ashamed to do so.

I can’t think of any time I’ve looked around at my fellow students and felt utterly embarrassed. I’ve also never walked out on a speech, play, movie or any kind of presentation at the University of Kansas.

Then, on Tuesday night, I saw Ann Coulter.

My friend and I watched the spectacle for less than a half hour and decided that if we wanted to see something like that again, we’d go to the circus next time. But this wasn’t because of Coulter. No, I knew what to expect from her. I knew she’d be specious, illogical and at times downright hateful. I had no idea that so many specious, illogical and downright hateful liberal college students would show up to prove her right when she called liberals idiots.

These protesters in the back shouted, yelled, threatened violence, laughed inappropriately and acted like complete morons at an academic lecture attended by 1,800 people. No air of intelligence left their mouths, just more yelling. Like trying to kill a fly with a machine gun.

The people in the back of the auditorium were pundits, and I mean that as the worst insult possible.

The pundit is devoid of critical thinking: Pundits see a label and react. They are responsible for the apathy that most college kids have for politics. They yell until they think they’ve won. But when intelligent discussion is replaced by blind loyalty, we’ve lost all semblance of what our forefathers intended free speech to evoke.

Those who fought for free speech intended for people to be able to speak out against real injustices, real social problems in the world, in an effort to discern the most effective, utilitarian government possible.

I think the people who founded our country, nay, any proponent of virile democracy, would have been sick to the stomach at Tuesday night’s speech. And I wish I could say it was just one side.

I really wish I could say, “Oh man, those damned Republicans were being jerks!” or “Those Democrats just won’t stop complaining about anything!”

But I’d be lying to you. I read the news article in The University Daily Kansan on Wednesday, and you wouldn’t have had any clue how obnoxious the “protesters” were. You would have thought it was business as usual for a highly conservative speaker on a highly liberal campus.

All this taking sides is what stops our country from progressing. There is, unfortunately, a third party in America. These are the pundits. By adhering to a system that promotes apathy, they are taking away the most important reason democracy was even created.

The people in the auditorium that identify themselves as “staunch Republicans” had all their suspicions confirmed last night about people that identify themselves as “staunch liberals.” They will now associate all liberals with the “protesters” in the back of the auditorium, and consequently disassociate them with any kind of progressive discourse.

Now, do I agree with the protesters? Sure. I don’t think we should, according to Coulter, make converting the Middle East to Christianity a mission of the military, and I don’t think we should bomb The New York Times. I don’t think Vietnam veterans that protested the war caused us to lose said war. I mean, come on, she’s crazy; let’s get that out of the way.

But the “protesters” in the back of the auditorium were equally as crazy, and I just hope they realize they weren’t helping advance progressive social changes by turning Coulter’s speech into a circus.

If anything, it confirmed every Republican in the Lied Center’s suspicions that Democrats are all a bunch of crazies, which is quite unfortunate, because they should instead fight to be associated with open-mindedness.

And anyone who hadn’t drawn a side Tuesday night will be turned off to politics altogether. And a college kid who stays home instead of voting is a victory for the conservatives; trust me.

So in closing, I want to make sure the “protesters” on Tuesday night realize they didn’t accomplish a damned thing.

All they did was make sure that Ann Coulter remained “controversial,” made the $25,000 they paid her seem worth it, and probably helped her sell a ton more of her books.

Way to stick it to Ann Coulter, guys. I’m sure she’s crying all the way to the bank.