Liberty University, Jerry Falwell’s Evangelical Christian finishing school, gathers three times a week for “convocation”, a worship service with guest speakers from all backgrounds. Attendance is mandatory, but students say the man delivering today’s sermon would have filled the 8,000-capacity venue regardless. Because today, the Ben Shapiro show has come to Liberty.

A lot of people don’t like Shapiro. His critics on the right dislike him even more than his critics on the left – “the alt-right think I’m a cuck Jew,” he tells his podcast audience. A touch of jealousy there, perhaps – Shapiro may be a bit soft for many of his rivals on the internet. What really hurts, however, is that he’s a bigger deal than all of them now. And his fans worship him.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone give such intellectual and thorough arguments to everything,” says Sam Melhuish, a senior at Liberty and the son of missionaries. “I’ve talked about it with my friends – if he ran for president and he laid out a good platform and a good plan of action, I would definitely vote for him.”

One 19-year-old in line, Alex, made a 16-hour trip down from New Jersey for the chance to see his hero. “I do believe that one day, he will be president. I think if he ran against a candidate like Oprah Winfrey, he would destroy her. Joe Biden, he would destroy him.” Ben Shapiro wears a lot of hats – he is at once an author, a podcast host, a regular face on cable news, and the founding editor of a website which last month was one of the most engaged on Facebook in America. Above all, to his admirers, he is a destroyer of libs.

Glad you tweeted something about it. https://t.co/oYhIMlZcvr

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro)

© The Spectator