Campus Progress has
two undercover people reporting from the College Republican National Convention in Arlington, VA. Here's some excerpts, and a picture they snapped:
- There was one pretty awesome speech by a dude up front next to the chairman, basically along the lines of "Are you guys crazy?! We're all friends - stop all this mud-slinging!" It almost sounded like some crazy liberal-talk, to be quite honest. Then he got more right-wing-style, with something like "We are ALL Republicans here, and by God that is more important than anything that will happen with the outcome of this election. What we are doing as a movement trumps the petty partisanship you've been displaying! Come awn, now!" Yes, that was a Southern accent...
- ...There's really nothing like parliamentary procedure to make a meeting feel like it's going in circles. But man these students are into it. What's up at CRNC business meeting? Disenfranchisement, obstruction and bias (sounds like the title of an Ann Coulter book). Basically, the state chair in VA changed up the delegate list under some pretext. The tricky part is that the delegates are the ones voting for the National Chairman, and when they were changed, so were the number of votes for each candidate. As the comments went back it forth the pendulum swung from disenfranchisement of the original delegates to defending the power of the state chair. Then, they would vote to either continue debate or stop it, and the stoppers just couldn't get the 2/3 they needed (sounds familiar?) So then, those who wanted to end it started yelling "Obstructionists! Filibusters! Reid!" One delegate even turned around to some others to say, "What, are you obsessed with liberals?"...
"Conventioneer" also interviewed a few of them, asking them
What makes you conservative?:
- Well my family is a big influence on it, but also all the different stuff I've seen and stuff. You know what, you probably gotta excuse my language when I talk about liberals. I grew up in Shanghai, right, and China's a Communist country, right? When I got over here I saw there's a two party system, liberals and conservatives, democrats and republicans, right? But all the liberals really stand for is social welfare, support all the laziness, socialists, free this and free that - tax all the hardworking people, give it away for nothing, you know? People just sit around, just sit on their butt all day and don't do nothing. They drive a brand new Cadillac and stuff! What about the hard-working-class people? And we get taxed 50% out of our pocket, you know? I mean that's socialist, right? So, that's the reason I just think that you know what liberals just don't make sense. Also probably the religious belief. I won't vote for a single person that is pro-choice.
- JiaMei Chen, American River College
I honestly think I just kind of came out that way. My family's that way, I was raised that way, it's what I believe. It's the kind of life I live, the beliefs I have, the way I want my future to be.
-Shandra Cipriano, University of Nevada-Reno
Really it's because I believe in freedom ...the freedom to live your life, really. ...I believe in free market, free enterprise...I think we should have a right to do what we want. Gov't. should play as little a role as possible.
-Scott Gehring, from Cincinnati
Well I guess it was because I was born a conservative, raised a conservative - really I believe in freedom and opportunity. People being able to go out and do what they wanna do. If you're smart enough to go out and make a million dollars you should be if you're not then you shouldn't be.
-George Higgins, State Chair of the NV College Republicans
Etc., etc., etc. In theory what they say always sounds nice, but in practice the end result is always the same, and is usually based on greed and self-centeredness. For the record, I'm a liberal because I believe in the necessary and inter-dependant balance between a free government, free enterprise, and a free press. I believe in equality of opportunity and a minimum standard of living for all. I believe that a community is more than just a group of individuals, that it's important to be a part of something that is greater than yourself, and that society as a whole should respect the right of self-determination of all individuals. I believe that everyone should be free to worship God (or not) in their own way, and not just free to worship the religion that's the most popular. I believe that there are more important things in life than money, and that human rights and needs should come before corporate rights and needs. I believe in the ideals of the American Revolution, that the ultimate authority of any government derives from the consent of those governed and not the financial power of the wealthiest few or corporate entities. And finally, I'm a liberal because I believe that we should learn from the past, live in the present and look towards the future.
Anyway, via Atrios, here's some excerpts from other patriotic, war-loving Republicans on why they aren't planning on enlisting:
- In more than a dozen interviews, Republicans in their teens and 20s offered a range of answers. Some have friends in the military in Iraq and are considering enlisting; others said they can better support the war by working politically in the United States; and still others said they think the military doesn't need them because the U.S. presence in Iraq is sufficient.
"Frankly, I want to be a politician. I'd like to survive to see that," said Vivian Lee, 17, a war supporter visiting the convention from Los Angeles,
Lee said she supports the war but would volunteer only if the United States faced a dire troop shortage or "if there's another Sept. 11."
"As long as there's a steady stream of volunteers, I don't see why I necessarily should volunteer," said Lee, who has a cousin deployed in the Middle East.
"If there was a need presented, I would go," said Chris Cusmano, a 21-year-old member of the College Republicans organization from Rocky Point, N. Y. But he said he hasn't really considered volunteering.
But that's just like Republicans, nothing like letting others do the fighting for you. There would have been military recruiters there, but they were all busy scouring high schools in poor neighborhoods. That is, the ones who weren't kidnapping kids. I wonder what circumstance it would take for them to actually put their money where their mouths are? Obviously the fact that the military hasn't been meeting its recruitment goals isn't going to do it. If there was a draft, how hard would they try to get out of it?
It's one thing to say you believe in something strong enough to risk your life for it, it's another thing to actually go out and do it. Many of the soldiers who fought in WWII and Korea and VietNam didn't like going to war, but they felt a deep sense of commitment to it, a commitment, I am sad to say, that these youngsters do not understand, being self-centered and self-involved. There is nothing in the world bigger than their own needs, there is no future beyond their lifetimes. If they really believed in what they said they believed, they wouldn't hesitate to join the military and do their part. the fact that they do not, and make excuses for why they don't, only shows the contempt they have for America, contempt disguised as patriotism.
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