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The January issue of the College Republicans monthly newsletter

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: CR Monthly January
Page 2: CR Monthly January

N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 0

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January 2011

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In this Issue:

3 A Message from Chairman Jake Wolf

4 Pizza with Pawlenty

5 CDS - Rep. Buck McKeon (CA)

6 CR vs. CD Basketball Game

7 Sarah Kovar: Part One - Eugenics and its Consequences

8 Katrina Ilich: Remembrance

9 Munson & Gonzales: Chick-fil-A is not 'anti-gay'

9 Jared Johnson: Republican Revolution

Page 3: CR Monthly January

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As a native New Yorker the word Excelsior, our state motto, has always had special meaning to me. Latin for “ever rising,” this ancient word is a special call to perpetually yearn for improvement, to ne’er accept mediocrity in any situation. Applied to one’s personal life, especially to an individual in college, such a phrase can be indubitably helpful,

as one would then be inspired to yearn for academic rigor and personal integrity, propelling oneself to excellence. However, as conservatives we must be ready to expand this notion into the political realm as well. Even after our historic victories last fall, where we recaptured the House of Representatives and established John Boehner as Speaker of the House, we must not waver in our dedication to the Republican cause. Many of you spent countless hours strewn across the nation, campaigning for candidates who vowed to honor the voices of their constituents; constituents who pleaded with our leaders for a return to a limited government, aware of its constitutional restraints. Certainly we felt a sense of accomplishment when those results streamed in on November the 2nd. But we should not have, for our work is far from completed. As all are keenly aware, the Senate and the Executive Branch still remain under

Democrat control. The next two years our organization must set the foundation for changing that. Just as important is ensuring that our newly elected leaders in the House prevent any legislation from passing that is detrimental to the health of the United States. In the past Republican Congress we saw a definite movement of those we elected away from the conservative principles they espoused; for our Party and nation to remain preeminent, this cannot again happen. Whether it is by repeatedly contacting your representative or some other means, it is of utmost importance to remind them of their responsibility to refuse to compromise our shared core ideology. What do we insist upon in this transitional period? No rampant government spending, vast entitlement protection, protection for the unborn, the most vulnerable among us, immigration reform without amnesty, and a military presence that is unparalleled in the world. Neglecting any of these aspects—the fiscal, the social, and the foreign policy—will result in the death of our Party and the degradation of our nation. So as you move forward the completion of the Spring 2011 semester, do not waver in your commitment or dedication to the cause. We shall not and our dedication will be demonstrated to you by our extensive programming. May God continue to bestow His great blessings upon all of us this coming year.

A Message from Your Chairman, Jake Wolf

January 2011

Page 4: CR Monthly January

Pizza With Pawlenty Former Governor of Minnesota Tim Pawlenty speaks with College Republicans during a meet-and-

greet session.

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January 2011

Page 5: CR Monthly January

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The Congressional Diner Series Congressman Buck McKeon (R-CA)

The Congressional Diner Series Congressman Buck McKeon (R-CA)

January 2011

Rep. Buck McKeon

(CA-25) spoke to CRs on

January 24th about his

chairmanship on the House

Armed Services

Committee.

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Page 6: CR Monthly January

January 2011

CR vs. CD Basketball Game

V I CTORY

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S E Q U O I A C L U B

Conservative Perspective Part One - Eugenics and its Consequences Sarah Kovar, Class of 2014

One of the most atrocious attributes of Adolf Hitler’s annihilation of the Jews, homosexuals, people with disabilities and gypsies, was eugenics. Eugenics is the study of creating a superior master race through breeding. It can take the form of purifying a race of blemish or eliminating an entire racial group, as in Hitler’s case; however, it is also studied to improve the characteristics of races. It has been sought to solve economic and societal hardships, but ended up being a platform from which racists and elitists could launch their agendas. Although most notoriously used in the Nazi regime, Eugenics goes back to Plato’s utopian writings. Historically, the blemished group has been the poor, the underprivileged, and people of color. It is this side of eugenics that has persisted in society. The Nazi regime may be over three score years, but there is an unrelenting question in society about how to help and what to do with those who are in poverty. One thing that has emerged is that the African American community has significantly more abortions than any other ethnicity. While contributing factors to these statistics may be a higher pregnancy rate, there is also the clear relationship between Planned Parenthood’s clinics and African American communities.

During the 1930s, a eugenist named Margaret Sanger founded Planned Parenthood. Sanger knew firsthand the adversity women in the early 20th century faced because they were unable to get contraception. In fact her mother died at the age of 40 after 18 pregnancies that only bore 11

children (Planned Parenthood). Sanger worked in New York as a nurse for immigrant families “and witnesses the sickness, misery, and death that result from unwanted pregnancy and illegal abortion” (Planned Parenthood). Although Sanger is upheld to some as a heroine for social justice, there was also another inarguable influence of eugenics on her work. Sanger stated: “I personally believe in the sterilization of the

feebleminded, the insane and the syphilitic”. However, Sanger believed that eugenics would not be able to reach the masses. “Birth control, on the other hand, not only opens the way to eugenists, but it preserves his work.” She was not just trying to advance birth control and help poor women who could not physically afford another child, but she was advocating for the “elimination of the unfit.” There is a distinct difference between her view and the majority of women who have fought (and continue to fight) for the advancement of birth control. Those women recognized the limitations childbearing brought upon women, and wanted to alleviate that confinement. They wanted to plan parenthood, not stop a race from ever having children. Margaret Sanger desired to eradicate the “unfit.” Her way of helping women was telling them they should not breed.

Furthermore, Sanger proposed a “Plan for Peace” in which she

believed a Population Congress should be enacted. She wanted this "congress" to not only combat poverty, but to close the borders to immigration. This revealed her implicit racist feelings that grew to be more explicit in time as her plan for eugenics developed. Desiring them to “apply a stern and rigid policy of sterilization and segregation to that grade of population whose progeny is already tainted, or whose inheritance is such that objectionable traits may be transmitted to offspring,” Sanger predicated that the government was responsible for conducing the population into a pure race. She also proclaimed that these people who were "unfit" should be limited to a choice between “segregation or sterilization. If they chose segregation, Sanger asserted that they ought to be forced to “work under competent instructors for the period of their entire lives.”African Americans in the 1930s were already segregated “separate, but equal” as a normal means of life, but at least they had a minute chance to advance in society. Sanger did not want any advancement for the African

One thing that has emerged is

that the African

American community has

significantly more abortions than any other

ethnicity.

Eugenics advocate Margaret Sanger

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Page 8: CR Monthly January

American race so they became prime targets for Sanger’s complete segregation or sterilization. They also were not nearly as wealthy as their white counterparts because they were so oppressed in society. This gave Sanger an excuse to say that they were not a great enough contribution to society. To advance Sanger’s ideas further, Paul Popenoe, a writer of Sanger’s Birth Control Review, reveals their intent to spread birth control to underprivileged families whom they would want to eliminate. He says, “A spread of birth control to the less capable part of the population will be an important advance for eugenics in cutting down the racial contribution of inferior stocks.” Sanger agreed with this, and in a letter to Clarence J. Gamble, M.D., a “champion of the birth control movement” (Planned Parenthood-NJ), she stated: “We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population” (PP-NJ). She was trying to underscore the importance of getting inside the African American community to solidify their trust. Sanger was consciously manipulating a culture in order to eliminate their very community.

The second part of Kovar’s piece will be featured in the February 2011 CR Monthly.

Remembrance Katrina Ilich, Class of 2014

About two months and two centuries ago to this day, Americans were formally bequeathed, by the now-forever-binding legality of the first amendment, a vital organ that pumps our lifeblood: freedom of speech. And though 2010 marked the 220th anniversary of this treasure that we, as Barbara

Ehrenreich noted, “value above life itself,” we forgot all about it. December 15th, for most of us, came and went with thoughts not deeper than “Damn, it’s only Wednesday.”

Too often, we see only the things immediately surrounding us, only domestic issues. And so, during this more-than-once in a while, America mutates into a giant shell-crab of the earth, her pastiche of problems and peoples forming such a hard carapace that, despite her scuttling of beaches worldwide, renders her utterly impenetrable and shamefully immersed throughout her whole journey. And when, at the end of this more-than-once in a while, she momentarily stops marching to her own tune, she realizes that the silence around her is the scariest thing in the world.

Last week, I was terrified. Last week, Egypt, the mystical land of my childhood storybooks, where epic pharaohs ruled and the tails of black jaguars tickled their toes, where, surely, everything was just as sweet and golden as the sands that swirled, went silent. Telling me that the Egyptian government had coordinated a simultaneous blockage of most websites, that they had essentially stolen the Internet, that journalists were being beaten over the head in the streets, the newscaster on the television demanded of me a reality check I was not prepared to give.

That anchorman was greedy; he wanted every scrap of my soul. For then, he told me that a television

station in Tunisia was shut down for “treason” (“treason” being, surely, the telling to someone of something they don’t want to hear), that the European Union’s new 6-month President, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, signed into being a law that “might not meet [the EU’s] standards for a free and fair press,” that at least seven reporters in Belarus have been detained, interrogated, and have

had their headquarters raided/their materials confiscated.

And then he told me that he was lying. For I didn’t hear any of this from him at all. In fact, I found all this out from various independent news sources on the Internet. Our little TV tripartite here in America—FOX, MSNBC, and CNN—was too busy determining whether, in fact, John Boehner did cry during the State of the Union, and we were all too busy wondering whether his

purple tie—which we could not help but mention clashed with his face (vital information, you know)—was stained because of it. The TV stations don’t imagine we care about the world beyond our own skirmishes (read: Iraq and Afghanistan, and even that attention is limited), and that we want to hear about it.

We do want to hear about it, don’t we? We should. Knocking off our shameful amnesia and reminding us of our vital possession of free speech should be this recent news of others’ loss of it. If we don’t stop to listen, eventually, there will be nothing left to hear.

Conservative Perspective

Last week, Egypt, the

mystical land of my childhood storybooks, where epic

pharaohs ruled and the tails of black jaguars

tickled their toes, where, surely,

everything was just as sweet and

golden as the sands that

swirled, went silent.

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Page 9: CR Monthly January

Chick-fil-A is not 'anti-gay'

Andrew Munson and Andrew Gonzales

The last place you would expect to find at the center of a gay rights debate is a fast food restaurant—but but Chick-fil-A has found itself in exactly that strange position. With the news recently emerging that CFA explicitly supports organizations such as Pennsylvania Family Institute—an organization that supports amending the Pennsylvania state constitution to ban same-sex marriage—the fast food chain has faced harsh criticism from myriad pro-gay and left wing organizations, almost all of whom support boycotting CFA. Left-wing website Change.org calls on its members to avoid eating at the chain, saying in an article entitled “Chick-fil-A Partners With Rabid Anti-Gay Group” that if “you're eating at Chick-fil-A, you're also eating at an establishment that partners with some of the most ferocious anti-gay groups around.” Later, a series of emails between CFA sponsored organization the WinShape Foundation revealed that they do not accept homosexual couples in their retreat programs. Websites such as Good As You have branded the company ‘anti-gay’ and condemned their actions as homophobic and barbaric. No one seems to understand why CFA has chosen to entangle itself in these so-called hate politics.These responses are a typical reaction to pro-family endeavors: they are perceived as an attack against civil and human rights. Nowhere, however, does Chick-fil-A do anything that can be construed as illegal, nor anything that should be viewed as immoral or unethical. CFA is on entirely solid legal grounds—they are privately owned and may create programs that may

cater any group that they wish. Further, it is pro-gay marriage groups that are displaying hypocrisy and inconsistency. By calling gay marriage a ‘human right,’ they are attempting to prevent CFA from expressing its perfectly legitimate company views in perfectly legitimate ways. Similarly, the activists show their disdain and lack of understanding for the organizations that CFA supports. Labeling organizations such as the Pennsylvania Family Institute as radical show that it is the gay rights activists, not Chick-fil-A, who are the ‘rabid’ people here. What CFA is fighting for does not promote homophobia or homophobic acts; none of the organizations that they support call for violent action or hate speech against homosexuals. Rather, they enforce traditional, family-centered legislation. If gay rights activists are truly dedicated to speaking out about their cause, and genuinely support the tenants of free-speech that allow them to do this, there is truly no reason for them to speak out against CFA as inhumane. They are only harming the social and political dialogue by further polarizing the debate; it amounts to little more than name calling and heckling, and will never engender progress or understanding on either side.What is truly mystifying is how vastly out of proportion and context this incident has been taken; nevertheless, it highlights the issues that have marred the debate between gay rights activists and those who are pro-family. Chick-fil-A recently made a concession and withdrew their sponsorship from the Pennsylvania Family Institute’s conference, ostensibly to diffuse the tension. If a meaningful dialogue is to be achieved, then both sides must refrain from

baseless, provocative attacks and commit to calm and reasonable dialogue.

Republican Revolution Jared Johnson, Class of 2013

With the new 112th Congress just sworn in a few weeks ago, and with state governments beginning their new legislative session, many are wondering if all the Republicans elected to both the U.S. House, State Governorships and Legislatures will really live up to their potential. The American people elected a majority of Republicans to the U.S. House of Representatives, of which they hold a majority in the House, 47 Republicans either got elected or re-elected to the U.S. Senate, over 15 Governor seats went to Republicans, and many state legislatures are dominated by Republicans in both chambers of their respective legislatures. The American people have seen state and federal government spending soar since the last election in 2008. The American people responded with the hope that the new Republicans elected to office will cut down on spending by both governments and start to control the rising debt this country has.

I have coined the midterm elections of 2010 the “Republican Revolution.” I’m sure the name has been used before this article was written. But in any case, this election represents a shift in the majority of American’s opinions. In some ways it is about political parties and their ideologies, but it is also about people being tired of all the spending here and in their state capitals. We cannot keep spending on programs that we don’t need, and we cannot keep borrowing

Conservative Perspective

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Conservative Perspective

money that we can’t afford to pay back. We also cannot afford to have massive shortfalls in operating budgets. Right here in the District, the government is facing a $185 million dollar budget shortfall this year, and the Council and Government is going to have to close this gap somehow. I’m sure in many of the states where the readers of this article are from they have the same problem of budget shortfalls. Many governors and legislatures are going to have to decide what vital programs to cut to make up for these shortfalls.

The American people elected the largest Republican majority to the House since 1938, and that says something about what Republicans intend to do. Hopefully all the new Representatives will use their new power given to them by their constituents to rein in spending and control the debt, seeing as how all tax issues originate in the House. Hopefully Republicans everywhere will continue to make changes to government to make it more efficient and sizable enough where it can function effectively without massive red tape, and get their spending under control.

Many people are also hopeful that both parties will work to together on important issues that are facing the nation, such as energy policy and government reform. Many people are tired of “business as usual” here, and many want to see American enter into a new age of politics.

It is the hope of the constituents that elected Republican majorities that they will make good on their promises of lower government, smaller taxes, and controlled

spending both here and in their state capitals. However, just like everything that has happened in the history of the United States, only time will tell.

The views and opinions expressed in the CR Monthly represent those of our members, and are not necessarily the views of the College Republican National Committee, the DC Federation of College Republicans, or The George Washington University College Republicans.

Hopefully Republicans

everywhere will continue to make

changes to government to make it more efficient and

sizable enough where it can

function effectively without massive red

tape, and get their spending under

control.

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Interested in writing forthe CR Monthly?

Contact Director of Publications Erin Mew

at [email protected]

Interested in joining College Republicans? Contact Director of

Membership Kaitlyn Martin at [email protected]

CR Executive Board and Rep. Buck McKeon Sinead Casey, Kaitlyn Martin, Rep. Buck McKeon, Chris Wassman, Travis Holler,

Jake Wolf, Erin Mew, Joanna Rodriguez, Will Frey, Chris Oman