College Republicans angered by Young Dems
The GC&SU student body needs to be informed about what happened to the planned debate between the GC&SU College Republicans and the GC&SU Young Democrats. This event had been in planning for over a month. On Thursday, Oct. 14, the chairs of the two organizations, J.D. Easley and Brad Spears, along with Bobcat Model United Nations representative Sandy Green, agreed on a format and topic list. The debate was to cover ten topics. Each side was to be allowed to have up to ten debaters (one per topic). The event, scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 20 at 7:00 p.m. was designed to provide an opportunity for as many as twenty students to get involved in the political process.
The day before the debate was to take place, Chairman Easley received an e-mail from President Spears indicating that the Young Democrats had failed to generate “enough interest” among their membership, and that they would prefer to change the format at the last minute to a one-on-one confrontation between the two chairs. Chairman Easley insisted that the point of the event was to get a large number of students involved in the political process, not to simply have the same people debate the same issues again. Later in the day, President Spears made his withdrawal from the debate official in a follow-up email that said, “have fun debating yourselves.”
Chairman Easley spoke with one member of the Young Democrats who said that, at their meeting on Monday, the organization had formed a team of seven debaters. The CR debate team was to have just eight debaters. Not enough interest?
The Democrats not only refused to participate with us, but also negated the hard work of the Model UN and their intended moderator, Sandy Green. I thought that it was the Republicans who had no regard for the UN. It was childish, rude, and selfish of them to withdraw after so much hard work and preparation went into this event.
This presidential race is one of the closest in history, not to mention all the tight state and local races. Fall 2004 should have been the biggest semester for political discourse in GC&SU’s history. But the GC&SU Democrats just will not participate. It seems that the GC&SU Young Democrats don’t suffer from a lack of interest, but rather a lack of conviction. They declined to take part in the mock election, or even to set up a campaign table during the election. They backed out of the debate at the last minute, claiming there wasn’t enough interest. Instead they hide in the shadows, dispersing propaganda and posting flyers attacking Republicans on personal rather than political levels.
I, for one, am very disappointed in the lack of opposition at this university. I know from my classes that there are liberals and Democrats here; they just haven’t been properly organized. The GC&SU College Republicans are hereby putting out a challenge to any student or group of students who wants to replace the Young Democrats in a debate with our team. We’re easy to find, go to our web site at http://~csucr.tripod.com or e-mail us at gcsucrweb@hotmail. com.
Josh Martin
Executive Director
GC&SU College Republicans
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Oct 22 2004. Filed under Opinion.
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