We owe, we confess, a debt of gratitude to Brandon Henak and the parasitical poseurs (parasitical because they claim the benefit of others' service; poseurs because they do so in the name of a facile and feigned patriotism) of the Marquette University College Republicans about whose efforts to hijack the pathetic plight of poorly equipped American soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan we wrote yesterday. Had they not caught our attention, we would have not have seized this opportunity to offer our assessment of the dangers the College Republicans pose to democracy in this republic.
We are all aware of the propensity of members of the College Republicans National Committee, a 527 group which aims to further GOP goals, to financially defraud senior citizens in this country by bombarding them with misleading and often quite alarming (and inaccurate) fundraising campaigns. Ripping off American grannies, is not the only fraud which the National College Republicans encourages its campus acolytes to employ, however.
Did you know, Gentle Reader, that the National College Republicans openly encourage College Republicans to engage in fraud on their home campuses? We direct you to the "Chapter Manual" (a pdf file you can download and later use for kindling), which, on p. 43, encourages College Republicans to:
Take over the College Democrats or other leftist groups and clubs, and endorse Republicans and conservative causes and issues instead.Now how would a College Republican take over the College Democrats? Are we to imagine that self-identified Republicans would attend College Democrat meetings and by the sheer power of their arguments persuade College Democrats to endorse Republicans? Or, perhaps we should acknowledge that the National College Republicans are encouraging young Americans to subvert clubs and institutions in their colleges and universities by infiltrating and undermining these groups (cf. Mr. Guckert's infiltration of the White House Press Corp). It sounds like some J. Edgar Hoover fantasy of the Red Menace, only this time, the Republicans are the "Reds." And, in the height of their arrogance they post this call to fraud and dishonesty on the web.
This "urge to subvert" is, we think, not simply a case of encouraging post-pubescent hijinks to be recalled with chuckles over martinis at reunions to come. Colleges and universities allocate funds to student groups, taking great care to ensure that as wide a range of student views and interests as possible are supported on campus. Inevitably the effort involves some level of controversy and in any given semester some students feel that they've been ignored or undervalued. When the "Red" Jugend take over the College Democrats they distort an already complex and vexious funding process, and commit a kind of financial fraud.
Are there campus consequences to this "nudge, nudge, wink, wink" attitude towards financial fraud on campus by the College Republicans National Committee? Well, consider the case of the "Red" Jugend at Rochester Institute of Technology, who, in the minutes (published on the web) of their September 7, 2004 meeting, record discussion of the creation of a "clone" group.
Make a clone group to avoid political affiliations. Can get funding for speakers and events.Inspired no doubt by the implicit encouragement in the sacred Chapter Manual to dissemble about their political affiliations in order to subvert other political clubs, RIT CRs came up with the idea of dissembling about their political affiliations in a clone group in order to get funding for speakers the College Republicans wanted, which the CRs otherwise wouldn't be entitled to.
Now the dollars involved are probably small compared to the kind of fraud Enron engaged in (say, has Il Ducetto's friend Ken Lay been indicted yet?), but the principle is, we think, rather large. The College Republicans National Committee is encouraging their devotees to dissemble about their actual political beliefs and partisan affiliations in order to gain a greater political voice on campus than they could if they admitted their identities and interests. That such conduct is dishonest and would have unfair financial consequences for (if not actually work a financial fraud against) other campus groups is of no concern to the National Committee.
Someone should mention this tactic to college Deans of course, but all Americans, regardless of their political identity and partisan affiliation, should consider whether the fact that the College Republicans National Committee is promoting dishonesty and fraud among our youth is a very good thing. In later posts we will consider the culture of contempt the CRs promote and the perils, which the beliefs that culture entails, pose for a democractic republic such as ours.
