Winter II 2008Volume V, Issue III

hillsdale

the

forum

the crawler

Winter II 2008

it is everything you ever needed to know... and some things you didn’t

The Michigan Federation of CollegeRepublicans (MFCR) held their annualconvention on January 26th at OaklandUniversity. Hillsdale College’s chapter attended with thirty delegates, one of the largest delegations in attendance.The event offered an opportunity for College Republicans around the state tomeet, network, talk politics, as well as havesome fun. However, convention businesswas the main order of the day on Saturday as proposed amendments were considered andnew ofﬁcials were elected, with HillsdaleCollege Republican chairwoman KatherineMontgomery being elected to a top post.

Martin Kraegel III

John McCain said Mitt Romney’s belief that Iraqi government should meet a set of “timetables and benchmarks” is code for retreat, but in January 2007, the

Arizona Daily Star

reported that McCain himself advocated the same idea—timetables and benchmarks—“for the United States to con-tinue its engagement.”In an attack at the end of January, al-Qa-eda killed 91 Iraqi civilians by strappingremote-controlled bombs to two womenwith Down syndrome. One wonders whyAmericans should respect the perception of the United States these people have.Demi-Lee Brennan, an Australian girl inneed of a liver transplant, was saved oncestem cells from the donor changed her blood type to match the new liver. A lifesaved, no embryos necessary.The Right’s love affair with Fox Network’shit “24” may be at an end—the

Wall Street Journal

reports an plot-overhaul in Season7, including a Capitol Hill ﬁght over Jack Bauer’s methods and a new character whowill “hunt Jack down from the dark sideand drag him back to the light.”The City Council of Berkeley, California,has told the US Marine Corps they do notwant their recruiting stations downtown.In response, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) is proposing legislation that cuts Berkeley- beneﬁting earmarks and transfers thatmoney to the Marines. The Marines haveno intention of leaving.Mike Huckabee has Chuck Norris andJohn McCain has Sylvester Stallone…butcan either of them stand up to Hulkama-nia? Hulk Hogan recently told JimmyKimmel that “If I had to step out, and saywho I really believe in—that catches myear, that makes sense, that really can makea change—I would say Obama.”

Compiled by Calvin Freiburger

Delegates at the convention also heardfrom Charles Smith, the chairman of theCollege Republican National Committeespoke about new ways for chapters tocampaign in political races utilizing a newsocial network known as STORM. Hillsdale,with its thirty delegates, ended up playinga command role in steering the convention.Several amendments to the Federation’sconstitution were considered. Theseamendments would, if adopted, changeorganization rules. One offered byHillsdale’s delegation would have prohibited chapter heads from makingofﬁcial candidate endorsements inRepublican primaries. It was defeated.In the elections that were held, JustinZatkoff of the University of Michigan wasre-elected chairman. In addition, Keith Dunnof Eastern Michigan University was electedco-chair; Chaz Oswald of Grand RapidsCommunity College was elected 1st vice -chair; Pete Vitale of Oakland University waselected treasurer, and Andrew Boyd of theUniversity of Michigan was elected secretary.Katherine Montgomery, the chairwomanof the Hillsdale College Republicans, wasa surprise nominee for the new 2nd vice –chair position. Once her term begins, her primary responsibility will be organizing“resolution weekends,” where MFCR willhelp campaign for embattled Republicans.Unity was big theme of the convention asmany top ofﬁcials in the MCFR spoke of ending differences that had emerged in the pastand of moving towards a common purposeof electing Republicans in the upcomingautumn elections. Re-electing CongressmanTim Walberg, a Republican of Michigan’sSeventh District, was said to be a top priority.“I think everyone who attended thisyear’s Michigan Federation of CollegeRepublican convention had a wonderfultime,” said Montgomery. “It was so greatto see so many of our students excitedabout supporting the Republican Party inthe upcoming election cycle.” Montgomeryalso believes Hillsdale “demonstratedthat we have a strong and passionategroup of College Republicans here.”

MFCR UNITES, DIVIDES RESPONSIBILITIES

****

The National Post

reported that Canadianscientist David Suzuki recently told anaudience: “What I would challenge youto do is to put a lot of effort into trying tosee whether there’s a legal way of throw-ing our so-called leaders into jail becausewhat they’re doing is a criminal act.” Thecrime? Skepticism of, and inaction on,global warming. A spokesman says Dr. Su-zuki didn’t mean it literally. Right.

CIA Director Michael Hayden told Con-gress the controversial interrogation meth-od called water-boarding has been usedagainst imprisoned jihadists a whoppingthree times, and has not been employedsince 2003.

February 6, 2008: the great late RonaldReagan’s 97th birthday. Cheers to the manwho reminded us that “freedom is never more than one generation away from ex-tinction. We didn’t pass it to our childrenin the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do thesame.” NFL star-turned-pastor Ken Hutchersoncame the Martin Luther King Day presenta-tion at his daughter’s school to speak aboutequality. He didn’t expect his audience— his daughter’s own teachers—to boo himfor his opposition to same-sex marriage.Tolerance, indeed.A woman avoided a deadly battle with cer-vical cancer after her unborn twins kickedthe tumor so much that it dislodged.

***

the

TOLL

TOLERANCE

Nate Anderson

It seems that some upstarts would like tosee the notoriously imprecise hands of CentralHall’s clock tower get up to speed with therest of the world, while others prefer to think that Father Time bows his head to another

abba

. The debate over tolerance and diversityis hardly so simple, but it is best to be awareof the greater forces behind every assertion.With a ﬂurry of articles in Hillsdale’s

TheCollegian

concerning the subject, andwould-be Everett Scholars speechifyingabout ‘the limitsof tolerancein an age of diversity,’ itmight be helpfulto take a look at how someof Hillsdale’s potential statesmen view the problem.Though the ﬁnalists for the Everettcompetition will not go head to head untilFebruary 22

, a few of them agreed toshare their favorite lines from their orations.Gennady Stolyarov II offered his classicalliberal solution to the ageless dilemma.“The Austrian economist Ludwig vonMises, one of the most eloquent exponents of classical liberalism, wrote that ‘Liberalism proclaims tolerance for every religious faithand every metaphysical belief, not out of indifference for these ‘higher’ things, butfrom the conviction that the assurance of peace within society must take precedenceover everything and everyone’… a classicalliberal society prevents the bloodiest of allconﬂicts: clashes over ideology. A ThirtyYears’ War – driven by religious fanaticism – or a French Revolution – fueled by militantsecularism – are impossible in a classicalliberal world. Individuals are free to pursuewhatever ideals they believe in, to discussthem, and to persuade others of their truth.They are not free, however, to use any kindof

compulsion

to promote their beliefs.”It is difﬁcult to judge a speech from sucha small segment, and I would encourageeveryone to attend the lectures themselves, but it takes little effort to see where this line of thought leads. This is an excellent summaryof the views of many libertarians and muchof the Economic department at Hillsdale. Thecriticism I offer is that it hardly addressesreality. Youcan bringyour yappydog into thelibrary, butthe “quiet”sign on thedoor will probably not keep it from barking; thestructure of the system will not suddenlychange the nature of your pet. In a similar way, human nature can, and at times should, be no less obstinate. Plato famously wrote,“The price good men pay for indifferenceto public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”If the moral truths that good men adhere to

never

inﬂuence the kind of laws they supportthen there may as well be no good men, andthe result is the same. Perhaps a little lesstolerance is needed in order to preservetolerance at all.Michael David offered a very differenttake on the matter, “Ironically, by preachingtheir message of tolerance and diversity,multiculturalists have actually created a moreintolerant world, fueling the melting pot ﬁre by stressing people’s differences. If we onlyconcentrate on how different we are

The Price good men pay forindifference to public affairsis to be ruled by evil men

“”

-Plato

Continued on page 3

Hillsdale

the forum

Emilia Huneke-Bergquist

Julie Robison

Editors in Chief

Mary Kate Cavazos

Subscription Manager

Nate AndersonmATT cOLEcALVIN fRIEBURGERBrian JohnstonMartin Kraegel IIInATHAN lICHTMANKate MartinChristina Miller jAMES nESBITTScott RozellHeather ShellG. Stolyarov IIdAVE wASMER

Staff Writers

Mary Claire Andwoodmarissa farrellhannah meadElizabeth Thatcher

Contributing Writers

Elizabeth Essley

Photography

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Everett From page 2

from each other, how can we possiblyreconcile those differences and unite – notas African, Muslim, Native, and EuropeanAmericans, but simply as good ole apple piered-blooded Americans?”David also raises a good argument for alteringour perceptions about diversity and tolerance.Splintering off into superﬁcial factions thatdivide people into different racial or ethnicgroups can become excessive and plain silly.But, there appears to be a potential problemwith this argument. Should categories suchas “Muslim” be less important to one’sidentity than American? Perhaps this kindof awareness of fundamental differencesis healthy, allowing us to be intelligentlyintolerant. America has proven Her abilityto act as a great melting pot, embracing allkinds of individuals, but there remains adecent group of people who would prefer tokeep their very souls from melding with thathomogeneous mixture. David may very wellanswer this contention in his own speech, but it is important to recognize that factionswere as much a part of the Founders’ planfor America as any other element. The idealshould be a nation where individuals andfactions moderately emphasize the weightiestdifferences, not a society where ‘we all justget along.’Bridging the gamut between a pugnacious bull dog and a passive collie requires analways elusive degree of discernment. Theformer type we label contrariness and thelatter is arguably what most understand to be tolerance. In Plato’s

Republic

, Socratesinterestingly turns to the canine world to ﬁndthe qualities of the city’s guardians. Likedogs, they are loyal to their own and distrustthose that they do not know. Reason and lovesurely allow men to exceed this primitivestate, but Nature provides an example for usall by continuing to see differences.

Christina Miller

One of Mitt’s “Mittens”

Miller Photo

S“MITT”EN WITH ROMNEY:

Mitt Romeny dropped out of thepresidential race on ThursdayFebruary 9, 2008.

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Why the

Ladies

Love Him

The question of how to win the women’svote is on every presidential candidate’s mindas women generally tend to be swing voters.For much of the 2008 race, it has been assumedthat Hillary Clinton would garner the femalevote simply because she happens to be of thefemale persuasion. It is the hope of the Clintoncampaign that other women will be able toidentify with her and will therefore elect her to the OvalOffice amidthunderouscheering of having finally broken throughthe infamousglass ceiling.However,Sen. Clintonought not counther chickens before theyhatch. Whilethere are somewomen whowill vote for her just becauseshe’s a woman,there is a fairlysizable groupof women whoare running toanother candidate: Mitt Romney.The day after the Michigan Primary, severalwomen called into Rush Limbaugh to expresstheir enthusiasm about Romney’s win. All of these women showed admiration for not justRomney’s policies, but his character. Onecaller said that she thinks “he has a lovelywife and five beautiful sons and daughters-in-law and grandchildren. He comes acrossas a very wholesome American…He exudesthe most powerful morality I have seen inany candidate.” These women are so plentifulthat Rush has dubbed female Mitt voters“Mittens.”A Google search will reveal that this is notan isolated phenomenon. According to

The

Phoenix

, a New England newspaper, $2.5million of the first $20 million donated toRomney’s campaign came from homemakers.Women for Romney is a grassrootsorganization that supports the former Massachussetts governor. On their website,they proclaim their support avidly becausethey believe that he will foster an Americawhere their children can grow up safe. Theystate that they admire his commitment to hisfamily and their commitment to him, which isnot the type of gender politics the Clintonitesare banking on for their campaign.Romney has a following at Hillsdale as well.Junior Emily Cican said that she first likedRomney because he seemed an all-aroundconservative. “He’s politically and sociallyand fiscally conservative. I really like thathe has been a private businessman and hassucceeded at [it]. I think it’s important thata candidate has something that makes him personable and real. [Romney has] workedlike every other American.” She also addedthat she thinks“he is a verygood-lookingconservativeman.”Junior AnastasiaEaley is a self- proclaimedMitten. “Well,once I got over his hair, hisstrong economicrecord just blewme away,” shesaid. “His recordin Utah during the2002 Olympicsshows that heknows what he’sdoing and peoplewill be moreconfident in hisability as a leader.I think that financially our country is in need of a strong economic leader and he fits the bill.”Like the women on Rush Limbaugh’s show,Anastasia points to Romney’s family values.“I like his strong family values. I think thatwill ultimately direct his stance on legislationrelating to these issues.” She also wants itknown that “As a Christian, I do not find hisMormonism to be a stumbling block.”The women who support Mitt Romney feelthat they can identify with him; apparentlyRomney’s record as a businessman inthe private sector makes him much morerelatable than Hillary’s possession of the XXchromosome. Women view Romney as a manof character and believe that he can protecttheir country and, in turn, protect them.So yes, some ladies may dash to Hillary.However, there is still a contingent of womenwho wants to find someone who

really

sharestheir beliefs and experiences, and it seemsthat contingent has found their someone elsein Mitt Romney.