Letter to the Editor

We wanted to take this opportunity to address a letter to the editor written in last week's paper entitled "Promote bipartisan values on campus." We are very pleased that the College Democrats agree with us that we need more bipartisan discussion on campus. We had written an article two weeks ago stating just that. In our article, we talked about the lack of spoken conservatism on campus. We would like to take this opportunity to reemphasize some of the points we made in our article that were misunderstood by the College Democrats.First of all, and most importantly, our article was not an attack on the College Democrats. They have the right, and we encourage them, to be active members of the political discussion on campus. While they had interpreted it as an attack on their organization, it was not. In our article, we blamed ourselves for the overwhelming liberalism. In fact, we specifically wrote "This fear of announcing one's political views is not right, but the truth is, we, as conservatives, are not fixing the problem by remaining quiet. We have allowed the people who create these stereotypes to continue misrepresenting conservatism."

Second, we would like to clarify a specific comment that the College Democrats made in their article. We had referenced that other political groups on campus are brainwashing students. The College Democrats took this offensively and assumed we were referring to their organization's activity and hosting of speakers. This, however, is not what we were alluding to. When we said brainwashing, we were referring to the fact that the liberal environment has made it an uncomfortable place to be a conservative. It has caused students to feel shunned should they speak their mind on political issues. It isn't the fact that the College Democrats invited speakers to campus; it is the fact that liberal views have been influencing students from every sector of our college, including some faculty. It makes it hard to be a conservative.

The response written by the College Democrats is an example of the difficulty we face. We finally decided to stand up and make our voices heard, and we were immediately misinterpreted and smeared. If the College Democrats would like to have a discussion or debate about political issues, we would be delighted. However, we do not appreciate them misrepresenting our objectives and our views. We also do not appreciate them making statements about our organization without doing research. For example, they wrote that "The College Republicans remained inactive-not even inviting Senator John McCain in spite of an administrative suggestion." This is incorrect. If the College Democrats would have bothered to ask us, they would know that we DID in fact contact the McCain campaign and have remained in contact with them since last year.

We apologize to the College Democrats if our article in some way offended them. But, had they read the article more closely, they would have seen it not as an attack on them, but as a way to mobilize conservatives on campus.