TGIH: The WashU Political Community

20040421 WATER GLASSLet me be the first to say how thrilled I am about this new website, a new forum for intelligent political discourse within the university community. It marks the latest in a string of campus political programming that makes me undeniably (and uncharacteristically) optimistic. From the well-attended Campus Crossfire debate between College Democrats and Republicans to the encouraging success of the first ever Hip-Hop Week, this last semester has been full of events that make me glad to be part of this university, where the student body can maintain this level of engagement during a time that lacks the excitement of last year’s Vice Presidential Debate and national elections.  So… thank you for that.

More specifically, I want to talk about a lesser-known group on campus that has grabbed my attention lately. The Conservative Leadership Association has somewhat won me over the last two months or so, although far be it from me to agree with them on just about anything. To be sure, the latest edition of their own magazine The Witness left a lot to be desired, but then again everything somewhat pales in comparison to the latest editions of your own Political Review. (Seriously, have you seen the most recent editions? If not, you can find them in our online archives.) I was one of maybe twenty students who attended one of their recent presentations, an outside professor speaking of the merits of a distributist economic system. While I was certainly not convinced by the time I left, a found the discourse to be of a level that I doubt I would be able to find in a non-academic setting and, in fact, probably far superior to the vast majority of even collegiate political discussions I’ve witnessed. I think that, if you can get over the dirty word “conservative” appearing in their title, this group may have a lot to offer for politicos of every persuasion.

Sure, there is a lot of room for improvement. The recent faux-gulag fiasco, while entertaining, has shown a certain level of absurdity in public debate. Also, despite the vocal outrage at the university smoking ban, little more than a handful of WashU students turned out to vote on Election Day (yes, there was an election this year), so the proposed smoking ban passed by an extraordinary margin. Still, things have been much better than I would expect in an off year, and I hope this trend of discourse continues to flourish.

Verdict: The Glass is Half Full!

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