Where are you, Republicans?

(10/13/04)

This year's presidential election is about three weeks away and I honestly feel exhausted already. I try to campaign for a certain Republican candidate and I feel as if I get no response. This realization has caused me to further ponder the outcome of this coming election.
Perhaps my failures as a recruiter for the Republican party are not due to my personal ineptitude, but because my finely constructed messages are falling on deaf ears. This evening, while meandering back to my car I spotted a flock of Democrats passing out their unholy literature and I realized that they have the right idea. They are actually doing something to influence our collegiate brethren.
Not once have I seen the Republican Party out pimping its message on campus. I have even contacted the advisor of the Campus Republicans and received no response. I am slow to commend any Democrat for anything, especially for those eight years in the nineties where they claimed responsibility for the upswing in a recurring fiscal cycle, partisanship aside, these people are out spreading their word and getting themselves involved.
Almost every Kerry supporter I speak with admits the same thing: They don't particularly like Kerry as much as they dislike President Bush. Now I am no fool, nor am I blinded by political allegiance, but I see this attitude as insufficient grounds for a man to be elected to the office of the President. If these people, or at least a percentage of these people were a little more informed or even given a sufficient nudge, I'm sure that the ideological decision to vote Democrat could be easily reversed and turned in to a positive for the Republicans. If people, specifically college students, were given a regular dose of partisan propaganda, I'm sure a few votes could be stolen from the other side. Again, the question of how to do this arises. Where are you, Republicans?
It is entirely possible that I don't spend enough time in the Student Center and, henceforth, miss passing their little table, but regardless, as a commuter, the Republican presence on campus is nonexistent. Even those vile dreamers, the Socialists are active on campus. I dare say that they are the most active political group on the entire campus of this University and even though I disapprove of their message, I commend them for their efforts and motivational drive, however misled it is. The mouthpiece of these campus Socialists, also my ideological archenemy, is a gleaming example of what an active member of a political party should be. Always finding a way to get their snouts in the public trough, the Socialists, and their outspoken chancellor, are far more organized than the Republicans and Democrats put together.
To my fellow Republicans and their advisor(s) I say this: organize, get yourself together and get out and start making an impact on campus. Yes, this is a place of more liberal thought, most college campuses are, but you will make a noticeable impact. At the very least there will be students eager to sign up for the cause and that makes the whole of the party stronger. Stop leaving politics to the Yale kids downtown and get something going, people. The lack of a vocal Republican organization on campus leads me to believe that defeat has been conceded and there is no reason to fight the good fight, I?ll be damned if I'm going to root for a losing cause, so get your collective asses in gear. From what I know, I am the lone voice of the Republican party on campus and I'm not going to be able to inform, recruit or persuade with anything near the amount of organization and efficiency that a well-oiled campus branch of a national Party can. So, if there are any Republicans on campus, try starting something in time to help volunteer and do something before the election and start by contacting me.
This need for a more apparent political presence on campus is not strictly the problem of the Republicans, all parties (including you Socialists) need to be more active and more easily reached on campus. A lot of students are apathetic about the political process and understandably so, all they know is what they see on the news. The television news is such a horrendously skewed way to become informed that it naturally turns people off to any party affiliation. Everyone on campus, get out and do something, if not just to feed your resume and impress future employers. Let us make this little campus a hotspot of political life and let us have debates and well-respected clubs and perhaps we'll make something of our tenure here. Godspeed my unilateral brothers and sisters and please, make your presence known. I'm tired of being the only political blowhard on campus.