Category: Columnists

Pink, White, and Blue: The Most Recent Transgender Fight

J Elizabeth Mascoli

The LGBT community has made great strides in the past few years with the nationwide legalization of same-sex marriage, as well as the growing visibility and awareness of LGBT issues.  However, the community does still face discrimination and ignorance, and the latest example of this is the reckless fervor with which the Trump administration is attempting to roll back rights.  The Department of Health and Human Services is currently trying to establish an “explicit and uniform” definition of gender.  According to a memo obtained by the New York Times that…

The Complications of Simple Majorities

Ryan Slattery

“I don’t believe that I can support a cloture resolution providing for cloture by a simple majority vote. The difficulty with any cloture is that it changes the entire character of the debate, and that it is liable to great abuse on the part of a bare majority.” – Robert A. Taft Let’s have a recap of the past two years in the U.S. Senate. Republicans took control of the Senate back in the 2016 election, holding 52 seats. With the help of the Senate Finance Committee, a new tax…

Are We Facing a Democratic Party in the Process of Radicalization?

Austin Sacker

Evident within the past decade or so, perhaps coinciding with the advent of social media platforms and greater media attention to our national political divide, the more radical elements of the right and left have gained major time in the American political spotlight. I am referring especially to the groups known as the “alt-right,” “Antifa,” the “alt-left,” and the like. While these groups are ostensibly ideologically opposed, they nonetheless share common methodological values: a diminished regard for civil discourse, a preference for informal political avenues of action, and on some…

Larry Pressler: A Relic of Conservatism

Ryan Slattery

What is your most outrageous college dorm story? Here’s mine. It was a warm but windy Wednesday afternoon. After the high winds caused my fruit punch to splatter all over my beloved peacoat, I furiously opened the door to my room to vent about the weather. It is a usual routine and, admittedly, a bad habit of mine to complain about things that are completely out of my control. But something was different. Jacob Linker, the president of the College Libertarians and a personal friend of mine, invited an unusual…

It’s Time for America to Capitalize on the Wrongs of Capital Punishment

Ryan Slattery

The number of deaths resulting from capital punishment have reached an all-time low since 1991. Despite much of the chaos we see today, only 23 prisoners have been executed in 20171. A Gallup Poll conducted in October of 2017 shows that 55 percent of Americans support capital punishment for cases of murder, a five-point drop from the October 2016 results2. Indeed, support for capital punishment has reached an all-time low in 45 years. The time has come where Americans are starting to see capital punishment as a practice that is…

Xi Jinping is Not Reading His History

Jacob Floam

Asia is in a state of flux. As many see the Western ideas of democracy and freedom retreating in the Orient, there is potential for history to repeat itself. This was most recently experienced in the 1930s, when the Japanese tried to reshape Asia in their image and millions died as a consequence. The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere was an effort by the statist Shōwa government to mask Japan’s belligerency to establish themselves as Asia’s hegemon. We all know what happened in the end. TASEANoday, Red China is working…

Righteousness

Greg Wagner

Theodore Roosevelt radiated a sense of noblesse oblige in his politics, viewing political calculation solely in terms of “Righteousness.” Righteousness might sound abstract, obscure, perhaps even outdated, to the ear, but to Roosevelt it had a precise definition. To Roosevelt, Righteousness implied that the morally right would conquer the wrong. It was his unshakeable conviction that righteousness would win the day that afforded Roosevelt a supreme confidence in his vision for a great American future. His political vision was simple, and for its simplicity and Righteousness, his vision was appealing.…

Democrats Should Begin to Study Universal Basic Income

Truman Stephens

Because Democrats continue to undergo an identity crisis following Donald Trump’s election in 2016 and the rising influence of the left wing of the Democratic Party, new ideas are needed to reinvigorate the party. The 2018 midterms are fast approaching, but Democrats are stuck in the muck reflecting on Donna Brazile’s impact on the election. Studying new economic ideas, like universal basic income, has the chance to reset the party’s economic message. Universal basic income (UBI) generally consists of unconditionally giving citizens a set amount of tax-free money each month.…