LinkIn an upstairs room at the U of M's Coffman Union, plans for a counterrevolution are being hatched. Tom Meyer, a 19-year-old neuroscience student, has an idea for a John Kerry Olympics. "It would be a good way to piss people off and get our name out there," he says. Meyer is tall and boxy, and wears a T-shirt with a cartoon elephant flashing a middle digit. The words, "Kerry this, Hippie! This is Bush-Cheney Country, Biiiaaatch!" are inscribed in chunky lettering across the front. The Kerry Olympics, to be held sometime soon on campus, consist of participants running a flip-flop race, tossing a makeshift grenade into a pile of rice, throwing fake medals over a fence, and possibly gobbling a waffle.
Welcome to a meeting of the Campus Republicans, where after reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and asking God for wisdom in plotting their next steps, a group of guys from late teens to thirtysomething discusses gun control, Social Security, hating Michael Moore, and Fetus Festivals. To this group of conservative young voters, a dead Joe McCarthy is a better candidate for president than Democrat John Kerry.
The independent conservative organization, whose goal is to ensure that the Republican Party remains as conservative as possible, split from the Minnesota College Republicans in 2000. The group also is at the heart of conservative offshoot groups like Students for Family Values; Students for a Conservative Voice; Students for Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms; and the conservative campus newspaper, the Minnesota Patriot. "I think we should do a festival of the fetus," says Tom Gromacki, an elder of the bunch who is running for House representative in District 60A. "It's a pro-life fundraiser where we have all of the little plastic fetuses
. Maybe we could fill up a fetus piñata," he suggests. Everyone laughs as if this is the most ridiculous thing they've ever heard. Destroying a fetus piñata strikes the group as plain silly. But an Easter egg hunt for tiny pink plastic fetuses--that's the ticket! "During the Lent season, we're going to have the first annual hunt for life," says Marty Andrade, a 23-year-old psychology and philosophy student. Last year, the group organized an affirmative action bake sale where the goods were priced based on the purchaser's ethnicity. ...
Though much of the group's focus is on abortion issues, the men don't wince when asked why there are no women in the room (though one finally shows up later at an after-meeting get-together at Big 10). Currently, they say the male-to-female ratio is about 8 to 2. "They come and never come back," says Ochoada. "If we had Tupperware parties and stuff, we'd have more women," Dahl offers. It's unclear whether he's kidding.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
