Oh, those crazy kids…

Posted by Mary Mancini on September 13, 2006 under Uncategorized |

Republicans have a rising star in their newly hired intern, Morgan Wilkins, who is organizing their Get Out the Vote campaign at the University of Michigan. What is Wilkins’ idea of motivating the young people? How about “Catch an Illegal Immigrant Day,” in which a volunteer, playing the part of an illegal immigrant, hides somewhere on campus while others try to find him. Whoever finds the “illegal immigrant” wins a cross to martyr themselves on (OK, I made that last part up. They win some other sort of “prize”). Another way Wilkins encourages participatory democracy is called “Fun with Guns.” This little gem has the young and earnest Republicans using a BB or paintball gun to shoot cardboard cut-outs of Democratic leaders such as Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.). Lovely. Can you imagine what would be said if the College Democrats decided to make a midway shoot’em up game out Sen. Bill Frist or Sen. John McCain? A litte harmless fun or another example of the way Godless-liberals are teaching their children to hate America? I don’t know. Why don’t you go ask Sean Hannity?

These cheap Republican tactics devalue our democracy by debasing a difficult public policy issue like immigration reform. They also reduce the debate to the part of the issue that reveals the ugliest side of human nature. Forget about the need for reasonable standards of security. Forget about the difficulty we have in regulating our borders and our population. The difficult task of enacting good public policy shouldn’t be reduced to this. The even more gargantuan task of getting young people involved in the electoral process shouldn’t be reduced to this, either.

In contrast to Wilkins’ crass and unfunny games, according to College Democrats of America national President Lauren Wolfe and Chair of the College Democrats of America Hispanic Caucus Laura De Castro, “…College Democrats are engaging in positive campaign efforts to constructively engage young people in the political process such as our National Youth Organizing event which will kick off this Saturday. Instead of engaging in negative and divisive campaign strategies, College Republicans should also commit themselves to mobilizing all eligible young voters who have a critical stake in this year’s mid-term elections.”

You go, girls.