TO THE EDITOR:
The recent backlash in the opinion section in response to the College Republicans’ complaint concerning recent funding cuts was to be expected. There’s nothing more satisfying than seeing conservatives — longtime opponents of government “handouts” — complaining that they didn’t receive money.
I wonder, however, if some of the criticism has been unfair. Any charitable reading of the letter could see that it’s at least reasonable to think that the College Republicans’ main complaint is not that they received funding cuts, per se, but rather that they received substantial cuts while other groups did not. A lack of fair treatment was the real issue, not money.
Now I’m no Republican, and I am certainly not upset that they didn’t receive funding, but I can’t help but think that the kind of sloppy criticism that has been tossed around is indicative of a larger problem in American politics, namely, a lack of clear thinking.
Perhaps the most ironic part of the whole affair is that an anarchist group, the UNControllables, have pointed out the College Republicans’ hypocrisy.
I hope that we can all enjoy the fact that an anarchist group who claims to want to “do away with all systems of oppression and exploitation” is receiving funding from a public university.
Keith Pulling ’15
Philosophy
