The Rice Thresher, Vol. 96, No. 11, Ed. 1 Friday, November 7, 2008 Page: 3 of 28
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Op-Ed
Republican Party faces difficult recovery
For the Republican Party, the
question after the 2008 Presidential
Election is: What happens next?
Its losses in Congress and its defeat
in a transformative presidential elec-
tion have Republican leaders wonder-
ing where they went wrong and how
Brian Reinhart
the party can recover. On these ques-
tions conservative pundits are divided
into two rival camps, which may be
poised to launch a civil war of ideas.
One group, including such lumi-
naries as columnist George Will and
satirist Christopher Buckley, argues
that the Republicans need to swing to
the center, repudiating the neo-con-
servatism of the Bush administration.
The other camp, which includes com-
mentators as thoughtful as William
Kristol and as loud as Bill O'Reilly, con-
tends that the party needs to rally its
right-wing base and be more assertive
on issues such as illegal immigration,
gay marriage and abortion. The first
group argues that Senator John McCa-
in could have won the 2008 election
by picking a moderate vice presiden-
tial nominee and disowning the leg-
acy of President George W. Bush. The
second group believes McCain would
have won if he had done more work
to energize the evangelical movement
and if he had been more harshly criti-
cal of Barack Obama's radical pastor,
Jeremiah Wright.
These two competing views on Mc-
Cain's defeat and the party's future
leave little room for compromise. Re-
publicans must change their priorities
drastically, either by redoubling their
dedication to core right-wing values
or abandoning them in favor of cen-
trist compromise. We must hope that
the party chooses conectly to dis-
mantle its ultra-conservative social
agenda and become a more moderate
political voice.
There are many problems with
reaffirming a commitment to the far-
right party base. First, it will be hard
for the Republicans to become more
ferociously conservative than they
already are. Second, Barack Obama's
strong support among self-identified
moderate voters suggests that much
of America does not identify with the
conservative movement. As John Mc-
Cain aligned himself more closely
with the right on issues such as tax
cuts and offshore drilling, he began
to lose traction among American cen-
trists. His biggest drop in the polls
came after the selection of his running
mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin,
an evangelical neo-con who alienated
moderates and polarized the electoral
atmosphere by associating Barack
Obama with terrorists.
St
The Republicans
need to recast
their party plat-
form to expand
their appeal for
racial minorities,
religious liberals
and political
moderates.
99
Yet another problem with a po-
tential Republican lurch to the right
is that the party stands to alienate
young voters. Our own campus, gen-
erally perceived as moderate or just
apathetic, is a good example. The Rice
Standard's election survey, released
on Monday, found that our student
body overwhelmingly disagrees with
Republican stances on nearly all the
social issues. Nearly two-thirds of the
400 students who took the Standard's
poll agreed, for example, that homo-
sexual couples should be allowed to
marry, and almost three-quarters of
Rice students believe women should
have the right to an abortion in most
circumstances. There are universi-
ties both more conservative and more
liberal than ours, but these results
at least suggest lhat the Republican
Party's fight against marriage and
abortion rights risks losing our gen-
eration's support.
The final problem with a Repub-
lican Party that returns to its base
and rallies social conservatism is that
the leaders of the right wing are not
strong. TV pundit and noted neo-con
Kristol thinks the next great Republi-
can leader is Sarah Palin, even though
her bumbling interviews and angry
anti-Obama rants disturbed much of
the American public. Young people
are especially wary of Palin: On our
campus, the Standard's survey found
that a measly 8 percent of students
had a positive opinion of the Alaska
governor. Furthermore, charges of
ethics violations and a spotty political
record suggest that Palin is simply not
a competent leader.
The path forward for the Republi-
can Party is clear but painful. It needs
to accept that America has rejected
Bush-style neo-conservatism, and
it must realize that the next genera-
tion of young voters is both more po-
litically engaged than ever before and
more socially liberal than ever before.
The Republicans need to recast their
party platform to expand their appeal
for racial minorities, religious liberals
and political moderates. If the party
tries to head in the opposite direc-
tion, by embracing outdated policies
and anointing ultra-conservatives like
Sarah Palin as the faces of the future,
it risks alienating a generation and
feeding the new liberal resurgence.
In short, if the Republican Party de-
cides that the right reaction to John
McCain's defeat is to rally neo-conser-
vatives and evangelicals for one more
march to the right, the rest of America
may leave the Republicans behind.
Brian Reinhart is a Wiess
College sophomore.
Support not tantamount to blind approval
After months of uncertainty, the
longest election in history has come
to a close and the country can now
accurately identify the next leader
of the free world. President-elect
Barack Obama, having run a bril-
liant campaign, deserves all the vic-
Caroline May
tory and praise going his way. His
triumph was indeed historic, and I
will be proud to look to him as my
country's leader. But although I am
enthusiastic, 1 do have concerns.
Throughout the last two years,
Obama promised many things and
raised our expectations extraor-
dinarily high. Despite the osten-
sible closure of his campaign, many
Americans still do not know for sure
where Obama plans to take this
country. Yes, we have heard that he
is for hope and change, but, as a
newcomer with a short resume, vot-
ers approached Obama much like a
Rorschach inkblot, seeing what they
wanted to see, not necessarily what
he is.
Whatever the outcome of the
election, half the country would
wake up disappointed on Nov. 5.
However, as Obamiacs slap on their
party hats and blow their victory bu-
gles, the question for many remains
this: What exactly does Barack
Obama stand for? While he ran as
a centrist, his radical associations,
voting record (sparse though it is)
and his off-the-cuff comments have
made a great deal of people hesitant
[Barack Obama's]
triumph was
indeed historic,
and I will be
proud to look to
him as my coun-
try's leader. But
althought I am
enthusiastic, I do
have concerns.
99
to truly consider him a moderate. 1
am hopeful that Obama will govern
with the pragmatism, bipartisanship
and restraint he spoke about on the
campaign trail. While I am optimis-
tic, I remain aware that Obama is
America's most liberal senator and
Role of college master
should be coveted position
Every five years, each resi-
dential college at Rice conducts
a search process to select its next
masters. This year Hanszrn and
Lovett colleges' turns hav. arrived.
Both of the colleges have formed
eager student and faculty search
Ted Wieber
committees, have prepared to mar-
ket the virtues of their colleges and
have been spreading news of the
opportunity far and wide by word-
of-mouth and through attendance
at a faculty reception. However,
the number of faculty members
expressing interest in the job of
college master has been disap-
pointingly small. There are several
wonderful potential candidates
among these, but their strengths
are overshadowed by a remarkable
lack of broader faculty interest in
two of the most influential faculty
positions at Rice.
The simple point I hope to
make — for this year's search and
for the many searches in the years
following — is that Rice faculty
members should clamor for the
role of college master. Yet this isn't
the case, and department chairs
and our university president
should waste no time in address-
ing this issue.
The fact is that being a college
master is one of the most unique
and remarkably powerful op-
portunities available to tenured
faculty at Rice. Masters become
intimately involved in the lives of
students, helping them navigate
the tumultuous developmental
waters of the college years. And,
in return, masters gain a rich and
varied five-year-experience as
integral parts of the Rice
social fabric.
that his ideological history is quite
radical. Though we desire for him to
succeed as a leader, we ought to hold
him accountable for all his promises
of moderation.
While I could go on for days di-
vulging my numerous problems
with Barack Obama's ideology, the
fact remains that he is to be the next
president of the United States, and
since he is now the next president of
our country, I will support him.
The momentous nature of the
election is, indeed, contagious.
Against all odds, this black intel-
lectual, son of a Kenyan goat herder,
serving less than 150 days in the
Senate, was able to capture a nation.
Although John McCain lost and con-
servatism has been relegated to the
periphery, the groundbreaking na-
ture of this election is a bright spot.
America truly is a beautiful model of
equal opportunity.
Each night before I go to bed I
say a prayer for (among others)
President George W. Bush. You can
be sure that, despite my visceral
dislike for Obama's politics, every
night hence I will be hitting my
knees and praying for his success.
Even after such a polarizing elec-
tion, we are all still Americans, and
I am proud to be able to stand with
our newly elected leader even if I do
fear the direction he plans to take
the country. Now for 2012...
Caroline May is a Will Rice
College senior.
U
College masters
have the
opportunity to
nurture student
leaders, to inspire
introverts to come
out of their shells,
and to create a
safe and inclusive
learning and
living environ-
ment for all.
99
College masters wear multiple
masks: They are part parent, part
cheerleader, part advocate, part
friend. They represent the college
in university politics on Fridays
and paint their faces for powder-
puff games on Saturdays. They see
what students are like when they
let their hair down, no longer put-
ting up fronts in class or pretend-
ing to be interested in a professor's
research during office hours. And
on rainy days in the commons,
masters enter into students' per-
sonal lives. They learn of Mark's
political ambitions over a cup of
coffee, of Sarah's struggles with
her religious beliefs and of Jona-
than's search to find a fulfilling
career. Masters hear uncensored
student views of the university and
the broader world; they learn who
has a talent for boy-band karaoke,
who can run an efficient meeting
and who deals best and worst with
stressful weeks. College masters
have the opportunity to nurture
student leaders, to inspire intro-
verts to come out of their shells
and to create a safe and inclusive
learning and living environment
for all.
In short, college masters
have front row seats to some of
the most pivotal developmental
years in young people's lives and
actually have the opportunity to
impact how students make the
most of them. They bring the rhet-
oric of student-faculty interaction
into reality.
tt
At a university
where glossy
admissions
brochures tout
student-faculty
interaction as a
chief reason to at-
tend, the position
of college masters
shoud receive all
the administrative
nurture it requires.
99
So the question remains — why
are Rice faculty members letting
these golden opportunities slip by
entirely uninvestigated? I under-
stand that a five-year commitment
requires a lot of careful delibera-
tion, but with so much to poten-
tially give and receive, why aren't
faculty members at least curious
enough to learn more?
Aside from legitimate personal
reasons, I can only conclude that
faculty members are either un-
aware of the openings or facing
institutional deterrents — in the
form of inadequate departmental
recognition of their potential com-
mitment to students — that keep
them from considering such a re-
markable opportunity to invest in
Rice's student body. If it is the for-
mer, allow this article to proclaim
the immense student interest in
meeting with even casually inter-
ested faculty; if it is the latter, de-
partment chairs and our university
president should consider reduc-
ing the teaching and publication
demands and providing further fi-
nancial incentives for faculty who
become college masters.
At a university where glossy ad-
missions brochures tout student-
faculty interaction as a chief reason
to attend, the position of college
master should receive all the ad-
ministrative nurture it requires.
Search committees at Hanszen and
Lovett should be inundated with
curious faculty applicants, not
left wondering what's wrong with
the system.
Ted Wieber is a Hanszen College se-
nior and chair of the Hans Ten Master
Search committee.
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Chun, Lily & Farmer, Dylan. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 96, No. 11, Ed. 1 Friday, November 7, 2008, newspaper, November 7, 2008; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443091/m1/3/: accessed July 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.