“True conservative” – a descriptor not even Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson would ascribe to himself, yet the Cornell Republicans declared him as such, and the only one of such running for president in 2016, in a recent Facebook post.
The endorsement comes a little over a week after the Cornell “Daily” Sun published a staff editorial calling on the Cornell Republicans to renounce and, by implication, not endorse Donald Trump for president.
The Sun, in its editorial, wrote Trump’s views “defy the values of equality and diversity that are fundamental to both our collegiate and national values” and “The list of Trump’s policy weaknesses and character failings is endless.” Even though the Sun has a staff of over 100 to think of phrases to discredit the GOP candidate, they couldn’t avoid including this cliche: Trump is a “clear and present danger.”
The Cornell Republicans add on: Trump displays “visceral rhetoric and angry demeanor” and “insults our war heroes.”
It seems both are reading the same DNC talking points.
It was difficult to predict whether the Cornell Republicans would endorse Trump. Two previous Sun articles quoted executive board members hosting a range of views: here and here. Some liked Trump’s “law and order” message while others were “insulted” by chants of “USA, USA” before his speeches.
The issue here is not so much the non-endorsement of Donald Trump. In fact, in light of all the ideological differences in the Cornell Republicans and the desire of many members to remain in good graces with the Campus Establishment, it would have been best to simply not endorse anyone, if a Trump endorsement was so unfathomable to the executive board. But calling Johnson a “true conservative” means the executive board of Cornell Republicans do not understand conservatism — which is highly embarrassing — and it is a designation Johnson himself would not even accept.
Johnson, once a Republican, is now a self-avowed Libertarian, even though many Libertarians are unhappy or staunchly opposed to his nomination. See here and here as two examples.
“Supporting a candidate who does not defend the right to life, does not defend religious liberty and calls Hillary Clinton a ‘wonderful public servant’ is a flippant reaction to the choosing of a bad nominee,” said local libertarian activist Rocco Lucente.
“The time to stop Donald Trump was during the primaries and I wish Cornell Republicans had stood up and endorsed a true liberty candidate such as Senator Rand Paul to carry the torch for the GOP at that time. Endorsing Gary Johnson sends the message that promoting conservative and libertarian principles is secondary to signaling your distaste for Donald Trump.”
But, this is college, and virtue-signalling trumps all else.
It would have made some sense if the Cornell Republicans endorsed Johnson because they want the GOP to become more libertarian in general, but by calling Johnson a “true conservative” they have betrayed their true feelings: the executive board of Cornell Republicans aren’t libertarians — otherwise they could have called Johnson a “true libertarian” — but rather they are some form of weak conservative or otherwise unwilling to support Trump, or simply remain aloof from endorsements.
At the end of the day, the endorsement or non-endorsement of Ivy League #NeverTrump College Republicans doesn’t really mean anything on a larger scale. But here on campus, it means a lot, especially now the Cornell Sun knows it can call on the Cornell Republicans to jump and the Cornell Republicans will respond: “how high?”
True conservatives do not listen to the lamentations of a left-wing campus publication dictating unto them how to conduct themselves politically.
The Cornell Sun, of course, no longer prints daily, and it can be now be said the Cornell Republicans no longer represent Republicans and conservatives at Cornell.
So on one hand you feel the Sun shamed the Cornell Republicans, but on the other hand, as a response, you try and shame them back? Hypocrisy.
I’m not trying to shame them into doing anything.
If you were in charge of the Cornell Republicans, it would have two members.
Ouch. Your visceral rhetoric and angry demeanor is so bad CRs would never endorse you for anything!
If you cared to contact any member of the Cornell Republicans, you would know most of what you wrote in this article isn’t true, but it’s obvious you’d prefer to create a narrative and act like a victim.
If you know me, the last thing I would ever do is make myself the victim. And, in case you’re unaware, I have been a member of the Cornell Republicans for 3 years, and talked to many current and former members before writing this. Perhaps the E-Board of Cornell Republicans should have consulted with its many long-time members before doing this.
Triggered.
Sorry if we don’t believe that a misogynistic bigot represents our party.
Which party is represented by someone who hired private investigators to run smear campaigns to silence women harassed and/or assaulted by her husband?
Not the Libertarian party.
The Democratic Party.
Maybe it’s possible to endorse Gary because of a desire for acceptable public discourse and actual discussion of real ideas. You don’t have to agree with him on everything, but he’s the only candidate preaching smaller government.
And the goal should be to reduce the overall number of abortions, not criminalize it further. Something both sides should be able to come together to work on.
Gary Johnson has expressed support for carbon taxes, mandatory vaccines, publicly funding Planned Parenthood, and forcing people to violate their religious beliefs. He is in no way preaching smaller government. He has in effect sold out the Libertarian party.
So none of those things that you just listed are valid points and only show how stuck in the past the GOP has become. Carbon taxes are just one idea to combat the very real threat of climate change that we are starting to feel the effects of.Vaccines should be mandatory as they are critical to maintaining public health, we should fund plan parenthood since it actually does provide services other than abortions, and I’m not sure what you are talking about by “forcing people to violate their religious beliefs” but Gary Johnson supports treating people like human beings which some religions can’t seem to manage. I’m not sure why you think Gary Johnson has sold out, as for most of these points that you made he has been quoted supporting as far back as the early 2000s.
Those are all valid positions, but they are not libertarian positions. He shouldn’t claim to be what he is not. Libertarian means smallest government possible. Using taxes to manipulate the economy, funding controversial organizations, forcing your social views on others, and mandating vaccines runs contrary to that. Johnson even said he would force Jews to bake Nazi cakes. If he was an actual libertarian, his platform would be more or less like Ron Paul.
You misrepresent Gary Johnson on each of those points to such a level it can only be characterized as fraud.
Johnson is a thinking person and discusses all sides of an issue. The Nazi birthday cake thing? That was a statement made in contrast to an anarchist’s view and was explaining how the law stands right now. The Carbon Fee thing was part of a larger point on the environment and was used specifically to illustrate how some solutions are more market oriented and some are less market oriented.
Discussing sides is NOT an endorsement of the side, it is how intelligent people demonstrate that they are not speaking off the cuff. Maybe you are not used to listening to smart people in politics or the habits of the erudite intimidate you. Maybe you get your information from irresponsible and biased sources. One thing is clear, you are making statements that are not only not truthful, but your calumny is contrary to the truth.
As birds of a feather flock together, I can guess that you are a Trump fan. You may want to consider his effect on your sense of ethics.
Rather than throwing insults, how about you actual defend his “libertarian” positions?
I am no Trump fan. I am just recognizing that Gary Johnson is no alternative for conservatives or libertarians.
Because the issue isn’t his positions, the issue is your misrepresentation of them.
What misrepresentation?
Serious sad, Casey. Virtue Signalling isn’t the exclusive providence of the Left, as this piece of tripe so elegantly shows.
There will be a lot of victims from Trumpism. Seems you aim to be one of them? For while you are entitled to your personal views, clearly you no longer represent the majority view of Cornell Conservatives, Cornell Libertarians or Cornell Republicans. (Sure you possibly still have the support of the Cornell Review ed board – which would be even sadder in that it professes itself to be “Cornell’s conservative and libertarian student publication”.)
The admirable thing to do in such case would have been to resign and state your reasons for such. Perhaps your future is to be the founder of a new blog; The Cornell AltRight Paper? (“CARP” has such a nice ring to it.)
Or perhaps after you get over being so #butthurt over your loss here, you might take a health opportunity to look deep at the man in the mirror.
Honestly, I hope you pick the latter road. Bitter is never a good look on the young.