*_The State Press_
Arizona State University*

“My ‘yellow brick road’: Republicanism”

5. We do things differently. I can’t even count how many times during the health care reform debates I was told, “We are the only developed country that doesn’t have socialized health care.” Yeah, and we are the only country that can get pizza delivered before an ambulance shows up. People should want to be like us.

4. We believe in fairy tales. You can become something from nothing. No government assistance necessary. They call that the American Dream.

3. We pick the BMW over the bandwagon. We’d rather ride past in our hard-earned Beamer than jump on the latest bandwagon. You might say we weren’t invited by the cool kids, but morals and ethics are cool. 50 Cent knows this, reportedly calling George W. Bush a “gangsta” a while back. We can roll with that.

2. Brain cells. I’m going to remember my schooling in a year. I went to class, and I wasn’t drunk or stoned. This may sound like a negative for you young partying Democrats, but some day you’ll need a job when you get off the dole.

1. Looks aren’t a thing. When people sing in Disney movies about wanting people to see who they really are inside, they are talking about Republicans. Don’t get me wrong we have some hotties — have you seen the Romney sons? — but we don’t vote for people because they are attractive. We vote for them because they are successful. We’ve got our priorities straight.

– Haley Mills, Jan. 31 issue

*_The Daily Trojan_
University of Southern California*

“Republicans need to revise message”

The most intelligent thing that the Republican Party could do is to adapt to our present realities. That does not mean compromising its fundamental principles, as Jindal correctly states, but it does require some revisions to avoid ideological inconsistency and attract dedicated followers in the future.

That means returning to a platform that truly espouses limited government: no more corporate welfare, no more government interference in the love lives of mutually consenting adults and no more spending increases where they are not absolutely necessary.

Far from being stupid, the foundational ideals of the Republican Party are arguably the most commonsensical ones for restoring and maintaining a prosperous and free America. It is time to stand on a platform that communicates this clearly and unequivocally, and Jindal’s statement is a step in the right direction.

– Sarah Cueva

*_The Stanford Daily_
Stanford University*

“Everyone can be racist”

It is inherently divisive, framing the struggle to attain power as whites versus everyone else. It is also disempowering to minorities. By arguing that minorities have no power with which to be racist, we forget instances in which minorities clearly do have power. My colleague Annie Graham was guilty of this in a recent op-ed. She began a column on abortion with “so these nine white guys walk into a room,” in reference to the Roe v. Wade justices. Neglected in her statement was the fact that one of the nine justices, Thurgood Marshall, was black.

While I can only hypothesize Annie’s ultimate thoughts on race relations, she has in all likelihood been exposed to the leftist communities at Stanford who advance the ideology that “only whites can be racist.” I myself was introduced to that phrase at Stanford, and in my time here I have heard it mentioned many times. Its corollary – that every decision of consequence is brought about by “white guys in a room” – is also quite common. My hope is that professors in the humanities and social sciences are not propagating this ideology, yet my suspicion is that many are, or at the very least are sympathetic to it.

By giving weight to the belief that only whites can be racist, that only white people have power, we are not only being intellectually dishonest and generating racial tension, but beginning to forget the influence that minorities have exercised in guiding this and other nations. Though by all means we should not forget the struggles minorities have faced, we should also refuse to accept flawed and divisive ideology that comes at the expense of reason and equality.

– Adam Johnson