In reaction to how heated this political season has been so far, I think it is time to take a step back. We are not able to control what our candidates do on a national level, but we have complete control over what we do on Appalachian State’s campus.
An article that ran in The Appalachian last week, “College Democrats play dirty,” pointed out that various sandwich boards put out on campus are spreading misleading assertions.
One of the signs sponsored by College Democrats claimed that local Republican candidate for County Commissioner, Tommy Adams, is against students voting on campus. On the contrary, Tommy Adams has directly supported our clubs efforts of registering people in the Student Union, which disproves this assertion completely.
The mission of the College Republicans thus far has been one of positive promotion of our candidates. Our club has refrained from tampering with other clubs displays. We hope for the same respect from other organizations on campus.
As Chair of the Appalachian State College Republicans, I would like to encourage civil debate and respectful freedom of speech on campus. If a party wants to question a candidate’s record, it should be based on substance rather than personal attacks.
One quote from British politician Margaret Thatcher sums this up completely: ‘I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means that they have not a single political argument left.’
Sincerely,
Kelsey Crum
Chairwoman, College Republicans