H 23°, L 4° | Tomorrow: 
H 21°, L 6°
This past Monday my colleague Zach Schuster wrote a column (“
And in many respects, he is entirely correct.
However, my good colleague neglects a troubling facet of the
And this impediment is no one really listens to them anymore.
Take the recent ASM elections. Seven out of 27 seats on Student Council were filled by members of the For Accountability Community and Empowerment of Students slate, while the rest were filled by all eight members of the opposing Responsibility Slate or unaffiliated candidates. Consider this. FACES did win a substantial number of seats in Student Council. However, all of the candidates from the opposing slate won. It seems as though the Vote No Coalition, the ideological predecessor to FACES, could only assemble large constituencies for as long as its own foundational absurdities were not made obvious; as soon as the veil was lifted, this triumph proved entirely ephemeral. Fear-mongering masquerading as “grassroots organizing” can only take one so far, it seems.
Additionally, there is Progressive Dane’s recent collapse in
What Schuster misses is the larger trend within the
But beyond the ridiculous tactical blunders made by the campus and city left’s incendiary leadership, what has become apparent since the election of Eli Judge is the proletariat’s self-appointed clan of representatives has descended into a more endemic form of irrelevance than a few isolated electoral defeats would imply. This cannot be attributed to infighting alone.
The fact of the matter is students are becoming aware that the promise of radical leftism as manifested here is little more than a fool’s errand. Tuition should not, nor will it, be frozen. Student Services Finance Committee members should not, nor will they, be forced to undergo diversity training. These people are grown adults capable of understanding a group’s merit regardless of what amounts to little more than blatant political brainwashing. Grassroots organizing on the level of ASM will succeed only insofar as people care. Homeless people should not have any more of a right to urinate in public areas than anyone else, which is to say, no one has a right to do this. And contrary to the beliefs of the increasingly frustrated campus and — to a more limited extent — city left, refusal to entertain their shrill, condescending agenda does not imply ignorance. It does not indicate the student body is in the grip of a reactionary elite intent on crushing democracy. It means they’ve figured things out on their own. And what could be more grassroots than that?
Sam Clegg ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in economics.
IP hash: f57c9169
Excellent, dare I say best of the year, for a campus paper. Bravo young man.
IP hash: e076f6ac
you’re a fucking idiot.
IP hash: a97bef5b
Brilliant article Sam, and completely on the money.
IP hash: 3cc8a28f
“Fear-mongering masquerading as ‘grassroots organizing’ can only take one so far, it seems.”
Great line Sam. Maybe my favorite of the year.
IP hash: 623a8003
“And contrary to the beliefs of the increasingly frustrated campus and � to a more limited extent � city left, refusal to entertain their shrill, condescending agenda does not imply ignorance.”
Great line, couldn’t have said it better myself.
IP hash: ab123ee8
”..refusal to entertain their shrill, condescending agenda does not imply ignorance.” How apropos!
This applies to sooooo many of the radical left agendas, such as “Global Warming”. Think of Al Gore sonorously pronouncing “The debate is over.” as he again presents his completely discredited “Hockey Stick” global warming pitch. As our planet continues in a nearly decade long cooling trend while C02 emmisions have increased, the radical enviros continue to push the frippery that CO2 is pollution and the root cause of a nonexistent Global Warming. Every mammalian exhalation is pollution? Really? The essential molecule for all plant growth on the planet is pollution? We should eliminate the source of 91% of the energy consumed in the US to provide a nonsolution to the radical left’s nonproblem? Shrill and condescending agendas, indeed!
As recent polls show, Americans are increasingly aware that honesty is not a plank in the leftist platform and Global Warming is neither. Their deceits are being left behind in a new pragmatism. As more Americans look past the gloss of our shiny new president, his lack of essential skills becomes more and more apparent. Common sense and pragmatism will reign in his bankrupt spending, inane foreign policies, and marxist philosophies. It will mean that the Amercian citizens have figured that one out on their own as well. It can’t happen soon enough. May God preserve us until then!
IP hash: da8a37df
9:26 am, I don’t think Clegg came even close to making a screed against global warming.
IP hash: a03e4eaa
Sam,
In the future, I would recommend just doing a copy and paste from the Critical Badger when writing articles like these. It will save you the time of having to paraphrase his ignorant arguments about the campus ‘far left’ - which I take to mean includes such groups as SPD, MCSC, CAN, MEChA, etc.
And though this piece is inaccruate in countless ways, there is one sentence in particular that stands out:
“Not only have factional struggles � including the rather shady and distinctly un-progressive squelching of talented organizer Chynna Haas � racked leftist groups, but their efforts at expansion, whether in Common Council or student government, have proved disastrous.”
At no point was it even suggested to Chynna by anyone in FACES that she remove herself from the slate. Her departure was strictly voluntary. But I guess writing articles is easier when you can just make up whatever you want, instead of doing the real work of - oh, I don’t know - talking with actual members of FACES to get the facts.
-Kyle
IP hash: 927aca99
lovely article Sam.
down, down with czar kyle!
IP hash: c6348712
maybe someone should talk to chynna? it seems doubtful that clegg or the czar have spoken to her.
IP hash: 69c66bed
Kyle,
2 things. First, just because you don’t like the CB doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t agree with him. Your kidding yourself if you don’t think that a significant portion of students, maybe even a majority, agree with many of his opinions.
Secondly, why don’t you tell us what happened with Chynna? She was right with you leading the Vote No campaign and then in the next phase she’s suddenly not there anymore. I’m sure there are a number of people who would like to know why that happened. Also, the Clegg used vague enough wording that you can’t really accuse him of being wrong. No matter what actually happened, I’m pretty sure someone could define “squelch” in such a way that it describes what happened.
IP hash: 97d91588
FACES is weak…and easily controlled by Kyle
IP hash: 9aa8ed9e
2:10,
You may be right about the vagueness, but that’s also precisely the problem. Sam can’t give any specifics about anyone in FACES being “squelched” because no such specifics exist. But the affect is still to cast an obfuscatory shadow over the coalition, one which allows wild tales of purges and such to flourish. This type of dishonest writing has become endemic to this paper, which one would think would hold itself to a higher standard than the CB - which, popular or not, is often outrageously inaccurate in its commentary.
Regarding Chynna, I think it would make sense to ask her why she didn’t choose to continue serving on the Council next year. Her reasons for not filing paperwork are hers alone, and like I said, have nothing to do with any opinion or individual being “squelched.” If you have any specific questions about anything related to FACES, particularly regarding my own involvement, just email me.
[email protected]
IP hash: f57c9169
Kyle, you are a pathetic, double-speaking hypocrit trying to relive your glory days of Congress from Rufus King by playing political God on campus. And a side note, maybe you should ask the CB out on a date because your obsession with him has grown by leaps and bounds lately. As you like to say when you troll various boards, “get a life.”
IP hash: 6efeb2f9
Um, Clegg is quite clearly hinting that something nefarious went on with Chynna withdrawing her candidacy…apparently without any evidence whatsoever. I’m curious to hear the drama too…but maybe there just isn’t anything there?
Of course, this whole article is ironic because while it asks the ‘left’ to tone down the rhetoric, Clegg then proceeds to spend most of the article bashing the entire left while only managing a very selective and misleading run down of issues right at the end of the article. Gosh, that’s not so good for debate is it? Maybe Clegg should follow his own advice?
And Progressive Dane has always been a pragmatic organization focused on getting things done; although since Clegg doesn’t even seem to know that 2 PD-endorsed alders decided not to run as opposed to 1, I’m not surprised he doesn’t know this.
I wonder if Clegg knows that 4 out of 7 members of the Madison school board are PD-endorsed? Some might call that a majority…
**I am very impressed with the influence of the Critical Badger. Half the time I am wondering if he’s the political editor of this newspaper. That is a pretty big accomplishment from a word press blog. I see a solid future in communications. It doesn’t exactly say good things about the Badger Herald’s vision for their paper or their grasp of local issues, but very impressed with the CB. I read something there, and then a week later, it’s in the Herald. Like I said, impressive.
*The obsession that some of the other anonymous posters have with Kyle is pretty creepy.
IP hash: c72f5546
“I wonder if Clegg knows that 4 out of 7 members of the Madison school board are PD-endorsed? Some might call that a majority…”
There is a difference between an endorsed candidate and an active member of the party. Konkel was former co-chair and figurehead of PD while Katrina was supported by the SPD apparatus, pulling strings for her as they saw fit. Simply getting an email that PD has decided to support you does not compare to what Brenda and Katrina got.
IP hash: e076f6ac
1:49… you clearly have no idea what you’re talking about. so please, next time just stfu about local politics, k? yea thanks.