As I was strolling through campus the other day enjoying my cigarette I noticied an abundance of the most arrogant, ignorant, and plain old jackass posters I have ever seen throughout my tenure at the University of Vermont. They read, “Michael Moore is a moron” and “Noam Chomsky is stupid,” and were brought to you by the college republicans. I thought to myself, “Isn’t this over…didn’t they win….didn’t they accomplish their task of degrading and humiliating their opponents through childish acts of bullying and slandering.”

I guess not, maybe that’s why the college republicans asked the SGA for $174,000 appropriated to their club. This is what you could call the neo-conservative assault on the liberal homeland. Slander and degrading liberals on their home turf. Way to go guys, your elder frat brothers, corporate executive parents, the religious zealots, and your beloved Karl Rove will be proud. But don’t jump to conclusions yet. I may very well be a registered democrat, but I am in no way aligned with any specific ideology. My views range from the right end of the spectrum to the left.

However, one thing I hate is when these political organizations gang up on one individual and attack them personally rather then attacking their ideas. Anyone can call anyone a fool or a moron. It makes it especially easy to rebuke one’s argument when the individual’s personal life and personality is initially attacked. This appears to be the new Republican strategy, which was first adopted by Karl Rove during Dubya’s push to become governor of Texas.

In this specific case, Rove leaked out to the conservative press that Ann Richards was a lesbian, eliminating the moderate Texan voters from her ballot. This was continued in his first presidential election against AL Gore. In this race, the republicans put forth the idea that Al Gore said he invented the Internet. This little spin discredited Gore and made him out to be a fool making the real issues transparent. As we all know this tactic was again exercised viciously against John Kerry.

There is no need to go into specifics, just leave it at Swift Boat Captains for the Truth and Bush. So it continues…now with less important actors. Although these people may not be running for office, these advocates, such as Moore, are in the spotlight and are being heard, putting fear into the power hungry Republican party. So here we go again, bring forth Fox News, the great nazi sympathizer Anne Coulter (a staunch believer that the Jews run everything and that is what’s wrong with our country), Sean Hanity, and Joe Scarborough (whose secretary mysteriously disappeared causing him to drop out of his race for Congress.) Bring them all to UVM with your $10,000 that was appropriated to you by the SGA (NOTE: College Democrats only received $1,400). No one is going to buy that bullshit up here, it’s not the South! Let these “fools” attack the integrity and personal attributes of the people whose beliefs are so dangerous to you. So, College Republicans, as you know, money will buy you a lot of things but not everything. Look in your parking lot (and I am generalizing for the sake of generalizing, I am obviously aware that not ALL republicans are rich, only the smart ones are), Land Rovers, BMWs, Lexus’. The point of this is that you might be able to buy plenty of Neo-con speakers to spit their fire at a University that is predominately and historically liberal, but that it does not mean that you will win any hearts, just like money can’t buy you happiness…money can’t buy peoples beliefs.