Gotta Catch 'Em All!

David Weigel | April 14, 2006

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette comes this tale of student activism gone wrong:

The College Republicans at Penn State University wanted to enter the debate about the nation's borders by playing a "Catch an Illegal Immigrant Game."

People would be invited to "catch" group members wearing orange shirts symbolizing illegal aliens.

Amid the student outcry that ensued, they softened their plan to an illegal immigration awareness day in which leafleting and speech-making would let both sides air their views on immigration policies.

Let's just say it: If the Republican infantry of the future will cave after a little "student outcry," whither the GOP? Has David Horowitz been shouting into the dark?

The aborted Penn State incident didn't come out of the blue - if the Soros-funded media watchdogs at David Brock's aerie are right, there's been a rise in "round 'em up" talk in immigration restrictionist circles.

Comments

|4.14.06 @ 3:55PM|#

Some day I'd like to see a quote in the newspaper along the lines of, "I'm outraged! This is vaguely offensive!"

|4.14.06 @ 4:00PM|#

I have to say, college Republicans are probably among the worst examples of Republicans imaginable. They are shrill, tedious assholes, almost to a man (and occasional screechy woman). And they aren't even nice to each other, given that their little club is basically organized around a backstabbing climb to the top of the conservative internship gravvy train.

College Democrats tend to be some fairly normal, balanced people. In part, I think this is because most of the real lefty campus crazies completely disdain the Dems, while the righty crazies swamp out the normal conservatives.

|4.14.06 @ 4:03PM|#

"I have to say, college Republicans are probably among the worst examples of Republicans imaginable. They are shrill, tedious assholes, almost to a man (and occasional screechy woman). And they aren't even nice to each other, given that their little club is basically organized around a backstabbing climb to the top of the conservative internship gravvy train.

College Democrats tend to be some fairly normal, balanced people. In part, I think this is because most of the real lefty campus crazies completely disdain the Dems, while the righty crazies swamp out the normal conservatives."

I have been out of college 11 years and that is about how I remember it. Not that I was a member of either of those idiotic organizations.

A pox on both your houses!

|4.14.06 @ 4:09PM|#

To put it another way: the College Republicans general is a catch all for all the extremist nuts and boorish jocks with rich daddies.

College Dems tend to be all those dull kids who run for class president and planned the school dances in high school and who put way too much effort into the technical details of the "reading the minutes" system at every meeting.

Meanwhile, the bulk of the insane leftists, not prepared to sit still for more than a few agenda items, form a dizzying array of ever splitering personal fiefdom identity groups.

That's pretty much college political groups for ya.

Timothy|4.14.06 @ 4:09PM|#

For me it varied. At first the CRs were better, but after their one cool leader left it was the CDs who were fun.

|4.14.06 @ 4:15PM|#

Damn plunge, you are on the pulse of it for sure. Virtual tip o' the hat to you.

|4.14.06 @ 4:21PM|#

People would be invited to "catch" group members wearing orange shirts symbolizing illegal aliens.

Wow. As I was reading this post, I was sure that such a game would be developed and run by people who were pro-immigrant. It took me some time to grasp that the game was proposed by anti-immigrant folks and complained about by pro-immigrant folks.

This game sounds something like the brown eyes/blue eyes experiment in social manipulation. I can't see how it could be played without grasping a number of truths:

1. The people wearing orange shirts are, by and large, pretty much the same as you are.
2. There are lots of people wearing orange shirts who are not group members symbolizing illegal aliens.
3. What the hell do you do with an orange shirted person now that you caught him?

And these are just examples of things players will discover by accident. Are progressives on college campuses really so lacking in imagination that they couldn't figure out how to intentionally turn this game against the College Republicans instigating it?

|4.14.06 @ 4:22PM|#

Damn plunge, you are on the pulse of it for sure. Virtual tip o' the hat to you.

R C Dean|4.14.06 @ 4:27PM|#

Nobody is addressing the main issue here:

Who has the hotter chicks? Last time I did the rounds at partisan political events the Repubs had the hotties, hands down. In Madison, WI, at that.

|4.14.06 @ 4:36PM|#

Well of course: they have the vivacious cheerleaders and arm-candy. Dems have the nerdy goth chicks and a smattering of the screechy granola types.

What are the lib women stereotypes? Oh wait, there aren't any lib women. :)

|4.14.06 @ 4:43PM|#

When I was in college, I dated, briefly, the president of the college Conservative Society - and yes, she was incredibly hot (and also about the only female in the society, for what that's worth) not to mention brilliant.

|4.14.06 @ 5:57PM|#

plunge: They're all in the porn industry making big buck$.

wingnutx|4.14.06 @ 6:11PM|#

The nerdy goth chicks ARE the hot ones.

imho.

|4.14.06 @ 6:32PM|#

re: college republican hotties. Sure, she looks hot now, but someday she's going to morph into a shrill Phyllis Schlafly-type who wants to ban cold medicine and porn and force your kids to pray for an end to gay abortionists.

I'll take the dope-smoking Goth chick. That makeup washes off, but Republicans' inner ugly is there to stay.

|4.14.06 @ 7:00PM|#

Also, Goth chicks age better because we stay out of the sun.

|4.14.06 @ 7:54PM|#

What value does a hot College Republican chick have anyway. The chastity rings and abstinence pledges would spoil all of the fun. A conservative hottie might be nice to look at but has no practical use.

|4.14.06 @ 8:15PM|#

"What value does a hot College Republican chick have anyway. The chastity rings and abstinence pledges would spoil all of the fun. A conservative hottie might be nice to look at but has no practical use."

All of those chastity pledges are for public consumption. In the dark, all cats are black.

|4.14.06 @ 8:22PM|#

I thought the saying was, "its all pink in the middle"...

|4.14.06 @ 8:39PM|#

"I thought the saying was, "its all pink in the middle"...

I don't think that one is talking about cats though ;-].

|4.14.06 @ 8:59PM|#

The chastity rings and abstinence pledges would spoil all of the fun. A conservative hottie might be nice to look at but has no practical use.

Scott, absent cognitive dissonance (not to say hypocracy), this would be true. If you look at the 'abstinence pledges' the same way you look at the Republican 'fiscal reponsibility' and 'small government' pledges, you'll see things in a different light.

|4.14.06 @ 9:03PM|#

Sure, she looks hot now, but someday she's going to morph into a shrill Phyllis Schlafly-type who wants to ban cold medicine and porn and force your kids to pray for an end to gay abortionists.

She ain't gonna look so hot after she's had three kids, is nagging you that she wants a fourth, and no longer puts out anything but her hand for your wallet. And of course, won't work outside the home for her own damned spending money, because She's Her Kids Mom.

College Repugs are too short-sighted to figure out that they can catch a lot of illegal immigrants, right in the act -- cleaning their frat houses, cooking their food, drycleaning their wool-blend Dockers, detailing their BMWs...

|4.15.06 @ 12:54AM|#

Another fascist plague spreading from Texas to the rest of the country: the immigrant hunt.

If you check the newspaper archives, I think they actually had one of these at University of North Texas in Denton back in maybe January 2005. There may have been some other attempts in the following months. One was allegedly planned at UT-Austin last March or April, but either the rumor was false (as the Y-C's of T initially claimed) or the event was cancelled in anticipation of a backlash when plans leaked out and larger counterdemonstrations were organized.

|4.15.06 @ 1:03AM|#

I want a nerdy goth chick!

(pouts)

|4.15.06 @ 1:12AM|#

And mind you, if I had a nerdy goth chick, I wouldn't be spending a Friday night alone at work, posting online!

No, we'd both be posting online, sitting side by side!

Kind of squooshed togetherr.

Violette! Stop that! I ccant' tyope when you do ahtat!

ajfoujoaeih afa0iago!!!cnaoena!!!!!

|4.15.06 @ 3:28AM|#

From my time in flyering for the Students for an Orwellian Society at UCSD and my own personal observations, I can say that the assessment of College Republicans, Democrats, and leftists is pretty much dead-on.

The people self-identifying as College Republicans are complete and total psychopaths. This campus went... I dunno, I think it was something like 80% for Bush last election? But everyone still hates the College Republicans. Partly because they regularly release a newsletter full of hateful ravings and libel, partly because they seemed to feel the need to resort to dirty tricks to shut down a pro-Dean campus organization, and partly because they bragged about said dirty tricks afterward.

The College Democrats can be safely classified as "mostly harmless". Occasionally they release a newsletter or something saying something that we've all already figured out or rehashing a tired liberal meme passed around the internets, (that's probably gonna show up next issue) but that's all we ever hear from them.

The campus leftists are an interesting bunch. They're your standard type- alternating rapidly between narcisstic and idealistic, they propose unworkable plans while making trite works of "aren't we cleverer than anyone else?" art. They also can't take a joke, and a disturbing percentage thought I was serious when I was flyering for Students for an Orwellian Society. A shame- they're more fun to hang out with than the previous two groups.

Campus libertarians? I haven't found anything. The closest is a rather individualistic hacker who wound up becoming my best friend. Crazy world, huh?

|4.15.06 @ 10:13AM|#

I knew one of the few sane College Republicans when I was in college. One of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. He organized a very nice event bringing a sane, mainstream speaker to campus in a very classy setting.

Of course, IIRC, his club eventually fell prey to factional disputes.

In grad school, the College Republicans were insane. They would invite the craziest speakers possible with the worst timing possible and use ad campaigns calculated to incite the maximum response from far lefties.

And then they'd cry about the far lefties persecuting them.

IIRC, one of the leaders of the College Republicans at my grad school went into activism after college, living on foundation grants, and gave speeches about how lazy union workers were and how great the private sector is. I was afraid to bring an irony meter to his events, for fear that it might detonate.

|4.15.06 @ 10:21AM|#

Also, my experience was that the hottest and friendliest chicks found in campus organizations (not to be confused with the hottest and friendliest chicks on campus overall) weren't in political groups. They were in religious groups. Especially fundies and Mormons. And they threw a lot of beach parties.

Nothing like the lure of the flesh to bring people closer to God, right?

|4.15.06 @ 10:27AM|#

And then they'd cry about the far lefties persecuting them.

IOW, goofy liberals love to control other peoples' harmless behavior, if not by force, then by intimidation.

dhex|4.15.06 @ 10:39AM|#

if mindless antagonism = control, then yeah.

also: this thread is why there are no libertarian females. yeah, we all know het guys like naked women. any more groundbreaking news for us?

|4.15.06 @ 3:35PM|#

Like others have said, I think that College Dems would be wackier if there were no campus groups to the left of the College Dems. And I think the College Republicans would be saner if there were other groups to the right of the College Republicans.

Seen in that light, the LP serves the vital purpose of siphoning some lunatics away from the major parties. They might only be 0.3% of the population, but if they were heavily involved in the activism and fundraising of the major parties there's no telling what sort of madness they might unleash.

"While touring Midwestern swing states today, Sen. Kerry and President Bush both pledged to support tax credist for ferret owners. They also called for an end to tariffs on blue skin dye."

|4.16.06 @ 12:41PM|#

"While touring Midwestern swing states today, Sen. Kerry and President Bush both pledged to support tax credist for ferret owners. They also called for an end to tariffs on blue skin dye."

Whew, that's a relief! I was beginning to think our political leaders were just a bunch of self-serving, feckless, corrupt scoundrels. It's nice to see that they are in tune with the fundamental problems in our society.