Looking back on this previous year, at first glance it seems like a dismal one for the Republican Party as a whole. Between the poorly run McCain campaign, losing seats in both the House and Senate and losing majority in the state Assembly, one would have expected Republicans to fade into the background, burying our heads in the sand and hoping for a better tomorrow. However, this did not turn out to be true.
Although undoubtedly disappointed with the results of the election, the UW-Madison College Republicans refused to shrink into obscurity. The week immediately following the election, the UW-Madison College Republicans celebrated Freedom Week, which included the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, by collecting donations for Christmas gifts to send to our soldiers overseas. At the conclusion of the semester, the College Republicans sponsored a panel of Wisconsin state Senators who spoke on the importance of the youth movement in the revitalization of the Republican Party.
Second semester kicked off with a memorial to the 30th anniversary of the decision Roe v. Wade, during which crosses were set up in Library Mall to commemorate the innocent lives lost because of that fateful Supreme Court ruling. Sponsored by both College Republicans and UW-Madison Students for Life, 140 crosses were set up to represent the amount lives lost to abortions in one hour.
The UW-Madison College Republicans also traveled to Washington, D.C., this semester to the Conservative Political Action Conference, where they were able to hear from the leaders of the Conservative Movement and attend training seminars to learn how best to promote conservatism on campus. This year, speakers included a stellar lineup of Rush Limbaugh, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Karl Rove. A range of topics were addressed, but the most important was the future of the conservative movement, and since this year's CPAC was the most heavily attended ever, the Republican Party is getting back on track.
The College Republican's main event of the second semester was sponsoring a lecture given by Star Parker, a leader of the Conservative Movement and the founder and president of CURE, the Coalition on Urban Renewal & Education, a non-profit think tank that provides a national voice of reason on issues of race and poverty in the media, inner city neighborhoods and public policy. This lecture attracted a large number of people from all across campus and the community and was labeled a success by not only the College Republicans, but also by Ms. Parker herself.
As the Wisconsin State Budget controversy heated up at the Capitol, the UW-Madison College Republicans held a panel of the members of the Committee on Joint Finance to discuss the shortcomings of Gov. Doyle's budget. Topics addressed at this panel included Doyle's plan for rising tuition costs, higher taxes and fees and an increased burden on families and small businesses. In addition to this panel discussion, the College Republicans sent a barrage of editorials to both student newspapers criticizing the Governor's budget, some of which were posted on the WisOpinion, Wisconsin's premier political news source.
The College Republicans closed out the semester with the Iraqi Children's Project, in which toys, school supplies, candy and other items were collected at various sites around campus. These items were then sent over to Iraq through UW ROTC Alumni to be distributed to Iraqi children. This event was a huge success, with College Republicans gathering enough materials to send over fifty boxes to Iraq.
As the year comes to a close, the College Republicans are looking forward to next year already. With endless controversies in state politics and the race for governor already heating up, the College Republicans are planning many exciting events for the upcoming school year.
