The Joys of College Debating

By Dave Oliver

On Monday night, the UAlbany College Republicans debated the College Democrats. It was supposed to be about ideology, but I'll get to that in a second. The debate was put on by the political science honors fraternity, Phi Sigma Alpha, and I have to say that the bill of goods that they sold was pretty good. First, it would be heavily promoted to ensure the biggest crowd of any debate this semester. Was it heavily promoted and did we have the biggest crowd? Um, not so much. Free food for everyone! Wonder why somebody had to stop at Price Chopper and by a small vegetable platter? There would be an independent moderator. Um, once again, not so much. They apparently "forgot" to get one. So who moderated? A member of the College Democrats! Nice. Now, my friend Matt and I could have a pulled what the dems have been pulling recently anytime Foxnews is a sponsor of a presidential candidates debate....sucked our thumbs, held our breath, stomped our feet, and pulled out. But, both of us really like competing in the arena of ideas, so we went ahead with it. Now, as I said earlier, the debate was supposed to be about ideologies...Conservativism vs. Liberalism. We knew right away that wasn't going to be the case, because when they got up to give their opening statements, they stated that they were going to talk about the Democratic platform, and that they got a lot of their information right off the DNC website (it should also be noted that they rarely said the word liberal, and were actually called out on it by an audience member.."The conservatives don't shy away from conservatism, why do you guys shy away from the word liberal?"). As Rush says, they are incapable of stating out in the open what they really are. So, first of all, because of our conservative beliefs, Matt and I were called extremists in the mold of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. And quite a few times. Matt is catholic and I'm agnostic (sorry Mom and Dad, don't give up on me yet). My family is very christian. We tried to convey that there are millions of christians who don't like, respect, or listen to Falwell or Robertson. I don't know a single member of my family or other christians that I know who like those two. But, oh well...we're extremists. Then to further back up that they got their talking points right off the DNC website, we were treated to the "culture of corruption" line many times during the night. They even threw Tom Delay into that mix. So of course we brought up William "Cold Cash" Jefferson, Democrat-Louisiana. "He hasn't been convicted of anything," they said. Really? Last time I checked either had Tom Delay. Didn't matter...culture of corruption, culture of corruption! In our opening statement, we talked about how we are traditionalists who believe in the traditional family structure. Well, we of course got bashed for that, but there was one really interesting point made to us. They were talking about how great Hillary is...Hillary this, Hillary that...at one point they said because she was first lady for 8 years, that gave her a lot of experience. Hey, Laura Bush will be first lady for 8 years, lets run her in 2008! She's got approval numbers that probably throw Hillary into a fit everytime she sees them! Anyhoo, I made the point that I didn't understand why some women thought Hillary was this great role model to be looked up to. I mean, she just sat there while her horny husband cheated on her repeatedly. Great message to send the girls and women of the country. So, you would not believe what was thrown back at us. "Well, Hillary wanted to keep her family together, so doesn't that fit into your traditional beliefs?" Ugh! I didn't realize that a husband who is a serial adulterer and a woman who does nothing but take it were apart of traditional, family beliefs. Must be my blonde hair. In our opening statement, we made no secret of how much we love and respect our military. The only time the libs even came close to talking about the troops is when they said they believe in strong national security. Really? Then how come it's the libs who don't want us listening to terrorist phone calls coming in or going out of our country? How come the libs don't want us tracking and stopping the terrorists money flow? How come the libs want to continue chipping away at the Patriot Act? Again, must be my blonde hair. So anyhoo, it was basically beat up the conservatives night. The next day I was thinking what a waste of our time. But, now that I've had a couple of days to think about it, something good did come from it. More than ever, I'm proud to be a conservative and I'm proud to stand up for our conservative beliefs. Ah, the joys of college debating! Oh, by the way. We evil College Republicans have something planned on campus tomorrow. It could definately lead to some interesting stories to tell you about. Stay tuned.