The Pen And The Sword: Why the phrase 'College Republican' isn't an oxymoron

By: Ryan Bilodeau

Posted: 9/19/07

09/19/07 - I am a Republican while in college because I am concerned for my future. At a time when radical Islam has waged jihad upon us, when institutions that have ensured the continuation of society itself for the last 2,000 years are being attacked, and when many of our social programs are close to bankruptcy and insolvency, the Republican Party is the only party with the courage to identify these problems, and the wisdom to turn toward its people and away from its government to solve them.

Social Security, a system that demands 6.2 percent of my income in the form of taxes only to transfer that money to a retiring senior citizen, is scheduled to go bankrupt in 2018 before I am even eligible to receive any benefits.

Recognizing this, the Republican party, under the leadership of President Bush, put forth a plan to privatize Social Security, removing control from the hands of the government who instead uses that money to close budget deficit -amongst other things - to my own, allowing me to invest that money as I choose.

I am a Republican while in college because I support the Republican Party's common sense, economically sound and forward-looking plan to change the course of a system whose current trajectory leaves me $85,000 in debt when I retire.

As a college student who pulls a lot of all-nighters and one whose first job out of college probably won't offer extensive benefits including healthcare, I am a Republican because affordable and available health care is important to me.

Medicare and Medicaid, along with the entire health care system, is in a state of crisis and is mired in inefficiency. In order to address this, the Republican party has pushed for health care savings accounts, where one's health care is not dependent upon whether or not his employer provides it because it is owned by the individual, and where market forces and not government regulation are used to encourage people to save money for future illness.

I am a Republican in college because the values that have helped me weather the storms of temptation I have faced while in college in the form of drugs and excessive partying are a result of having a mother and a father who instilled in me wholesome family values from point of views distinct in origin and impact.

The moral relativism present in 2007 that attacks the sacred walls of marriage, the union of a man and a woman who procreate thus forming a family, has been contested only by the Republican Party. The GOP realizes that a child deserves a mom and a dad, and that changing the definition of a 2,000-year-old covenant that is the building block of society threatens the healthy existence of the country for the next 2,000 years.

Six years after the terrorist attacks on 9/11, I am a Republican because I would like to leave college knowing that the "real world" is a safe world. The Republican Party is the only party that realizes that Iraq is a battle in the war the jihadists have waged upon western civilization for hundreds of years, and is the only party not scared to go on offense in the War on Terror.

Our enemies in Iran released terrorists the day that Republican President Ronald Reagan was elected after holding them for 444 days, while Democratic President Jimmy Carter was president because when faced with a country whose political will matches its military capabilities, they will always back down. Years after the beginning of a currently unpopular war, the Republican party is the only party willing to lose an election in order to win a war.

The Republican Party is the party of strong national defense in a dangerous world for allowing the individual and not the government to make decisions related to health care and Social Security, and is for the protection of the sacred institutions needed for the survival of our society. I am a college student because I care about my future. I am a Republican for the same reason.