Bruin Republicans proud of diverse group membership

The Bruin Republicans: it conjures up images of right-wing white
males meeting secretly to discuss their latest plan for oppressing
single mothers and the poor.

Not surprisingly, it’s an image Democratic groups, on
campus and off, seek to encourage. The caricature has become so
ingrained in the public imagination that many liberal-leaning
Republican groups have even taken to condemning
“right-wing” Republicans for these imagined faults.

What we allege “right-wing” Republicans seek is
simply the open minds of UCLA students. This is a difficult, but
not excessive request. Orientation counselors, USAC representatives
and the administration all sing the praises of the open mind. And
if anyone deserves an honest appraisal from students of all
ethnicities and both genders, it is our club.

Fortunately, the path of minority Republicans has already been
blazed. Minority conservatives like Ward Connerly, Thomas Sowell
and Star Jones have willingly strayed from their “genetically
liberal affiliation.”

The “racist” Bruin Republicans, and the Republican
party in general, has achieved tremendous success in the face of
Democratic scare tactics and race-baiting. The minority members of
our club have braved taunts of “Oreo,” “Uncle
Tom,” and “honeydew,” all for merely exercising
political self-determination. If the phrases don’t ring a
bell, ask your friendly leftist. They’ll know what they mean
because they invented the terms as a way of shaming minority
conservatives back into the bondage of Democrat affiliation.
It’s really not so surprising after all ““ the one kind
of diversity the hard left cannot stand is the only one that
matters: intellectual diversity.

It is no exaggeration to call minority Republicans brave. They
have broken the implicit lines of racial politics, and have been
ostracized by friends, sometimes even families. For most of them,
the fallout from announcing their conservative political beliefs
has been as devastating, if not more, than had they announced they
were homosexual.

The Bruin Republicans can be rightly proud of their ethnic
diversity. They are more diverse than the African Student Union, La
Familia, MECHA, Samahang Pilipino, and all the other clubs who
receive the overwhelming share of financial love from student
government. If there were monetary rewards for best representing
what is great about UCLA, our organization would be atop the
list.

But because we merely encourage intellectual development,
self-discovery and standing apart from the norm, we have been
derided by student leaders, counter-protested with student funds,
and ignored by the mainstream of campus life. How profitable for
the ethnic separatist groups that compose Student Empowerment! It
is their leaders who paid themselves stipends from mandatory
student fees, hold lavish cultural nights emphasizing their
intentional separation from other Americans, and hob-nob with the
UCLA power set at the Chancellor’s quarterly parties.

We persevere because we have never expected more from UCLA. The
truth we enjoy is that while our stance on race and diversity is
not popular, it is right. Because race is not destiny. Being born
with black or brown skin is not a genetic command to vote Democrat
or embrace the political ideology of the radical left. Politics
should be freely chosen, constantly tested, and proudly held.

As political outsiders in a sea of Democrat and liberal
affiliation, it is the Bruin Republicans who are today the rebels
against convention. We have our beliefs challenged, derided, and
dismissed on a daily basis. That is more than the self-styled
victims of “Amerika,” ““ who receive student
government funding, have academic centers established for their
exclusive use, and never hear a professor’s opinion with
which they didn’t agree ““ can ever claim.