“˜Not My President’ rally anti-American

Last Thursday, the Concerned Students of UCLA, a group of
students from various campus organizations, spearheaded a
“Not My President” rally outside Kerckhoff protesting
the results of Tuesday’s tragic election. While not
officially endorsed by the Undergraduate Students Association
Council, it was organized with the help of USAC staff members.

Seeing as I was still grieving over the loss myself, I popped
over to listen for a bit. Maybe they’d have some way of
consoling me.

But I had forgotten something. The group that runs USAC, a slate
called Students First!, is an intensely radical group. These slate
members are elected largely by the groups who helped make up the
Concerned Students of UCLA. I was reminded of this intense
extremism when they called for a generic radical third party to
make our country a true democracy.

Wait ““ wasn’t this supposed to be an anti-Bush
rally? We were then informed that if Kerry had won, it really
wouldn’t make a difference anyway.

The truth is that SF! staff members and the other students
planned this protest rally well in advance of the election results.
One of the organizers of the event, according to the Daily Bruin,
was Yousef Tajsar, a member of the Associated Students of
UCLA’s board of directors who is affiliated with SF!

Even some of the advertising for the event, such as fliers
proclaiming “Democracy not hypocrisy” and
“Selection 2004″ were circulating before the election
results were finalized.

Had John Kerry, who the Daily Bruin’s exit polls found to
have received 82 percent of the UCLA vote, been victorious, these
extremists would have been out there in front of Meyerhoff with
fists in the air and chants on their lips.

Moreover, this assault on the clear preferences of Bruins would
have been done in the name of democracy ““ by students who
claim to represent us. Apparently what we want isn’t
democracy. It’s only democratic if extremists agree with
it.

On Election Day the Bruin Democrats and Bruin Republicans
combined efforts to feed delicious barbecued goods to hungry Bruins
everywhere. Though one would surely expect everyone to approve of
dedicated undergraduates working hard to encourage voting, the
chief mechanism of democracy, Tajsar explicitly mentioned this
bipartisan barbecue and denounced it.

The bashing of two clubs that represent the political views of
98 percent of campus reached a fever pitch when Tajsar belted,
“When you hear “˜bipartisanship,’ take that shit
out and throw it in the trash can.”

How are our student groups supposed to work with slates and
organizations to run UCLA when they refer to bipartisanship as
“shit” in front of a crowd of hundreds?

At one point, Tajsar declared himself to be an enemy of the
government. Our campus president, Allende Palma/Saracho, a member
of SF!, stood on the sidewalk behind every speaker.

To be fair, not all speakers participated in this virulent
radicalism. For example, Feminist Majority co-chair Baylee Decastro
gave an excellent speech on timely policy matters regarding
women’s rights. But points of sanity such as this only
reinforced how off-kilter the rest of it was.

One must wonder if these people realize the degree of their own
extremity.

Students, many of these people claim to represent you.

But they do not represent the 98 percent of us who voted for the
two major political parties. Given that they do not support
bipartisanship, it seems they are incapable of cooperating with
those outside of their extreme umbrella.

Don’t let the anti-Bush guise of the rally fool you: These
people are enemies of the American system as a whole, no matter
which party is in charge.

Nenni is a fourth-year political science student. He is the
issues director for the Bruin Democrats and can be reached at
[email protected].