by CALEB LILLQUIST
On Nov. 9, Drake students were visited by Senator Lindsey Graham, who spoke at Cowles Library in a Q&A session.
The event was hosted by Drake University Republicans along with Young Republicans of Iowa.
In Cowles, one of the first topics of discussion Graham talked about was the dangers of socialist policies in reference to the Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez event just across the street in the Bell Center.
“I don’t know what brought you all here this morning, but if we lose this crowd here in Iowa, you will be the first generation to suffer under the socialist policies,” Graham said when warning students in attendance about the recent Democratic policies.
When talking about the civics and ethics that goes with talking politics, Graham criticized the Drake student senate’s decision.
“Civility is having a group being allowed to form on campus,” Graham said.
Graham made a point about young conservatives surviving on campus by putting emphasis on the fact that conservatives “must be informed.”
The Times-Delphic was able to ask Graham about his thoughts on the recent impeachment developments at Capitol Hill during the Q&A session of the event. Graham’s response first hit on the Mueller investigation which found that Trump had not colluded with the Russians and how Graham himself worked on a bill to prevent the firing of Mueller.
He proceeded then with how frustrating it can be for someone to be accused of something that they didn’t do and stated that, “this stuff…Is a bunch of B.S..why not have the people pick the President and not Adam Schiff” in regard to the recent impeachment developments on Capitol Hill.
Following the Senator Graham event was Guy Benson, a Fox News Contributor and co-author of End Of Discussion, who spoke in Cowles Library on Nov. 13.
The main topics that were brought up were today’s identity politics, microaggressions, and privilege.
“Conservatives feel as if they have to have their heads down because they are afraid of their loss of grades and social groups because of their views,” Benson said.
One of Benson’s main arguments for the night involved free speech.
“The issue here is that people on the left, not just them though, but they are using political correctness as a weapon to win cultural debates to prevent debates to happen,” Benson said. “Let’s disqualify this person so they don’t have a say in a conversation.”
He further noted that this particular issue was the leading motivation for him to write his book.
“If we can’t talk about our issues, how can we solve them?” Benson asked those in attendance to his speech.
Benson’s problem with today’s identity politics is the fact that people will use someone’s identity, such as being white, against another. With this in mind the individual then cannot have an opinion on a particular topic because of their race or identify.
He also noted backlash from both sides of the spectrum on his mixed identity of being both gay and Conservative. In response to this, he said that Americans should not put so many labels on everyone.
“People need to make decisions for themselves,” Benson said. “But let us give that to everyone else and not label them in one whole package.”
During his speech he had also made jabs toward presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, who had lied about her race in order to get a professor position at Ivy league schools such as Harvard. With this, he argued that if it were a white Republican, their race would be over, yet instead many defend her in a sort of double standard dilemma from the left.
