Much ink has been spilled regarding the current state of political discourse on American college campuses. Having chimed in myself, I acknowledge that adding original insight is likely impossible. However, in light of the Supreme Court’s recent decision to deny the legality of many of President Trump’s tariffs, certain groups on campus appear to have lost their mind.
Full disclosure: I’m a Democrat. I’m a dues-paying member of the College Democrats and would be a card-carrying member of the Kentucky Democratic Party (if we had cards). I understand that the subsequent body of this column will likely be perceived as biased or perhaps symptomatic of my terminal Trump Derangement Syndrome. I say this to show that I have nothing to hide, although I am attempting to write with a spirit of objectivity and honest dialogue.
The Notre Dame College Republicans, the self-proclaimed “largest political group on campus,” have been on a posting spree for the spring semester. Posting from their official club account on X, the College Republicans have argued with Notre Dame Holy Cross priests about Catholic morality, reposting a graphic claiming that immigration causes the downfall of “everything else” and calling the recent Supreme Court decision “genuinely evil” and “the worst decision since Obergefell.” Thankfully, however, the College Republicans are “not against the rule of law in principle” and only want President Trump to defy the Court because “he who saves his country violates no law.”
The College Republicans also called Trump appointee Jeremy Carl, who has claimed that George Floyd was “looking up from hell” after being murdered by a Minnesota police officer and called Juneteenth a “race hustling and white-shaming” holiday, a “patriot” who “should be confirmed.” Carl, who published a book with the subtitle “How Anti-White Racism is Tearing America Apart,” is now facing bipartisan opposition to his appointment and will likely be denied by the Senate. Why are the College Republicans dying on the hill of a white nationalist? Is the so-called “destruction of white culture” the biggest threat to the United States?
College Republicans co-president Shri Thakur authored a letter to The Observer last fall titled “There is no debate left to be had with the far-left.” Thakur argues that “the marketplace of ideas only works when its participants agree on a common set of principles, rules and boundaries that must be adhered to,” claiming that the far-left has abandoned a commitment to the basic principles that have provided for 250 years of American democracy. Openly urging President Trump to defy the Supreme Court (which he already has stated his intentions to do) is definitionally rejecting the common rules and boundaries of the American Constitution. A follow-up tweet to their call for President Trump to defy his oath of office asserts that “the constitutional order requires a set of assumptions, practices, and norms to properly exist … Those norms are dead.”
When our campus’s largest political group openly rejects the existence of constitutional norms, I must ask: Is there a debate left to be had with the modern right? I hesitate to call the radical views expressed by the College Republicans as “the far-right,” given that they represent themselves as college representatives of the current governing party in the United States. They are the mainstream right. They are the future party leaders and politicians of the Republican Party.
A rejection of fundamental American ideals of the rule of law, good-faith debate and constitutional checks and balances makes it impossible to come to any agreement or compromise. It’s hard not to feel demoralized or helpless when the youth wing of the country’s majority party openly rejects the Constitution. I urge my Republican colleagues and friends to realize that what is going on is not normal.
Ideals have seeped into mainstream discourse that are fundamentally opposed to American patriotism. America is not a nation founded as a “people.” It’s a nation of ideas. A nation of noble and lofty ideas. A nation that has unfortunately never lived up to its ideas. But a nation that still tries nonetheless.
Despite what the largest political group on campus claims, America as we know it is still worth saving. I’m a patriot — call me naive. Claiming that America’s norms and rule of law are dead when your party suffers a loss is not patriotic. Nor are the nativist, racist and conspiratorial claims that the organization seems to support.
I believe that the United States is the greatest country in the world. I love politics, and I love political debate. I’m not asking my Republican colleagues and friends to abandon their good-faith values and conservative principles. Measured disagreement is the backbone of democracy. I merely urge the leadership of the largest political group on campus to ask itself whether it believes more in the fundamental principles of American democracy or the partisan lies and authoritarianism promoted by the Trump administration. To me, the answer is clear.
Grayson Beckham is a freshman living in the Coyle Community in Zahm Hall. He hails from Independence, Ky. When he's not publishing woke propaganda inThe Observer, he studies political science and eloquently uses his silver tongue on the mock trial team. You can send him relevant hate mail at gbeckham@nd.edu.
