TCU’s Student-led Conservative Newspaper

VOL. 1 ISSUE 1 OCTOBER 2013

Syria: what happened and how Obama was out maneuvered Since the start of the Syrian conflict, President Obama has taken two very different approaches— he has been very careful about the definition of American interests and use of force, but he has also looked for a way to respond to the human-rights violations committed by Syri-an President Bashar al-Assad. At a news conference at the White House on August 20, 2012, in regards to a U.S. show of force in Syria, Obama said: “We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized.” A year and two days later, a red line was clearly crossed. Assad used chemical weapons on his own citizens in Damascus, gassing as many as 1,300 people. Secretary of State John Kerry compared the situation to the road to WWII, calling it a “Munich moment.”

However, Adolf Hitler was in charge of the world’s largest army, one of the world’s richest countries, and was seeking to conquer the world. Assad is in charge of a failing regime with one of the world’s poorest coun-tries, and is struggling to remain in control of it. Obama called what happened the worst chemical weap-ons attack of the 21st century and a threat to our national security. He responded by laying out a case for a targeted military strike. What remained unclear in all of the President’s rhetoric was what exactly would the goal of mili-tary action be? Obama said it was simply to enforce a glob-al norm against the use of chemical weapons. But would the Administration really say “mission accomplished” if the Syrian civil war were to con-tinue and Assad was to kill-thousands more, but without

the use of chemical weapons? The truth of the matter is that Obama had put America’s credibility on the line. Obama further paint-ed himself into a corner when he denied his red line claim by

saying, “First of all, I didn’t set a red line. The world set a red line. The world set a red line when governments represent-ing 98% of the world’s popu-lation said the use of chemical weapons are abhorrent.” Obama then decided to make Congress his scape-goat, claiming he would “seek authorization of the use of military force from the Amer-

ican people’s representatives in Congress.” A survey by the Washington Post/ABC News revealed that 60 percent of Americans believed the U.S. should not intervene in Syria.

The indica-tions were that Obama would not get the sup-port he needed in Congress to allow him to fire cruise missiles at Syria. When asked if there was any-thing that could prevent a US missile attack on Damascus, John

Kerry claimed off the cuff that to avoid a military strike Syria could hand over its chemical weapons to the international community within a week. Not surprisingly, Rus-sian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov jumped on his comment, claiming it a “work-able solution.” Syria wasted no time embracing this initiative.

A letter from the editor and staff:

Newspapers and other media sources that are openly politically-oriented can re-ceive bad reputations. Be-cause they’re biased, right? They aim to manipulate vulnerable readers and twist facts into fictionalized state-ments. Right? Wrong. Well, for some news outlets this may be true. But The Purple Patriot wants all readers to understand our mission is far from manipula-tion and lies. Our staff has a deep love and passion for our country and for the liberties that have made it successful for centu-ries. But as much as we love our country, we fear for its future even more. As conservatives, we see the deeply rooted problems that current politicians – from both sides of the political spectrum – are failing to fix.

From our president’s money spending addiction, to fundamental, Constitutional rights being taken away from citizens, to a mainstream media that fails to accurately report, the United States is heading down a tough path that could lead to a destruc-tion of the kind of America our parents and grandparents grew up in. It will be up to a new generation of Americans – our generation – to identify and fix these problems and restore America to its former glory so our own children and grandchildren can continue to enjoy the basic freedoms and liberties generations before them have enjoyed. But our generation can’t do a thing to fix these problems if we don’t stay informed. And that’s what we aim to do with this new TCU publi-cation.

Each month we’ll provide readers with news stories and opinions we find to be rel-evant and important. Stu-dents who have a hard time understanding politics will be able to pick up a copy of The Purple Patriot and learn something new. We want to create con-versations and discussions on campus. Got a problem with something we’ve written? Write out your objection and send it in. We’ll aim to publish it in the next issue. As believers in the Constitution, we don’t ignore the first amendment’s rights to freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The Purple Patriot will serve as a forum, not a speech, be-cause we respect all those withdiffering opinions. We hope you will too.

In a turn of events, Obama had suddenly been whisked into taking a diplo-matic approach. After discussions, and largely with the help of Russia, Syria agreed to surrender all of its chemical weapons to the international control by mid-2014. The Russian initia-tive was attractive because it allowed everyone to save face. It allowed Obama to look statesmanlike and to avoid the one of the most em-barrassing defeats in Congress of a president on an interna-tional issue. Still, one must pon-der, did the president actually resolve this via willing diplo-matic action, or did Putin and Assad simply out maneuver the president on this one?

Jennifer Tomany is a junior political science and international economics major from Lake in the Hills, IL.

Some Purple Patriot members and contributors

After all, whether you see yourself as a conservative, liberal, or moderate, hopefully we can all agree on one thing: without respect and under-standing we’ll never achieve a thing.

Booey Mittelstadt is a junior political science & FTDM major from Chattanooga, TN

Want to get involved with The Purple Patriot? We’d love to have you! Email tcupurplepatriot@gmail.com for ways to get involved.

What’s inside?National news.... 2-3

Twitter takes... 5

Happy new... 5

Texas news... 7

TCU news... 8

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Navy Yard shooting: why focusing on gun control won’t solve anything

On September 16, 2013, Aaron Alexis opened fire in a naval shipyard during work hours, killing 12 innocent Americans. Alexis, a defense con-tractor, was honorably dis-charged from active duty military in 2011, though he did show signs of “mis-conduct,” says a military official. This tragic event

brings the question of gun control and whether or not we should have strict-er laws here in the United States. But before diving into this question, we must realize that having a gun was not the only thing that Alexis had: he also had several mental illnesses that the medical field was track-ing him for.

His mental issues in-cluded voices in his head, anger management, insom-nia and PTSD. This further proves that often times it is not guns that kill people, but rather those with mental prob-lems that ultimately do the killing. If we as Americans want to stop gun violence, or any violence for that matter, we

first should take a step back and look at how our health system is handling mental illnesses. Are we doing the best we can to treat these peo-ple and are our treatments working? We must examine these issues before spitting on our second amendment rights and banning something our founding fathers strongly believed was fundamental to American liberty. The mental health care system in the United States spends 113 billion dollars annually, yet many still can-not find the help they need due to lack of insurance coverage providers And, several states cut their mental health care by almost two billion dollars during the recession, Wash-ington D.C. included. Millions of gun owners in the United States would never think about taking

another person’s life be-cause they are mentally sta-ble. On September 16th at the navy yard in Washing-ton DC, what if a mentally stable person had a weapon on them during work that day? It’s likely the gunman would have been taken out quickly and we would not have lost 12 lives that day. Arguing about gun control is irrelevant. We must instead fo-cus on treating those with mental illnesses and those suffering from PTSD.

Cameron Kawato is a freshman political science major from Tulare, California.

Let’s Get Personal...Don’t think politics are relevant to your life? Think again...Each month we’ll take one issue and show how it directly affects YOU.THE NATIONAL DEBT

As Harry Reid (D-NV), U.S. Senate Majority Lead-er, and Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) performed Tony Award-worthy partisan theatrics in Washington, D.C. last week over funding the Federal Government past September 30th and the Republican attempts to defund Obamacare, it is ap-propriate to reflect on how we arrived at this impasse. The Senate and House of Representatives attempt-ed to pass a Continuing Resolution – a short-term budget – to fund the United States until politi-cians can agree on a “real” budget.

President Obama piped in on the partisanship on September 20th in a speech at a Ford plant near Kansas City. “This is not a deadbeat nation,” he said. “We don’t run out on our tab.” Dead-beat, eh? Takes one to know one. In 2008, Obama called the $4 trillion in debt that George W. Bush racked up in 2 terms of presidency “irresponsible” and “unpa-triotic.” Strangely enough, Obama casually threw down another $4 trillion in less than one term. The U.S. debt is now approaching $17 trillion;

World War II is the only time our debt to Gross Do-mestic Product (GDP) ratio has been higher. Albeit more a wag of the finger than a legitimate threat, Standard & Poor’s downgraded the credit of the United States in 2011 because of our fiscal insta-bility. If Bush was “unpatri-otic,” then what does that make Obama? Unfortunate-ly, I can’t find a synonym to top that superlative. I guess “hypocritical” will have to do. The problem is simple – the government spends more than it makes – but not easy to solve. Social security, Medi-care, Medicaid, and the De-fense Department are our biggest expenditures, and no law maker has figured

out how to successfully disenfranchise the old, sick, or veterans without com-mitting political suicide. Ironically, however, if we can’t figure out a way to spend less on these pro-grams and others, we risk a financial crisis and don’t have the fiscal flexibility to target other budget priori-ties. Young people are going to have to figure this out, and many of the young-est politicians are already working on it. Much of the mainstream media – from Bob Schieffer to Rachel Maddow – de-scribe the circumstance as one of too much division; either the Democrats want to spend too much or the Republicans aren’t willing to spend enough.

What if, however, the entire cohort of lawmakers in Washington is thinking too much in the red fis-cally? This is precisely the point political newcomers like Kentucky Senator Rand Paul (R-TX), Ted Cruz, and Congressman Roger Williams (R-TX), also a TCU alumnus, are trying to make to the American people. College students aren’t dumb enough to buy CNN’s portrayal of our generation as merely hackisack-kick-ing “Occupy” protestors. As responsible citizens, we know not to go buy lavish luxuries we can’t afford. We must demand the same of our lawmakers. Over in East Asia, there’s a rapidly-growing coun-try with their fiscal house much more in order. If America doesn’t maintain its competitive edge, we’re going to be teaching our kid’s Man-darin Chinese because we have to, instead of Spanish and French because we want to.

John Andrew Willis isa graduate student at the TCU College of Eduction.

3Peabrains and Patriots:

Each month we’ll pick one peabrain and one patriot. Peabrains generally are rather stupid, doing relatively foolish things. Patriots exemplify the qualitifes that make this country so

great: patriotism, bravery, selflessness, and modesty.

Pe abrain

Judge G. Todd Baugh Judge G. Todd Baugh from Montana recently sen-tenced a 49-year-old male teacher, who raped a 14-year-old girl who later killed herself, to 30 days in jail. When asked to explain his ruling Baugh stated, “the girl was as much in control of the situation as the defendant.” After much backlash and pressure from an election year, Judge Baugh issued an apology acknowledging that many of his statements were demeaning to women. Under Montana law there is a mandatory 2-year sentence for statutory rape; the State is now appealing the illegal sentence.

Pat r iot

Helping-A-Hero Helping a Hero is an organization that builds homes for soldiers that have been severely wounded. These homes are specially made for the new lifestyle the wounded veterans have. For example, hallways and doorways are made wider for wheelchair accessibility. There has been recent groundbreaking for DFW member Cpl. Justin Lane’s home. Cpl. Lane lost both legs and endured other injuries in Afghanistan. Helping a Hero is doing a great job in finding a way to thank these soldiers for protecting us and our country.

Kristin Repass is a political science major from Colleyville, TX.

How much do you know?

Take this quiz to find out!Hint: all answers can be found inside this

issue.

Who is the president of Syria?

Who is the president of Russia?

Why did President Obama call former President George W. Bush “unpatriotic” in 2008?

Rand Paul is a US Senator from what state?

Which controversial Bill passed in Texas this past summer?

Who is Bay Buchannan?

The amount of faith one has in their government is called what?

Got cartoons?

Credit: Larry Wright and Glenn Foden, Townhall

Twitter Takes5

In case you missed it, on September 25th Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) spoke for 21 hours on the Senate floor to try and prevent a vote con-cerning ‘Obamacare.’ Part way through his attempt, he took a slight break from the political talk. Why? To read his two young daugh-ters a bed time story. He chose one of Dr. Seuss’ most

famous works. Some liberal NBC News anchors spent time analyzing his book of choice, Green Eggs and Ham. They even consulted a Dr. Seuss biographer, Phil Nel who is a professor from Kansas State University. Nel claimed, “The moral message of ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ – to the extent that

it has one – is completely at odds with what Cruz was trying to achieve,” according to an article from The Media Research Center. He wasn’t the only one with an opinion on Cruz’s bedtime story of choice. David Plouffe, a cam-paign manager in 2008 and former White House secre-tary made up his own rhyme, according to NBC News. “Ted would not go to bed. Hoping to strengthen Tea Party cred,” Plouffe wrote on Twitter. “To Iowa he soon fled. But Obamacare will nev-er be dead.” Cruz denied the claim that he chose this particular Dr. Seuss story for any reason. And, it seems a little ridiculous that rather than focus on the main issue here, Obamacare, several in the media have chosen to focus on a childrens’ story instead. My take? Senator Cruz wanted to make sure his two daughters didn’t go to bed without a bedtime story from Dad.

Booey Mittelstadt is a junior political science and FTDM-major from Chattanooga, TN

Ted Cruz takes on Green Eggs and Ham

6Happy News

“If it bleeds, it reads” is a popular phrase among newsrooms. But at The Purple Patriot we like to read some happy news every once and a while too. Check out this good news

story below:

Soldiers reunite with puppies they took care of while in Afghanistan:

Army National Guard Sgt. Travis Burton and the rest of his unit re-turned home from Afghan-istan in August. Unfortu-antely, however, they had to leave eight of their friends behind. Burton and his team began to take care of a stray dog, Sheba, while overseas. She would follow them around and “protect them from other wild dogs where they were stationed in Islam Qala, a town in Afghanistan near the border of Iran,” according to a USA Today article.

Sheba, which means “promise” in Hebrew, gave birth to seven puppies last spring. For a while, the soldiers used their own food to keep the puppies alive. Soon, though, family and friends back in the US began to send dog food and Puppy Chow. “They kind of became a part of our team. You feel for the men to the left and to the right of you, but you also start to worry about (the dogs),” Burton said. “Are they getting enough food? Do they have

enough shelter from the dust storms? Are they not getting kidnapped at night? Is someone not trying to poison them?” The men had to leave their new friends behind when it was time to head back home. Fortunately, how-ever, enough money was raised through an organi-zation called Save-A-Pet Animal Rescue to bring the pups to New York, result-ing in one of the sweetest reunions between a group of brave men and man’s best friend.

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My experience in Austin during passing of abortion bill

The passage of the controversial and polarizing HB2 or “Fetal Pain Bill”, a piece of legislation that bans abortion after 20 weeks and institutes a number of quality stipulations on Texas abortion clinics, provided me with a ringside view of the behavior of those protesting the bill at the state capitol. I witnessed some of

this behavior first hand and much of it puzzled me. For many pro-abortion protes-tors the event seemed to be nothing more than a display of anger that did nothing to further a cause. Things started off qui-etly, but as the day wore on, pro-abortion demonstrators in the rotunda began chanting slogans. Over and over again

they screamed what sounded like “My life. My choice.” with admira-ble stamina and volume. I even observed one of them beating on a bongo drum. What was lacking in intelli-gibility was supplied in volume. The display exuded anger and even rage - seeming hardly calculated to further the pro-abortion cause. When two young girls moved to display their pro-life signs for a camera, a grey-haired woman darted in front

of them to block them out with her own enormous pro-abortion sign. In order to do so she practically had to squeeze between the girls and the man being interviewed. This was incredibly petty from a woman of her age toward two teenage girls, but more than that it was breathtakingly ugly to see how angry the woman

was towards those favoring a different opinion from her own. It seemed to me a strange way to represent a deeply held cause. And, these minor incidents that I wit-nessed were just the warm up act. Worse behavior came that night. According to KUT Austin news, the DPS con-fiscated “one jar suspected to contain urine, 18 jars suspect-ed to contain feces, and three bottles suspected to contain paint. All of these items – as well as significant quantities of feminine hygiene products, glitter and confetti.” from in-dividuals attempting to enter the senate gallery. I’d really rather not think about what they planned to do with those. It is still difficult now, as it was then, to see any purpose to this behavior, but perhaps it is not so incon-gruous with the pro-abortion cause after all.

There are no affec-tions in nature greater than that of a mother for her child. Could it be possible that this anger was just a natural exten-sion of a morality that smiles on a mother for killing her child? Whatever, the answer to that question is, I couldn’t help thinking at the time that an alien, from another plan-et, who landed here and saw what happened in Austin that day, without knowing any-thing about the issues at stake, might just become pro-life in a hurry.

David Woodworth is a senior computer science major from Fort Worth, Texas.

Questions?We’ve heard and seen some questions to this paper. Here’s what we have to say:

It is true, Bud. But next time, emailing tcupurplepatriot@gmail.com might be more efficient.

You’re probably right, Seth. We’ll likely keep our writings to this new publication. But while we won’t be writing for the Skiff, we still respect them and what they do. We hope you’ll be able to do the same for us despite differing opinions.

Well, Jake...you’re in luck. Check out tcupurplepatriot.com.

TCU Young Americans for Freedom Presents:

Former Treasurer of the U.S. under President Reagan,

Bay Buchanan

YOU’RE INVITED to learn about the importance of the 2nd Amendment

from Bay Buchanan!

October 9th, 2013

7:00PM

BLUU Ballroom

Are TCU Students sitting on the Political Sidelines? Political efficacy, the amount of faith one has in their government and the level of influence they have in political affairs, has always been a topic of interest to po-litical scientists and scholars. College students are a particularly fascinating group. According to Rock the Vote, there are an estimated 44 million Millennials who are eligible to vote in the United States. Making up one-fifth of the electorate, it would seem as though we have a unique opportunity to be heard in the political world. But do college stu-dents today even care about American politics? According to data from an American National Election Study, when asked, “how much can young people affect what the government does,” 62% of 18 to 25 year-olds answered “not at all.” The fact that almost

two-thirds of the American youth thinks it can have no impact on the government may be the very reason they seem so uninterested. How do TCU stu-dents compare? A randomly selected group of 72 Horned Frogs were asked to rank their political interest on a scale from 1 to 5, 1 indicating “pol-itics is not important to me at all” and 5 indicating “politics is very important to me.” As one might predict, responses resulted in a bell curve (see chart to right) with a majority of the students gravitating around a 3. When asked: “do you think the av-erage citizen can do much to change the government,” only 32% answered “yes,” results similar to the American Na-tional Election Study. Predictably, there is a correlation between political efficacy and political interest among TCU students. Those

who expressed that politics were important to them seem to have more faith that people can make a difference in our democratic system. However, this cor-relation is not as strong as one might assume. Several students who expressed disin-terest in politics still had hope that there was someone out there who could make a dif-ference in government, even if it wouldn’t be them. Besides the polit-ically passionate minority, this study proves that there is a lack of political concern among college students today. The question then is why are students so apathetic? It seems as though politics has become somewhat taboo. People are hesitant to express beliefs, so not to step on anyone’s toes. But there is more to politics than Republi-cans pitted against Democrats. It affects every aspect

of people’s lives—including college students. Every time you turn on your faucet, drive on the highway, or cry over your building financial dept, politics is involved. And our democratic government depends on the participation of all members of society, especially the Mil-lennials who are considered to be the future of America.

Many years ago our founding fathers and patriots fought to establish an inde-pendent democratic govern-ment. Today, it is up to stu-dents and the American youth to preserve it.

Rachelle Ronshaugan is a speech pathology major from Middleberry, Connecticut.

Want to get involved with The Purple Patriot? We’d love to have you. Email tcupurplepatriot@gmail.com

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