Event Breakdown: Ruby Bridges and John Lewis Gaddis

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Last week The Political Union sponsored two exciting speakers who share their expertise with the Columbia community: civil rights activist Ruby Bridges and Cold War historian John Lewis Gaddis. In case you missed these events here are some highlights.

The most emotional moment of Veritas Forum's interview with Ruby Bridges happened near the end of the evening. Bridges discussed the moment when she realized that she was being treated differently because of her race. As the first black student to attend an all white school, Bridges experienced a great deal of adversity, but she didn't know what had caused it until one moment.  She approached a white boy to play ball but the boy refused, saying "My parents say I can't play with you because you are a n*****." Bridges describes the experience as actually comforting because it meant the children avoided her not because she was mean or unlikable, but because of their parent's prejudices. Kids don't understand racism, Bridges explained, and naturally see all people as equal. When she works with children Bridges often role plays as a racist, saying white dogs are better than black dogs, to which one student replied "but they're all just dogs."

The evening ended with Bridges encouraging everyone in the Diana Center Oval to "save our own world." Tearing up as she spoke, Bridges said "I believe in you so much, I believe you can change your world."

Read about John Lewis Gaddis's talk on his latest book on Geogre F. Kennen, after the jump.

Calling it 2: Premature Electoral Prediction

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Last time we did "Calling it" we claimed that Newt was done for and Romney had clinched the nomination. Well it seems while we were covering our local debate between the Republicans and Democrats, Santorum has surged across the States. Jokes about Santorum's name aside, the race for the GOP nomination has been pretty disappointing for everyone involved. The turn outs at these primaries have been considerably lower than previous years, and no candiate has the Republicans really fired up. Santorum himself is no viable candidate for office: while he may appeal to the GOP's Christian base as an alternative to Romney, his social politics is just too restrictive and outdated for him to lead the entire nation.

This Republican pessimism has been dominating the nation's media and liberals in particular have pounced on it. Economist Paul Krugman wrote a scathing New York Times Column about the GOP's dismal prospects. In the column he argues that Republican base demands a level of conservatism from the candidates that the general public is not interested in, saying that "the party suffers from “severe” conservatism in the worst way. And the malady may take many years to cure."

It would seem the Republican party has lost direction. It's unable to find an inspiring candidate or resinate with the American people en large, beyond their core base. But looking forward to November their are other factors in play. The economy is growing again up to 2.3% from 1.6% last year and Obama has held approve rating steady around 50%.

These factors have been analyzed by economists Patrick Hummel and David Rothschild working for Yahoo! Labs. They have developed an algorithm from analyzing the past 10 presidential elections which can predict the outcome of a state election with 88% accuracy. When given the economic and political factors for the upcoming election, Hummel and Rothschild's model predicted that Obama would prevail over a Republic challenger with 303 electoral votes to 235.

That's quite the prediction, but don't place your bets yet. There is plenty of time until November and things could change. But for now it seems like Obama has the upper hand and the Republican candidates don't know how to proceed. Perhaps their own algorithms have told them to save their energy for later.

A Note on the Cub Pub's update frequency

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Last week we posted an editorial about The Columbia Libertarians Blog where we encouraged political blogs on campus to update more frequently. And then immediately afterwards we didn't update for a week. While we have big dreams, we're not run by an army of writers like Spec or Bwog.  We still have few people working for us and sometimes that means we have long dry spells. Our goal is to create a small team of blog-o-philes to keep the site updated and relevant but that's not going to happen until our formal launch. So stay tuned for updates, because our launch is coming soon!

Long Overdue Coverage: The Columbia Libertarian Blog

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For the past week The Cub Pub has been covering the CPU  debate between the Columbia Democrats and Republicans. However, we've been forgoing one political group on campus: CUL, Columbia Libertarians. Last week they had an event as well:  The Young Americans for Liberty's Civil Liberties College Tour. Several speakers attended such as Bruce Fein, Glenn Greenwald, Jacob Hornberger and Jack Hunter. The event had a huge turn out: around 180 people came to listen to the panel and it's a shame that The Cub Pub did not have reporters to cover it. This absolutely wil be rectified for future political events on campus, CUL sponsored or otherwise. You can read up about the speakers and the event itself on the Columbia Libertarians blog here.

Speaking of the CUL blog, it has to be the most regularly updated and supported political blogs on campus, besides The Cub Pub of course. This is somewhat unexpected because CU Libertarians are a smaller group on campus than the College Dems and Repubs. The Libertarians' have published four articles since the start of the semester. That may not seem like much but in comparison the post recent articles on both the Democrats' and Republicans' sites are still on SOPA/PIPA.

But there is a larger issue. If you read though all these blogs you'll find that there's hardly a single comment on any post. This is a problem. There's no way to incite meaningful political conversation on campus if so few people are writing it and discussing it. Journals, reviews, and publications are nice but they they lack an online presence where real discussion can take shape. That's the domain of blogs and that's why the political blogs on campus are so important. The Cub Pub encourages all political groups to keep their blogs updated, keep the content fresh and timely, keep the conversation going. We have our own work cut out for us when it comes to creating discussion but in this case we are fortunate that it's a tide that raises all ships.

CTV Debate Coverage!

Last Tuesday the Columbia Political Union held a debate on affirmative action between the College Republicans and Democrats. It was an impressive display from both sides, but if you missed out, don't fret! We have minute by minute live blog coverage right here. Also, thanks to our friends at CTV we were able to film the debate for your viewing/reviewing pleasure. Want to get a better feel of what went down. or want to relive some juicy moments? Well, we have the closing statements right here, and embedded below we have CTV's own news piece on the event. Enjoy!

Debate Closing Statements!

We know you Cub Pubbers have been waiting patiently for the footage from last Tuesday's CPU debate between the college democrats and republicans on affirmative action. We'll the videos are coming in! You'll be able to watch the edited news story for CTV later this week, but to tide you over we're sending you the un- edited closing statements! The camera work is a little bit amateurish because someone (read: Cub Pub Editor in Chief Zach Kagan) forgot to bring an extension cord and clear the memory beforehand. But C'est la vie! You can get a pretty good feel for what went down by just watching these closing statements:





Also, The Cub Pub is playing with backgrounds. At time of this posting we have a blue background with white crowns. Do you like it or should be go back to blue and darker blue stripes? Let us know in the comments.

[EDIT] Due to the crowns not formatting well on some browsers we have switched back to the stripes.

CPUbeta no more!

The Cub Pub is now cubpub.wordpress.com, instead of cpubeta.wordpress.com. Hopefully this will reduce confusion. We originally chose the name "CPUbeta" while we playing around with wordpress, but now that the blog is live it's time to get professional. That doesn't mean the blog won't evolve from this point- we have a lot of work to do- but at least the URL makes more sense.

love,

Zach Kagan, Editor of The Cub Pub

Dems/Repubs Debate LIVE BLOG: Affirmative Action

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The debate has begun! It's already heating up and arguments are coming fast and fierce. There have already been some unexpected moves. The Dems came out not fully supporting affirmative action, instead stating that everyone wants to see an end of the policy. The question, however, is when. Stay tuned for live updates to this article as the debate unfolds!

• 8:26 The Republicans are hung up on the prosecution of the Irish Catholics vs African Americans.


• 8:30 first audience question. Are legacy policies more harmful than affirmative action?


• 8:33 Dems are busting out studies, talking about how the exposure to people of race in professional and academic settings leads to less discrimination. Repubs rebuttal by saying that's buying into the logic of racism. Both get snaps from the audience.


• 8:37 Question from the audience: Is affirmative action harming the chances of other minorities professionally and in academia?


• 8:40 More prosecution against the Irish! Perhaps the Repubs would have better luck with this line of argument if we were still in the 1850s.


• 8:43 Question from the audience: What about Native Americans on reservations.


• 8:45 We have quite the diverse panel: the debaters from the Dems come from Brazil and Alaska, and the Repubs have an Irishman.


• 8:48 Republicans argue that "one more program" will not solve racism, we can't let race be a factor. Dems argue that race does affect one's opportunities in life.


• 8:52 Repubs argue that we should strive for a meritocracy, and that affirmative action helps people at the cost of promoting a racist mindset.


• 8:58 Dems argue that there is still measurable racism in this country. The Repubs claim that employers assume that the reason black people with the same resumes as white people are inferior is because "they must have gotten affirmative action". Audience gasps.


• 9:00 Audience member challenges the assumption that affluent African Americans don't face racism. Repubs argue that it doesn't mean that affirmative action will solve this, saying that "affirmative action doesn't stop employers from being racist".


• 9:08 Repubs argue that affirmative action is a way for polticians to say that they have done something to end racism and then they do no more. Dems argue "who says that?"


• 9:10 Question from the audience: does affirmative action creates shame amongst minorities when it comes to their relationship to white peers? Dems argue that there are plenty of boosts for white students and professionals, affirmative action is just an equalizer.


• 9:14 Lots of talk about nigerian ambassadors, someone's ears are burning! Our Irish friend talks about discrimination in England. Meanwhile, Dems accuse republicans of living in a fantasy world where everyone is equal. It's really heating up! "Your solution is do nothing, work harder!"


• 9:19 This is the part of the debate where both sides start to repeat themselves. There are a few gems though. For example, the Repubs just claimed that the dems suggest they are "supporting Jim Crow".


• 9:21 Last question: Brazil has a spectrum between white and black, how does affirmative action deal with mixed race children?


• 9:22 Lots of shouting out the window. What's going on outside the debate hall? Anyways, the debate has turned into an analysis of various metaphors: weights, scales, etc.

Debates over folks. Thanks to all who cam and the Dems and Repubs for participating. Before the end of the week we will have a video up thanks to our partnership with CTV.

Dems/Repubs Debate TONIGHT: Affirmative Action

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Come down to 703, Hamilton Hall and watch the Columbia Republicans and Democrats duke it out over another controversial topic. This time it's on affirmative action- well you can't say they shy away from the tough issues. In all honestly, though, it's gonna be a blast. Both parties bring their best to these these debates and theres always a memorable moment or two. It's a can't miss event but if you somehow manage missing it, The Cub Pub will be there to live blog it for you- because we love you, Columbia.

SOPA/PIPA: A Morningside Retrospective

It certainly felt like the entire population of the internet rose up together to fight SOPA/PIPA, and it looks like we've won, at least for the moment. But the fight to quash these bills resulted in more than the bruising of Congressman Lamar Smith's ego. It compelled both the Columbia Dems and Republicans to be on the same side for once.

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Both the Dems and Republicans took action against the bills, with the Dems creating a petition campaign, and the republicans writing a strongly worded letter to New York congressional members. Their efforts were separate, but towards the same cause, which makes the Cub Pub feel cautiously hopeful about the future of campus political discourse. There was a time not to far from recent memory when the clashes between the two student groups were frequent and counterproductive for everyone. The situation is a lot less aggressive now thanks to a lot of factors- not to mention the efforts of the Columbia Political Union- but it's always nice to see that both the left and right on campus can agree that freedom on the net is worth fighting for.

It's ALIVE!

The Cub Pub is slowly coming to life, being reanimated by the overwhelming bolts of electrical energy that is political discourse. If you've found us at this early stage well congratulations. The Cub Pub is looking for opinionated writers (of any political affiliation) come together in the love of coffee and a good, ol' fashioned scandal.


Speaking of scandals, the Susan G. Komen scandal is blowing up in the media and on the web. For those who have been focusing this week on the 46th Superbowl- a much more pleasant event despite the presence of tackling- Susan G. Komen For The Cure is the breast cancer non-profit group, or at least the best funded one with the pink ribbons. For years Pro-Life groups have been pressuring Komen to stop funding Planned Parenthood, since PP provides breast cancer services. Recently Komen changed its polices so that institutions under state and federal investigations- such as planned parenthood- would have their funding cut. Many interpreted this as the organization giving in to outside pressure and the backlash was almost instantaneous. Komen has since reversed its decision on Planned Parenthood but the damage has been done with both Pro-Life and Pro-Choice supporters losing faith in Komen's ideology.

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For a politically neutral publication this presents a number of issues. Many have been curious about how the new Cub Pub will handle these situations. The Cub Pub recognizes that despite the best intentions of the author, it's impossible to be completely unbiased. It also makes for uninteresting political discussion; after all the Cub Pub is not a news source, it is a source of political discussion on Columbia's campus. That means we at the Cub Pub need writer with a wide variety of political ideologies to reflect those of the students at the university. Can Komen rebound our is this an unredeemable misstep? The discussion starts now: tell us in the comments about what you think.

-Zach Kagan, Editor of the Cub Pub