By, CAITLIN HOFEN, Student Reporter
The Northwestern College Republicans Club has recently been reactivated on campus.
Club President Braeden Cook sat down with Northwestern News to discuss club members’ ideas and their mission as an organization.
Q: What is your club about?
A: It’s called the College Republicans. It’s a national organization that is active in several different states. There’s the national organization and then the state organization.
Then, under that, there’s different levels of college organizations. We just reactivated the chapter at Northwestern that has been here since 1967.
It’s essentially a club to help prepare younger conservatives to be active in the Republican Party. They will be able to share their conservative values with confidence and be able to go out and be politically active.
Q: Why did you decide to reactivate the chapter?
A: The political climate of today is really crazy, and it seems all-hands-on-deck, as far as conservatives are concerned.
It’s getting to the point that it seems that everything is anti-conservative, in the sense of entertainment, education institutions, and a lot of mainstream media and news. It’s time for us to get out there and be more vocal.
For the longest time, we’ve been passive in how we deal with issues. Now, it is getting to the point where it is affecting our daily lives. We have to get ourselves in gear and be able to fight back with new ideas.
Q: What is your club’s mission?
A: Our mission is to spread conservative ideas throughout campus. Our college in particular is actually fairly conservative in terms of faculty and staff. There’s a happy mix between Republicans and Democrats. That’s not the case for a lot of universities. We want to keep up the diversity of thought on campus.
Q: What are some of your beliefs as a young Republican?
I believe in the American philosophy, which is the Declaration of Independence, for sure.
The Constitution is fabulous as far as a framework of government, but if you do not have a belief in the American philosophy which is outlined in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution can be used for whatever you want. For there to be a limited government like we have always believed in, you have to have the Declaration of Independence and the idea that there are certain inalienable rights each human being has.
Each human being is valuable no matter shape, size, disability, whatever. That’s one of the core beliefs both sides seem to be attacking.
I would say that’s my core beliefs as a young Republican, is the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Q: How can people join?
A: People can join by following the College Republicans link on the student website. It will direct you to our teacher sponsor, Dr. Eric Schmaltz. You can email him, and he will direct you to me.
Q: How do you conduct meetings?
A: Our meeting usually starts off with announcements and agenda planning. Oftentimes, we discuss on-campus activities and different ideas for events. We want to share our conservative values with students around campus. By the end of the meeting, we just have good conversations and fellowship. We are trying to build a community of like-minded people.
Q: When do you conduct meetings?
A: As of right now, our club meets over Zoom at 5:45 p.m. on Mondays. That’s typically when most of our members are available, but we’re flexible with changing it to whatever day might work better.
Q: What would you say to someone considering joining?
A: I would say, go ahead and try it out. See what it’s like. Just know that it is a partisan club, and we hold conservative value to be true. If you believe in America and love the country, I believe it’s an amazing club to be a part of.