MU College Republicans begin Truth Tuesday

The weekly events will expand conservative views.

By Will Guldin

Published Sept. 11, 2009

College Republican chapters around the state started a Truth Tuesday campaign earlier this week in hopes to elaborate on conservative views on a range of topics. For the first week, the event covered one of the month's most controversial issues: health care.

"What we're doing is basically encouraging College Republican chapters to setup and just talk to students, to get our message out there," said Jonathan Ratliff, Missouri College Republican State Federation chairman. "To say, this is what's going on, here are the real facts."

MU College Republicans Chairman Brett Dinkins said Truth Tuesday, which will take place every Tuesday for the foreseeable future, is meant to educate students more about a subject. He said each week the group will try to give students a conservative perspective on a new topic or revisit an older one.

"It's not necessarily about winning people over to our side," Dinkins said. "It's about increasing education among people."

The MU College Republicans, which set up a display in Speakers Circle, were one of 29 college chapters participating in the event across the state, which Dinkins said was aimed at giving people straight facts about health care.

"We're trying to provide information to combat some of the things that have been distributed," Dinkins said.

Several partisan symbols such as cardboard tombstones reading "RIP Obamacare" and a desk promoting the College Republicans were on display during the event, but Dinkins said these were only meant to attract attention. He said the facts presented to students were accurate.

"The information we're handing out is strictly based on the facts," he said.

MU College Democrats President Brian Roach said the information being disseminated was deceiving.

"It's ridiculous, the fact they're calling it Truth Tuesday, but what they're dispelling isn't really the truth," Roach said.

Roach said examples of this were fliers handed out at the event. These led to a Web site, pulltheplugonobamacare.org, which he said provided inaccurate, partisan information on health care reform.

The Web site contains links to the text of HR 3200, the only bill out of committee in the U.S. House of Representatives and several links to other articles related to health care reform. The Web site also includes several video clips from administration officials discussing health care reform. The site does not specify who runs or owns it.

Dinkins said he could see how people could view these symbols, such as the tombstones, as partisan, but he said many of the people who came and asked questions were not members of one political group or another.

"Surprisingly, the majority of people that have come up to us were undecided about the health care issue," he said.

The College Democrats do not have a regularly scheduled event similar to Truth Tuesday, Roach said, but the organization does set up tables in Speakers Circle where they discuss health care. He said this is the best way for students to make an informed decision on the subject.

"We're hoping that getting both sides of the health care debate out there on campus will help students decide for themselves," Roach said.