Socialists host Tea Party on campus

Editor's note: This story has been corrected from the print version to add a missing sentence that was accidentally removed due to an editing error. Without this sentence, the story appeared to attribute statements made by Keli Carender, a Tea Party member, to Seattle U Socialist Alternative member Anh Tran, a junior psychology major, instead. We regret the error.

Though Tea Partiers and Socialists usually don't mix, members of the two political groups kept it civil in the same room on Seattle University's campus over the weekend.

The Socialist Alternative club at Seattle U hosted the Northwest Socialism Conference on Saturday, a day-long event filled with speakers from different political organizations.
Distinguished antiwar protestor Cindy Sheehan and left-leaning Green party leader Matt Gonzalez presented on various topics to members of other chapters of Socialist Alternative and some of the Tea Party's reactionary right in a Bannan classroom.

Sheehan spoke on the military-industrial complex, pointing out flaws in the armed forces. Famous for her demonstrations against the Iraq War, Sheehan gave a presentation true to her counter-cultural reputation.

In her closing statement, Sheehan suggested Michele Obama's efforts to end childhood obesity are a ploy to get youth fit enough to join the military. Essentially she sees it as an easy play by Obama.

"It is a safe issue," Sheehan said. "Nobody is for childhood obesity right?"

Jean Marx, a member of Veterans for Peace in Bellingham, spoke on the various tactics discussed.

"I find it interesting that so many lefties, like me, are trying to solve the problem in something like the economy," he said. "I think tactically it would make sense to concentrate all of our efforts on the antiwar movement."

Following the presentation was a two-hour debate between Ramy Khalil of Socialist Alternative and Keli Carender, a Tea Party member and active blogger. Audience members frequently interrupted debaters and filled pauses with applause.

Carender was quick to point out that liberals can be narrow-minded.

"So you start to think about your opposites in this caricature of being snaggle-toothed knuckle-dragging conservatives," she said. "It becomes a very, very intolerant sort of mindset."

Ben Gallup, a Socialist Alternative member at Evergreen State College in Lacey, Wash. acknowledged there might be some truth to Carender's comment.

"Yeah, definitely," remarked Gallup. "And liberals say the same thing about conservatives. I would say willingness to discuss openly is not contingent on one's political persuasion."

Khalil spent most of the debate clarifying what the socialist position is. He referenced the recent BP oil spill, free markets and what he believes to be United States meddling in Latin America as proof of capitalism is failing the common worker.

"In a capitalist society these big corporations aquire so much money and power that the government is in their back pocket," Khalil said.

Instead, Khalil would rather have a government based on democracy and public ownership. He thinks public ownership is a must because given the chance, private corporations still fail to act in good faith.

Seattle U Socialist Alternative member Anh Tran, a junior psychology major, confirmed of the club was run in an egalitarian manner.

"The cool thing about Socialist Alternative is that everything is very equal," she said. "It is all very democratic."

Carender spent most of the time defending the Tea Party from what she believes is unfair media coverage.

"The media likes a narrative, and a good narrative is that the Tea Partiers are old and white," she said. "If we have an entire group of young people and minorities and they choose not to film them, then those people don't have their voices heard."

She also feels like the Tea Party's calls for strict adherence to the constitution and a plea for limited government involvement have been patronized as racist.

"I think because our president is African-American, and so a lot of people don't want to face up to criticism," she said. "They would rather just fall back on saying, well you are criticizing him because you are obviously racist, which is a totally intellectually lazy route to take."

Carender also advocated pure capitalism. She claimed that the federal government should have let the banks fail instead of giving a bailout, citing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as signs of government's inefficiency.

Khalil felt like this was distorting ideology to be fact.

"That was my whole problem with everything she was saying," he said. "She [Carender] has this free market capitalist ideology that, if you allow the business to just run free then they will supposedly generate wealth that will benefit everyone or create jobs. The reality is that is not the truth."

Both Khalil and Carender thought the debate was a good experience. Khalil called it a "good exchange of ideas," and Carender said the event was a welcome change from her usual experiences blogging.

"Instead of leaving an anonymous nasty comment about your family, hoping you die and things like that, they [the crowd] will actually engage you and ask an intelligent question," she said.

Dillon may be reached at dgilbert@su-spectator.com