Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
4— Tuesday, March 6, 2018
Emma Chang
Joel Danilewitz
Samantha Goldstein
Elena Hubbell
Emily Huhman
Tara Jayaram
Jeremy Kaplan
Sarah Khan
Lucas Maiman
Magdalena Mihaylova
Ellery Rosenzweig
Jason Rowland
Reign of chaos
A letter from MVision
C
haos once again returned
to the White House this
past
week
with
the
sudden
resignation of Hope
Hicks, White House
communications
director,
in
the
wake of news that
she
testified
to
Congress that part
of the job entailed
telling
“white
lies” on President
Donald
Trump’s
behalf. Hicks was Trump’s
fourth
communications
director in the span of barely
a year in office, but more
importantly,
Hicks
was
a
loyal and trusted member of
Trump’s inner circle.
Her stunning departure
serves as an indication that
the Trump administration’s
unprecedented
streak
of
attrition — which has seen
the exit of Chief Strategist
Steve
Bannon,
Chief
of
Staff Reince Priebus, Press
Secretary Sean Spicer and
many others — is far from
over.
A
day
after
Hicks
announced her resignation,
NBC
News
reported
that
National
Security
Adviser
H.R.
McMaster
will
be
replaced within the month
at the behest of Defense
Secretary James Mattis and
John
Kelly,
White
House
chief of staff. That same day,
news broke that Kelly, at
Trump’s request, is planning
to remove Ivanka Trump and
Jared Kushner from their
official advisor roles.
Kelly
was
supposed
to provide order when he
was hired last summer, but
instead, the White House
has fractured further under
his direction. Kelly himself
was recently embroiled in
controversy over his handling
of domestic abuse allegations
against former White House
aide Rob Porter, which Kelly
ignored for months, only firing
Porter after the accusations
leaked to the media.
Amid
this
frenzy
of
attrition,
speculation
and
scandal, one thing is clear:
Trump’s
White
House
is
engulfed
in
turmoil,
the
repercussions of which flared
brightly
this
past
week.
Trump has long been known to
flip-flop on policy positions,
expressing
contradictory
views on topics ranging from
immigration to taxation to
abortion
throughout
his
campaign and first year in
office, but he outdid himself
last week on gun control. At
a televised meeting
with senators and
congressman from
both parties, Trump
praised
proposals
to
establish
comprehensive
background
checks on all gun
purchases
and
to raise the age
to
buy
assault
weapons to 21. In a
surreal moment, Trump even
expressed openness to a ban
on assault weapons. Yet, in
an ironic twist, after chiding
Republican
lawmakers
for
being “afraid of” the NRA,
Trump
met
with
NRA
lobbyists and rescinded his
support for the gun control
measures he had praised just
a day earlier.
Trump’s
inconsistency
on
guns
confused
and
exasperated leaders of both
parties,
but
was
quickly
overshadowed when Trump
declared
his
intention
to
introduce
tariffs
on
steel
and
aluminum
imports.
Such a move would violate
existing
trade
agreements
and
indubitably
lead
to
retaliatory
measures
from
other countries that could
easily spiral into a costly and
disastrous trade war.
The reaction to Trump’s
tariff plan was swift and
harsh.
Leaders
of
both
parties quickly rebuked the
idea, global leaders blasted
Trump and the stock market
plunged.
However,
amid
this
widespread
criticism,
Trump doubled down and
tweeted that trade wars are
“good” and “easy to win.”
That’s blatantly false, and
the fact that no one in the
White House has conveyed to
Trump the threat a trade war
poses to the U.S. economy is
rather alarming.
Trump’s
eventful
week
culminated
with
renewed
scrutiny
over
his
neglect
to
fill
dozens
of
vacant
positions,
including
41
ambassadorships.
Critical
allies
and
strategic
partners like South Korea,
Germany, Saudi Arabia and
the
European
Union
are
among
the
countries
and
organizations that currently
lack
an
American
chief
diplomat. When considering
the
current
geopolitical
climate around the world, it is
astounding that some of these
positions have yet to be filled.
Given the tensions on the
Korean peninsula, appointing
an ambassador to South Korea
should be a priority, but to
the Trump administration, it
is an afterthought.
It is no coincidence that
a week of internal White
House chaos coincided with
one of Trump’s most volatile
weeks in the policy sphere.
Trump’s
advisers
appear
incapable of providing astute
advice, a problem that is
likely compounded by the
constant attrition plaguing
the White House. In the
absence of stability, Trump
appears to have adopted a
strategy of going off-script
and reversing positions as
he pleases, knowing that his
public statements have little
correlation to the policy his
administration executes. This
inconsistency
compounds
government
inaction,
as
evidenced by Trump’s gun
policy flip-flopping, and leads
to impulsive decisions like
these new proposed tariffs.
Order
must
be
established
in
the
White
House. At present, Trump’s
administration is the most
disorganized, dysfunctional
and,
at
times,
utterly
incompetent administration
in modern American history.
The
chaos
plaguing
the
White
House
muddles
the
president’s
legislative
priorities, devalues the U.S.’s
image abroad and weakens the
credibility of the institution
of the presidency. It often is
tempting to dismiss the White
House drama as meaningless
or
even
entertaining,
but
weeks like this past one
demonstrate the significant
consequences of an executive
branch drowning in chaos.
Noah Harrison can be reached at
noahharr@umich.edu
NOAH HARRISON | COLUMN
DANIEL GREENE AND IZZY BAER | OP-ED
T
o Our Fellow Wolverines,
As
new
Central
Student
Government
parties form and elections fast
approach, we wanted to take a
minute, amid of our marathon
meetings
and
late-night
platform talks, to discuss what
matters most: the students
that make up the University of
Michigan’s campus. It’s with a
dedication to creating a better
and more unified campus that
we announce our candidacy
as Student Body President and
Vice President with the newly
formed MVision party.
Having collectively spent
time working with and on
Central Student Government
(CSG),
LSA
Student
Government (LSA SG), Center
for
Campus
Involvement
(CCI),
Wolverine
Support
Network (WSN), LSA Honor
Council,
Counseling
and
Psychological Services (CAPS),
Sexual Assault Prevention and
Awareness Center (SAPAC),
Panhellenic
Association
and Interfraternity Council
(IFC) we have no shortage
of acronyms, nor time spent
listening to, debating with and
working for the greater student
body. We understand the huge
potential
and
astounding
responsibilities of the offices
we hope to hold. We also know
the shortcomings of CSG and
the pitfalls of overpromising
that have been made clear
over our semesters on campus.
The changes we wish to bring
about are manifold, but our
vision is clear: to create a CSG
that serves the entire student
body. Ultimately, we want a
CSG that empowers students
to be seen, to be heard and to
be supported.
The eMerge party ran with
the desire to build a more
accessible, inclusive student
government, and we are proud
to have been a part of that
campaign.
CSG
President
Anushka
Sarkar
and
CSG
Vice President Nadine Jawad
have done a phenomenal job
providing our campus with
hope and a sense of belonging
for communities that CSG had
previously alienated. We hope
to continue their impactful
work
by
expanding
CSG’s
outreach to communities who
still feel isolated on campus.
We will not be distracted
from CSG’s mission to serve
students. It is imperative that
CSG becomes a group dedicated
to providing resources for
the
student
organizations
that create the richness of
our campus. Let’s allow those
organizations to shine in their
own right, indebted only to
the students and causes that
they serve. We created a team
with the intention of building
a platform based on direct
experience
and
expanding
CSG’s outreach. The range
of CSG experience that our
team brings has allowed our
platform to reflect the varying
communities
and
concerns
from across our campus.
We
have
experienced,
firsthand, policies that need
to be improved to allow for a
campus where each student
is
valued.
The
MVision
Michigan team is comprised
of students who understand
what it means to be openly gay
in Greek life, to be a woman
on a college campus today, to
struggle with mental illness,
to survive sexual assault, to
balance work-study positions
or to feel unsafe because of
their
identities.
However,
we
understand
that
our
experiences do not speak for
the 46,000 voices that make
up the University. We hope to
increase the representation of
all marginalized and invisible
identities within classrooms
and campus resources. We
hope to replace “freshmen”
with “first-years,” and other,
more inclusive, terminology.
We plan to embed a SAPAC
ex-officio in CSG to connect
the University with the needs
of survivors on campus.
No student should feel
alone as they struggle with
mental health, which is why
we need to reach the golden
ratio of CAPS counselors to
students. No student who is
a survivor of sexual assault
should be unsure of their
options, which is why we
need to expand the SAPAC
empowerment
fund.
No
student on campus should feel
isolated or disenfranchised,
which is why we need to
proactively
address
the
campus climate. That is where
our CSG philosophy stems
from. Our experiences have
shaped
our
determination,
and our willingness to go the
extra mile.
We are honored to work
with
brilliant
individuals
from across the communities
that represent the breadth
of
experience
here
on
the
University
campus.
MVision is actively creating
a community that promotes
equity and acceptance and
works at a grassroots level to
pursue inclusivity.
If you have policy ideas
that you believe will elevate
students
on
this
campus,
please
visit
the
MVision
website. We see you and want
you to feel heard.
Let’s MVision together,
Daniel and Izzy
Daniel Green is a Public Policy
junior and Izzy Baer is an LSA
sophmore.
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Order must be
established in the
White House.
NOAH
HARRISON
I
was hopeless about gun
control. Until now.
Another mass shooting.
Over a dozen children dead.
Prayers
from
both
sides.
Arguments about restricting
guns. Rebukes from the NRA.
You’ve heard and seen all of
this before. In many ways, we
had become so jaded to this
process, I truly felt like we
had lost hope. I, like many
of us, had begun to feel that
there was nothing that could
be done. This being said, I’ve
found some hope from those
students advocating for gun
control at Marjory Stoneman
Douglas High School.
You’ve
likely
heard
a
variety of jarring statistics,
but let me provide a reminder:
Nearly
one
in
four
have
been threatened with a gun
in their lifetime or have
a family member who has
been threatened. And this
is even worse for minority
communities: nearly a third
of African-Americans have
reported that they or their
families have been threatened
by gun violence. Whether
it’s being threatened with
a gun or regarding actual
shootings, we can see that
there has been little change
in gun violence: 10 of the
15 deadliest shootings have
occurred in the past 10 years.
I
am
likely
preaching
to the choir, unfortunately,
despite the fact that nearly
nine out of 10 Americans
want
more
regulation
on
guns— specifically, common-
sense legislation that includes
restrictions on those with
mental
illnesses
having
access to guns as well as
more
thorough
background
checks.
These
legislative
proposals have high support
across party lines, and most
people support ending private,
unlicensed sales of firearms
(colloquially known as the
“gun show loophole”). Still,
there has yet to be legislation
that is representative of the
will of the people. This is a
true testament to the NRA
and the number of officials
that have received funding
from them for their political
campaigns. Here in Michigan,
nine legislators have received
funding
from
the
NRA’s
political
action
committee
funds — unsurprisingly, all are
members of the Republican
Party, which has prevented
gun control legislation from
being enacted.
I had truly become so
jaded to the cycle of thoughts
and
prayers,
followed
by
the inundation of statistics
and
descriptions
of
the
propagators of gun violence,
and, finally, inaction from our
legislative body. That is until
I saw and heard from the kids
at Marjory Stoneman Douglas
High School. A high school
senior, Emma Gonzalez spoke
out against the inaction of
government officials regarding
gun control legislation.
“Politicians who sit in their
gilded House and Senate seats
funded by the NRA telling us
nothing could have been done to
prevent this, we call B.S.,” she
said. “That us kids don’t know
what we’re talking about, that
we’re too young to understand
how the government works. We
call B.S.”
I think it’s important to
note that she is younger than
all or nearly all of us here at
the University of Michigan. It
bears repeating that, despite
the fact that she has yet to enter
college, she is likely doing
more than most of us regarding
gun control legislation. While
I’m sure many of us students
are feeling upset about the
recent events, I question if we
have been willing to do what it
takes to change the discourse
surrounding gun control into
tangible legislative action. It’s
these kids who are starting
protests,
who
are
raising
money and who are putting
in the energy to take these
concerns and grow them into
national outcries in ways that
I’m not sure I’ve seen before.
These young activists have
pioneered the #NeverAgain
movement. In doing so, they
have
raised
nearly
three
million dollars in support of
gun control legislation. In
many ways, their protests and
their voices have elevated the
conversations in ways that
an average person cannot.
For
the
American
public,
and our legislators, having to
hear from children who had
to experience the effects of
gun violence has seemingly
turned
the
conversation
in unexpected ways. Just
the
other
day,
President
Donald
Trump
announced
some
tentative
support
for
increasing
background
checks, surprising officials
and
virtually
all
of
the
American community. There
is still hope that we can make
the change, but, if there is to
be effective legislation, those
in support of gun control
cannot let up now. If we are
to pursue legislation, support
can’t simply be just from the
#NeverAgain
individuals.
It can’t be just from the
victims of shootings. It has
to be from every individual
in the American government
speaking out on what may
be one of the larger issues of
our time. What I now know,
however, is that there is still
hope for us to enact common-
sense
legislation
for
guns.
Maybe it won’t be tomorrow
— it might not even be within
the coming year — but if we
continue to ratchet up the
pressure
on
our
officials
and suggest how to fix this
problem, we can ensure that
fewer individuals die from gun
shootings and that kids can go
to school believing in the safety
Hope for gun control
IAN LEACH | COLUMN
Ian Leach can be reached at
ileach@umich.edu.
Nearly one in
four have been
threatened with
a gun in their
lifetime
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