W

ith 
the 
midterms 
coming 
up, 
Republicans 
have 
an important question to ask 
themselves: 
Am 
I 
ok 
with 
President 
Donald 
Trump 
becoming 
the 
next 
Ronald 
Reagan? Reagan reshaped the 
Republican 
Party’s 
policies, 
strategies 
and 
style 
for 
generations to come. Trump is on 
course to do the same. This should 
be a scary thought for everyone, 
especially Republicans.
 Trump enjoys a 93 percent 
approval rating among voters who 
identify as strongly Republican. 
Yet many of Trump’s strongest 
critics in the Republican Party 
have left office, including 40 
Republicans in Congress. The 
Republican 
primaries 
have 
been a success for Trump, 
with 35 of the 37 Republicans 
Trump endorsed victorious in 
their respective elections. The 
Republican National Committee 
is run by a former Trump 
campaign chief and has been 
shaped in Trump’s image. Once 
the source of ideas and policy 
initiatives, the RNC, in pure 
Trump style, now has a website 
called LyinComey.com, which 
has the sole purpose to attack 
James Comey, former director 
of the FBI. Polls of Republicans 
show Trump is changing minds 
in the party base. Once settled 
issues in the court of Republican 
opinion, tariffs and Vladimir 
Putin’s role in the world are now 
becoming increasingly positively 
acceptedby 
Republicans. 
The 
hope that Trump would be shaped 
more by the establishment of the 
party than vice-versa is dead.
You might be thinking Trump 
should be considered a conservative 
president because he’s passed some 
conservative policies. But he’s too 
inconsistent. He passes tax cuts 
while embarking on a quixotic 
protectionist 
mission 
against 
China. 
He 
increases 
military 
spending while undermining the 
alliance system that has been the 
hallmark of U.S. security policy 
since the end of World War II. 
He supports Israel, but also anti-
Semites. 
Trump is inconsistent because 
he doesn’t have any normative or 
moral compass. His only guidance 
seems to come from considerations 
of power. The organizing principle 
of his trade policy is that we win 
and our trade partners lose. He has 
no problem attacking the media, 
institutions, individuals or even his 
own cabinet members if he thinks 
it makes him look good. For Trump, 
major decisions are a calculation of 
power rather than principle. He’s a 

drunk man’s Niccolò Machiavelli. 
Trump’s 
singular 
obsession 
with power is what makes him 
fundamentally different than past 
modern conservatives. Trump’s 
view of American exceptionalism is 
devoid of values.
Reagan’s brand of conservatism 
saw America as a beacon for 
freedom on the global stage and 
a city on a hill for anyone who 
sought freedom and opportunity. 
Domestically, the party under 
Reagan promoted smaller, more 
efficient government and a free 
market, which included free trade, 
as to avoid hindering individual 
ambition and innovation. But I’m 
not arguing the Republican Party 
or its values were perfect before 
Trump.
There’s a reason Republicans 
have long struggled to capture 
minority votes. Illiberal populism 
that deals in racism, sexism and 
homophobia has existed on the 

right to different degrees since 
the Civil Rights Act. But the 
Republican Party has had some 
grand moments. I can name a few: 
taking a decisive stance against the 
Soviet Union, granting amnesty 
to 
3 
million 
undocumented 
immigrants, rigorously upholding 
a liberal international order which 
promotes 
human 
rights 
and 
freedom and promoting free trade 
around the world.
Even if you strongly oppose 
these traditionally conservative 
values, it’s still beneficial for 
everyone that the Republican Party 
has values to which it can be held 
accountable. It’s important for 
political parties to run on values 
or ideas with policies that are as 
consistent as possible. When they 
don’t, elections tend to descend 
from a clash of ideas to a clash of 
tribal and cultural loyalties. Such 
a clash of tribal loyalties will only 
make our polarized political system 
more fragmented.
Today, the Republican Party is 
being reshaped. It’s being reshaped 
to care only that America is strong 
and that its enemies—which are 
an ever-growing list of countries, 
institutions 
and 
people—are 
weak. It’s a party that terrorizes 

migrant children by placing them 
in detention centers and tries to 
deport even those who have known 
no home but America. It’s a party 
that is cutting the number of legal 
immigrants because it believes 
people from certain backgrounds 
have less to contribute. It’s a party 
that doesn’t believe in free trade. 
And who cares if dictatorships 
and illiberal regimes spread across 
the world? They want strong 
friends, not morally upstanding 
ones. To Trump’s Republican 
Party, 
defending 
American 
exceptionalism means upholding 
sovereignty, borders and brute 
strength rather than upholding 
freedom, global prosperity and 
human 
rights. 
Trump’s 
view 
of America is unexceptional. It 
mirrors the way strongmen around 
the world view their countries.
The midterms are a referendum 
on Trump’s politics. A defeat of 
Trump’s candidates could awaken 
the establishment and the base 
of the party. Republicans should 
thus vote Democratic or not vote 
at all. The fact is that Trump’s 
politics are not a stable foundation 
to base the future of the party. 
Millennials will outnumber baby 
boomers by 2019, and Trump and 
his policies are very unpopular 
among millennials. Trump relies 
on nativist sentiment that speaks 
to a white-majority nation. Before 
2050, white Americans will not 
be a majority. Even now, despite 
Trump’s attack on immigrants 
and 
our 
immigration 
system, 
most Americans see immigration 
positively. Former State Secretary 
Hillary Clinton won the popular 
vote by 3 million while being a very 
unpopular candidate during the 
2016 election. What happens when 
the Democrats find a charismatic 
candidate again?
Many 
Republicans 
likely 
support Trump and his views 
because they think he’s better than 
any Democrat would be. But such 
dialectical thinking has limits. 
What does Trump have to do for 
that not to be true? Start a trade 
war that will cost consumers and 
could actually ruin Christmas? 
He’s already done that. If you’re 
a Republican reading this, the 
next time people are outraged at 
Trump, please think about what 
our president has actually done. 
Ask yourself, “Would I be okay 
with Obama or Bush doing this?” 
Only then can the Republican Party 
reshape itself again, taking the best 
of its previous foundations and 
better adapting to the 21st century.

Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
4A — Thursday, September 27, 2018

Emma Chang
Ben Charlson
Joel Danilewitz
Samantha Goldstein
Emily Huhman

Tara Jayaram
Jeremy Kaplan
Lucas Maiman
Magdalena Mihaylova
Ellery Rosenzweig
Jason Rowland

Anu Roy-Chaudhury
Alex Satola
Ali Safawi
Ashley Zhang
Sam Weinberger

DAYTON HARE
Managing Editor

420 Maynard St. 
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
 tothedaily@michigandaily.com

Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890.

ALEXA ST. JOHN
Editor in Chief
 ANU ROY-CHAUDHURY AND 
ASHLEY ZHANG
Editorial Page Editors

Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s Editorial Board. 
All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS

ELLERY ROSENZWEIG | COLUMN

Hey, I’m a fat person
S

ifting through the sales rack, I 
could hear her laughing closely 
behind me as she organized 
the clothing on hangers. When I asked 
for a dressing room, she looked at the 
yellow jumpsuit in my hand and gave 
me an awkward smile. Staring at myself 
in the mirror, I pulled the jumpsuit up 
my legs and over my butt, noticing a 
small hole. The jumpsuit was cute but 
a little too tight, so I decided to return 
it to the front counter. As I waited for 
my friends to finish changing, I spent 
some time looking at the jewelry. There, 
I overheard the saleswoman ask her 
manager, “What am I supposed to do 
with this big hole?” She looked at me and 
laughed again. I quickly looked down 
at the earrings, trying my best to ignore 
her. My friends finished paying and we 
continued shopping down State Street.
Later that day, laying on my bed, 
staring at the ceiling, I could not stop 
thinking about the interaction with 
this saleswoman. She made me feel 
like there was something wrong with 
me and brought back thoughts of 
insecurity I had been fighting for so 
long. I was angry she had the power 
to make me feel bad. But then it came 
to me: She’s just afraid. She is scared of 
being fat. It made me feel bad for her.
As someone who identifies as being 
a fat, curvy, tall person, I have been 
fighting my internalized fatphobia for 
as long as I can remember. I spent so 
much time trying to be smaller because 
believed if I was smaller, I would be 
happy and love myself. But the truth 
is no diet, workout plan or change in 
weight has ever made me happier than 
when I stopped fighting and started 
accepting myself. My mindset did not 
change all at once, but over time I have 
had a fundamental shift in the way 
I see my body and the other bodies 
around me.
Last year, my roommate showed me 
a YouTube channel called StyleLikeU 

in which a mother and daughter 
interviewed different models, artists and 
activists about their styles and accepting 
their bodies while they stripped down 
to their underwear. After watching so 
many of these videos, I was in awe of 
how vulnerable the participants were 
about sharing their stories and bodies. 
I started searching for more videos of 
activists like StyleLikeU hosts Iskra 
Lawrence and Barbie Ferreira and 
followed their Instagram accounts. 
They led me to a greater community 
of body-positive activists who were 
using media platforms to combat diet 
culture and fatphobia by uplifting each 
other with bodies that challenge the 
mainstream ideals of beauty.
With this whole new ideology 
in mind and the support of an online 
community, I began talking to my 
friends who look and feel the way I 
do about our experiences with our 
bodies, beauty and shopping. We 
share websites to buy clothes like 
Fashion Nova Curve and ASOS. We 
also support each other on difficult 
days when we still struggle to accept 
ourselves. Since the day with the 
saleswoman, my friends have been 
there reminding me why I am beautiful 
exactly the way I am. But even with all 
of this amazing support, I still live in a 
world where people are afraid of those 
who radically love themselves without 
trying to change their bodies. I still have 
to deal with doctors, family members 
and strangers who think they know 
more about my body than I do and are 
worried about my health in relation to 
my weight.
Last week, in my Bodies Studies 
psychology seminar, I shared the body-
positive community on Instagram with 
my class, hoping to help more people 
find supportive accounts to follow like 
one of my favorites, @bodyposipanda. 
However, a classmate interrupted me 
saying she thinks posts from activists 

like Tess Holliday are problematic 
because they perpetuate obesity and 
she is worried about their health. It was 
exactly what I had been preparing to 
respond to, but I found myself at a loss 
for words. I couldn’t stand up for myself 
and advocate for my identity because I 
felt targeted. But my badass graduate 
student instructor saved the day and 
shared some findings from an article 
she read mentioning one’s weight is 
not the only indicator of health, and we 
cannot make these assumptions about 
people’s bodies. I was lucky to have 
her support when I couldn’t fight for 
myself.
Now that there have been 
more plus size and curve models in 
mainstream campaigns for beauty 
and clothing lines, it may look like our 
society is comfortable with bigger-
bodied people; however, there is still 
a lot of progress to be made with 
representation. For example, the 
Netflix show “Insatiable” had a fat 
character, played by an actress in a fat 
suit, who lost weight by having her 
mouth wired shut, thus perpetuating 
fatphobia. We need to see fat people 
doing more than just dealing with 
the fact that they are fat. We need to 
see fat people living their lives and 
having complex storylines. Also, there 
is a movement in the body-positive 
community for more representation of 
fat men because most of the activists 
and accounts are run by women.
This has been the hardest column 
for me to write because bringing any 
attention to my body has always been 
negative. But I know by writing this, I 
am helping myself own my fat, curvy 
identity and creating a space for others 
to think and unpack the false narratives 
they have learned about fat people.

Republican strategy come November

Deborah Ramirez spoke out 
earlier this week with the help 
of a civil rights lawyer regarding 
her experience of sexual assault 
by Kavanaugh while they were 
classmates 
at 
Yale 
University. 
On Tuesday, a third woman who 
attended 
high 
school 
nearby 
Kavanaugh, accused the nominee of 
sexual misconduct during a string of 
high school parties.
The course of action before 
the Senate should have been 
clear: investigate these allegations 
seriously and thoroughly before 
elevating Kavanaugh for a lifetime 
appointment to the nation’s highest 
court. Yet Republicans in the majority 
have sought to disregard or discredit 
the seriousness of the matter. In 
response to hearing rumors of the 
second set of allegations, The New 
Yorker reported Senate Republicans 
chose to accelerate the confirmation 
process rather than slow down and 
allow Ramirez to tell her story. The 
Senate Judiciary Committee even 
chose to schedule Kavanaugh’s 
nomination for Friday, thereby 
assuming the testimony from Blasy-
Ford the day before will have no 
effect on continuing the nomination 
process. 
As college students, we are 
appalled. Senate Republicans, don’t 
tell the Ramirezs and Kavanaughs 
that walk among us today that 
there is a statute of limitations on 
one’s moral character. Yet, Senate 
Republicans have chosen in their 
actions to broadcast to the world 
— and us — allegations of sexual 
misconduct from a man’s past 
should have no serious bearing on 
his elevation to the nation’s highest 

court. What does that say to the high 
school students and college freshmen 
across the country? The rhetoric, 
from President Donald Trump in 
particular, exudes a rationale and 
sense of exception for both a young 
Kavanaugh and Supreme Court 
nominee Kavanaugh. But how can 
we disregard the actions of one from 
the other? 
The 
allegations 
against 
Kavanaugh bring into question the 
standards surrounding the morality 
and character we hold our officials 
to. Yet, it is no longer acceptable 
to only hold those in positions of 
power accountable. The consistent 
argument from Trump, Kavanaugh 
and 
other 
Republican 
officials 
hinging on the time lag between 
the public accusations and when 
the events actually occurred brings 
into question how we hold those our 
age, those around us, accountable for 
their actions.
On 
a 
campus 
confronting 
the same issues of sexual assault, 
survivor care and dangerous party 
culture, we need to hold our peers 
to a standard of character. The dorm 
party that becomes uncomfortable 
and crosses a line, someone taking 
advantage of another student at 
that Welcome Week house party 
and the inappropriate advances 
happening next you at a bar – these 
instances, not all that different from 
the experiences the three women 
underwent, happen all too often 
on our campus. Yes, a conversation 
and active change regarding how 
we evaluate the character of the 
men and women we put in office 
is vital. But, if the Kavanaugh 
accusations highlight anything, it is 

that there is no expiration date for 
the repercussions of our past actions. 
There should be no acceptance, 
regardless of age, position or 
situation when it comes to sexual 
assault.
Almost 30 years ago we had 
an opportunity to set a precedent 
for how we treat survivors. It was 
hailed as a watershed moment, 
but we ended up going backward. 
Democratic senators treated Anita 
Hill, Justice Clarence Thomas’s 
sexual assault accuser, with outright 
disdain and disrespect. The hearings 
and investigations into Kavanaugh’s 
conduct are an opportunity to set a 
new precedent of respect, to bring 
justice to the victims and to do 
right by Hill and all those neglected 
in the past. If Senate Republicans 
choose to continue the course of 
plowing ahead with Kavanaugh’s 
nomination, it becomes imperative 
we exercise our right to hold officials 
accountable and go out and vote. If 
you would want the alleged sexual 
assaulter sitting next to you properly 
investigated, make sure nominees to 
the highest court in the nation are 
too.

Aaron Baker can be reached at 

aaronbak@umich.edu.

Do you love to debate today’s 

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voice heard? We hold twice-weekly 

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newsroom at 420 Maynard St. in Ann 

Arbor, where we discuss local, state 

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FROM THE DAILY

Our eyes are on the Senate

T

his week, two new sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court 
nominee Brett Kavanaugh surfaced. As of Wednesday, three women 
have come forward with allegations against the potential candidate 
for one of the most important seats in our government. Last week, Christine 
Blasey Ford, a professor at Palo Alto University, went public with a disturbing 
incident that occurred while her and Kavanaugh were at a high school party. 

AARON BAKER | COLUMN

Ellery Rosenzweig can be reached at 

erosenz@umich.edu.

T

hough it’s been more than 
20 years since marijuana 
legalization 
became 
popular in the ballots, the Green 
Wolverine 
Science 
Symposium 
marks the first student-organized 
cannabis science conference in 
University of Michigan history. 
Among the seemingly endless 
opinions regarding approval and 
legalization of cannabis, there 
remains truth in scientific research, 
and this event intends to highlight 
the 
latest, 
groundbreaking 
advancements from some of the 
country’s leading cannabis experts. 
It will diplomatically challenge 
the student body’s knowledge of a 
stigmatized topic, and it will do so 
without telling us how to think.
The symposium was planned 
in anticipation of the vote on 
the 
Marijuana 
Legalization 
Initiative in Michigan’s Nov. 
6 
election. 
The 
proposal 
would allow adults 21 years 
old and older to possess and 
use cannabis under state law. 
Legalization of both medical 
and recreational marijuana has 
been eagerly rising as many 
states have already passed some 
form of legislation in support of 
the plant. It’s time for Michigan 
folks to decide if cannabis 
will be legal for recreational 
use in the mitten, and student 
organization Green Wolverine, 
the symposium’s host, wants to 
educate the Ann Arbor masses.

With the core purpose of 
informing students and rebuking 
prevalent 
misconceptions, 
the event is not meant to sway 
minds one way or another. 
Green Wolverine Founder Adam 
Rosenberg, a Business senior, 
says the symposium was put 
together solely to objectively 
educate 
and 
help 
facilitate 
informed decisions.
“We are not saying that 
people 
should 
or 
shouldn’t 
use 
cannabis,” 
Rosenberg 
explained. “We are going to 
present the information as it 
exists in current science and 
allow people to come to their 
own decisions based on that.”
Green 
Wolverine, 
a 
Ross 
School 
of 
Business 
club, 
focuses on the educational and 
networking opportunities within 
the 
legal, 
multibillion-dollar 
cannabusiness industry. Though 
laws surrounding the industry 
are currently ambiguous, legal 
businesses are rapidly populating 
the cannabis market. Rosenberg 
recognized 
marijuana 
as 
a 
business prospect is plagued by 
stigmatization, resulting in its 
exclusion from a standard business 
education. Rosenberg spotted the 
opportunity his sophomore year 
at the Ross School of Business and 
started Green Wolverine to take 
advantage of the industry’s rapid 
growth. The club does not take a 
political stance and, according to 

its mission, directs attention only 
to business opportunities that are 
entirely legal.
Now, we know there have been 
grand displays of student activism 
in the past: In March 1970, a four-
day environmental teach-in at 
the University raised awareness 
and harnessed the passion that 
resulted in the first Earth Day just 
one month later. In 1965, University 
of California, Berkeley students 
organized the largest Vietnam 
teach-in, publicizing the truth 
about the war and making it easier 
for students to learn what’s going 
on in the world around them. I 
recognize demonstrations about 
war are distinguishable from those 
about drugs — however, similar 
to these teach-ins, the Green 
Wolverine Science Symposium is 
anything but a protest, making it a 
unique demonstration. Rosenberg 
agreed.
“This 
is 
not 
a 
political 
statement, this isn’t trying to 
change anyone’s opinion,” he said 
regarding the symposium. Like 
its activism ancestors in their 
respective fields, the symposium 
is the first of its kind in the realm 
of cannabis.

JULIA MONTAG | COLUMN

A fresh approach to student activism

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Julia Montag can be reached at 

jtmon@umich.edu.

Trump is 
inconsistent 
because he doesn’t 
have any moral 
compass

