Parties of the Right at Yale

I spent Thursday and Friday in New Haven, Connecticut, at the wonderful school that is Yale University, composed of its many colleges and multiple groups of conservative students. It is also the alma mater of William F. Buckley, Jr., who was ISI's first president in 1953 and is the author of many books and hundreds of articles, including his most famous work, God and Man at Yale.

This was my second official visit to Yale on behalf of ISI and so I was somewhat already used to the "parties" on the Right within the prestigious Yale Political Union (YPU). There are 3 parties "on the Left" and three parties "on the Right." Of course, ISI maintains a strong relationship with the three on the Right.

On Thursday evening, around 5:30pm, I had dinner with four students from the Yale Free Press, a Collegiate Network supported newspaper, which also is associated with Yale's "Party of the Right," from which it pulls most of its writers from. Great group of students - we discussed many ideas on how to improve their paper and I hope the one thing I left them with is to do a lot less reporting and commenting on national stories and more reporting on campus stories or campus-related issues. Other than that, they seem to be doing great (their layout could be improved a bit too, but overall they run a fine productin).

Later that evening around 7:30pm, I attending a "debate" of the Yale Tory Party. How these "debates" work is that each party holds one about once a week - usually every Thursday night. They don't usually debate with other parties, but instead hold parliamentary-style debates where everyone within the party debates the "resolution" at hand that week. For this past Thursday, the resolution was "Resolved: Judges should uphold unjust laws." (or something close to that). Anyone can stand up and make a speech and the "chairman" adjudicates who can speak and when, etc. Then, after each speech, anyone can ask the person who just delivered a speech (in the affirmative or the negative) questions based on that speech.

The debate lasted several hours, and when people are done giving speeches, a motion is given to "vote" on the resolution. Around 10:15pm, this resolution was voted upon and failed. I really enjoyed the debate and the students in the Tor Party are really great - a lively bunch for sure.

So, I then moved on to the Yale Conservative Party's debate, which was being held one college over. They were still deeply involved in their debate (and would be until 1 am!) The resolution they were debating was "Resolved: The Purpose of Government is to Promote Equality." Oh boy.

I arrived and the debate still had many hours to go... I even delivered a speech, in the negative. I said "The purpose of government is to promote justice" and reminded them that over the Supreme Court, there is a motto that says "Equal JUSTICE under the Law," saying that justice is what should be applied, and of course, it should be applied equally. Government's purpose should be to promote equality - of opportunity, and we are all "equal" in the eyes of God, but for a government to promote equality is purely utopian.

Anyways... the resolution failed, but barely! I was shocked it was even that close, but I guess the word "equality" dazzles even conservatives sometimes.

The next day, Friday, I had lunch with the Tory Party at Mory's, a "members only" dining club across from Yale, however it's not that exclusive since almost any student or alumnus of Yale can be a member and they can take guests... but still a nice place and I was there for nearly three hours, immersed in good conversation with the Tories. I'll have more to say on a few individuals I met with on this trip... but this blog is getting long already... can you tell I love Yale and all the good experiences it brings?