There seems to be a lot of activity over at Pants, Inc: an electronic press release on Sunday, a follow-up email on Tuesday, and a letter in the Alligator in today's paper. Like Keg, Pants main star seems to be its founder and somewhere along the humor-laden-road, the court jester got idealistic, started wanting the joke to be a serious bid for office. When I saw Bruce at a law fair last year, I knew he wanted more, trouble is can Pants deliver?
I don't think so. While I agree with Bruce that name recognition is helpful, that same name-recognition will hurt his party, because students will associate his group with theatrics and comedy, not serious politics. When The Keg Party took their campaign to the next level and straightened themselves out politically, even a few weeks into an election, it was already too late. PANTS spent an entire election being a joke, to come now in an election that quite frankly is much more important and expect that based off the laughs it received last year to somehow pose a threat, much less have a prayer of winning, is in my opinion: a gamble not worth taking.
However, all is not lost. Bruce could run and become a potentially interesting Indie candidate. If I were him I'd use the same GDI battle-cry used to bring down the Greeks/FBK rule and aim at the increasingly anti-SG Alligator. The Alligator endorsement is worth barely 250 votes and in all fairness this newspaper has been increasingly hostile to SG. Yesterday they blasted SG for being a bureaucratic problem, today they admit SG is hard at work with the City; AAREST acts, Alligator reacts; when was the last time an SG'er or candidate for office, rallied the students against the Alligator? If the Alligator hates your guts, many Greeks will give you a better ear (at my house and many my friends belonged to, the hatred for the Alligator was almost impossible to convey in words).
The Letter
The letter Bruce wrote to the Alligator is wimpy. The fact he may run or that his party may run and he's at least it's temporary spokesperson should have warranted a stronger letter. There should be no kiss & make-up since SG has done nothing to deserve the hostile articles published in this paper. I smirked when I read the one-liners on Bernie & the Board. I also gathered that Bruce was speaking to the general student body in his letter (not to the editor as the section suggests), however, when speaking of SG, Bruce perpetuated a running joke that the President is SG and vice versa, without mention of the Senate. Even in nat'l politics we are running into this very problem, where the concept of bi-cameral federal gov't is going out the window. The Student Body President is but one office of one of the three branches of government, other offices and branches Bruce left out of his letter.
The President is not the student's only voice. Perhaps at the Board he/she is, but the students have many elected and appointed officers working for them. While I know it wasn't Bruce's intention to leave out entire branches, he should realize that if in fact his aim was to speak to the masses via a letter to the editor, he should have made sure to cover all bases. Again, this letter seems to continue the Fall Pants' line, it's funny and if anything else, perhaps a little weak. Would Chris Chase, Nina, or Arturo have written a letter like this? Shape up Bruce, you can be a threat, but you gotta shape up. Vote on new poll (FAST!).
6 comments:
I think you are right Christian. Bruce is undoubtedly a sharp, well-spoken, and genuinely likeable guy. But he's not gonna have a chance if he doesn't get serious. I think he wants to be serious, but he won't be given a chance with the Pants name. He should resurrect the Access name. If Boyles can go with Swamp or Mos can bring back Gator, why can't Bruce bring back the most successful Indie party?
From an indisers perspective I think this run from Bruce is pretty weak. He tried to sell out and get tapped into FBK last fall. At the time he was very anti-SG involvement ridculing you for still following campus politics. Now after FBK gave him the shaft he reacquires the fire. The whole thing smells like sour grapes to me. I'm glad Bruce is in and that Mos will have to at least go through the formality of being elected, but I don't think Pants had a prayer. This election will be just like Spring '03. The united greek community under the Ignite banner demolishes the idealistic out of their league Student Alliance Party. Mos is the new Kyle.
What's more Mos has the support of the majority of Indies.
Mos over under 70% of the vote? I'm going over. Bruce got 400 votes out of 7,000 in the Fall, Action got 700. The "indies" have absolutely no juice. This is gonna be a whipin!
Real Indies Don't Sell That Cheap. If Bruce goes in GDI and does what he's supposed to, it'll be David & GOliath...if only Bruce did what he was supposed to. A real GDI that runs a GDI ticket won't get slaughtered, might lose, but won't get slaughtered. Hell, if he got the right names and acutally had his house behind him properly and went fuckin apeshit with this campaign, I mean eat, slept, and bled this campaign like we did Access, you just never know, you really don't BROTHER!
But last time it was like "I don't want to get them involved," "it's not such a big deal," fuck...this kid is Greek, progressive, social...if he only wanted it badly enough, you just never know. No more from me on this thread, if he just wanted it man, damn it.
It's not just wanting it, it's about this campus needing it.
- On selling out to FBK: FBK is not just a political machine, it still has a degree of Leadership Honorary to it, although honestly, it's more like an elite networking club. But still, it can't hurt to apply to something that throws cool tailgates for me when I come back in the future. That was why I applied. Also, if I had sold myself out to them, shouldn't I have gotten in?
- On the Pants name: Gator is a meaningless party name too. Students elect people and issues, not party names. Also, the point that SG people take themselves too seriously as opposed to their jobs still applies.
- On Mos having support of indies: Earth to Matil, indies aren't a club. He just has the support of some of action's leadership that sold out. They worked hard before to end the promising of positions. Ironic isn't it?
- On getting slaughtered. Gosh, I guess we should throw in the towell.
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