All right, we'll admit it: we're pretty liberal. We're college students, and it’s hardly a secret that college students tend to lean to the left. That’s not surprising, if you think about it: students are directly affected by the government’s conservative actions regarding things like educational funding and military recruitment, and students haven’t been in the workforce long enough to build up the savings to benefit from tax cuts.

Perhaps the liberal reputation of colleges is the reason that only one Republican candidate showed up to Advocates 4 Better Government’s recent Town Hall. Jacob Turk, Congressional candidate for Missouri’s Fifth District, was the sole representative of the right among a procession of about a dozen Democratic politicians.

The previous Town Hall was supposed to consist of a debate about gay marriage. Their plans had to be changed when the campus political group couldn’t find anyone willing to argue against the issue. Last fall, A4BG worked with Rock the Vote KC to organize a Youth Political Summit, with tables for various political organizations, and not a single Republican group responded to their invitation.

Perhaps Republicans don’t come to these events because they know that college students are liberal. If their goal is to fire up the people that are already on their side, then avoiding areas that are likely to oppose their viewpoints and requiring people to register as Republican voters before attending a rally (as Bush did during his reelection campaign) makes sense.

But reinforcing current support isn’t what politics is about. The whole point of democracy is education. Each party presents its arguments to the voters, who assimilate the information and draw their own conclusions. That’s how the system is supposed to work, anyway.

If that’s the point, then both parties should be trying to reach voters who disagree with them and attempting to change their minds. If their arguments make sense and their policies really are best for the people, they should be taking advantage of every chance to counter the opposing (presumably incorrect) views. People are more likely to absorb information that is presented to them than information for which they must actively search. Thus, if only one political party makes itself available to students, then students will pay more attention to what that party says than what the other party says.

Congratulations, Turk. Maybe we don’t agree with your stances on the issues, but at least you showed up.

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