National Day of Action on Gun Violence

by the Stanford Democrats

“Gabby Giffords deserves a vote. The families of Newtown deserve a vote. The families of Aurora deserve a vote. The families of Oak Creek, and Tucson, and Blacksburg, and the countless other communities ripped open by gun violence — they deserve a simple vote.” — Barack Obama

In the United States, there are nearly four gun stores for every grocery store. There are almost as many guns in this country as there are people.  More importantly, 1,894,139 years of life are lost to gun violence every single year, while more than 30,000 people are killed and more than 200,000 are injured because of guns each year.

These deaths were not a result of self-defense — they were a result of crime. In the course of a day, a fifteen-year old boy from Prince George’s County, Maryland was robbed and fatally shot after a long day of school. Hours later in Jacksonville, Florida, a woman was shot twice after a fight over a parking spot. Senseless gun violence has become routine. “So it goes,” wrote Kurt Vonnegut over 40 years ago; since, we have become even more desensitized. It is our apathy that must change — it is our silence that is most deafening. (Someone has just been shot by a gun.)

Dismantling the Myths Behind Planned Parenthood

by Kelsey Dayton, ’15

On October 10th, the Stanford Democrats hosted a discussion with Lupe Rodriguez, Director of Public Affairs Planned Parenthood Mar Monte.

Planned Parenthood is a non-profit health services provider that should be an obvious beneficiary of public gratitude and federal funding. Instead, for the past three decades it has symbolized the partisan debate over abortion. As such, the very phrase “Planned Parenthood” has come to connote every possible stereotype, prejudice, and caricature that pro-choice advocates in the fierce abortion debate can think of. This treatment is unqualified and unjust for an organization that helps the young people that society neglects and never talks about. While the brand name gets assaulted in the political arena, those it seeks to help remain silent or, if they choose to speak out, unheeded.

Planned Parenthood addresses a critical problem in America, a problem inflated by a modern ideological culture war. Some people believe that by not addressing anything related to sex— protection options, possible diseases, pregnancy risk— all sex-related issues in the country will magically disappear. This is, not surprisingly, untrue.

The Strength of Obama’s Foreign Policy

by Nick Ahamed, ’14

I am not here to make excuses. I recognize that my beloved President Obama has arguably struggled in addressing many difficult, complex issues facing the United States throughout the past 4 years. However, on at least one issue, foreign policy, he has done the best we can expect of a president. As I outline the last 12 years of foreign policy, I would like you to keep two things in mind. First, Obama was not given a mandate to govern. Though he won overwhelmingly in the Electoral College, only 53% of the country voted for him. Presidents represent the whole nation to the world, not just their own party. Second, context is everything. As a student of economics, I view everything as a series of trade-offs. And so while the outcome that occurred may not be our optimal policy preference, we have to ask if it was better than the practical alternative. With these two premises acknowledged, I argue that it is vitally important to reelect President Barack Obama in the context of foreign policy.

The Bush years were a period of militant American unilateralism. In those 8 years, we were not afraid to use our Armed Forces, regardless of international opinion. The most notable cases are obviously Afghanistan and Iraq.

Stanford: Get Out The Vote!

WHEN:  Friday, November 2nd. 12-1 PM.

WHERE: White Plaza.

WHAT:  A rally to get out the vote in support of President Obama!  Come join us to get FIRED UP and watch speeches from the likes of STEVE WESTLY, MICHAEL TUBBS ’12, ERIC SMALLS ’16 and many more!  Also, there will be FREE OBAMA GEAR.  Come early for music from Andy Stuhl and to grab the OBAMA SWAG before it disappears!!  Come and bring your friends!

BE THERE OR BE… A REPUBLICAN.

The United States is the greatest threat to its own national security

by Kristian Davis Bailey, ’14

This post originally published at Kristian’s personal website, “With a ‘K.’”

After yesterday’s presidential debate on foreign policy, can we talk about how the United States is its own greatest threat to national security?

This might have something to do with the fact that America’s been “cheating” the past hundred years or so and manipulating the economic and military affairs of the world to its favor–and often to the detriment of all but a few allies, who also benefit from standing on the rest of the world.

Iran is not a threat to the security of the people of the United States, even if it obtains nuclear weapons.  Iran’s major threat is becoming a nation that can defend its own sovereignty without posturing to American hegemony. It is part of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), which features the majority of the countries in our world and which are not part of any major power blocs. The countries in NAM are struggling for a new world order* that is not dictated and/or dominated by the aforementioned “cheating” Western policies.

Disillusionment and the 2012 Elections

by Sam Storey, ’13

After the 2008 election, I, like many young Americans captivated by Senator Barack Obama’s sudden and spectacular rise to the presidency, for the first time truly believed that America was about to see its best days. Americans turned out in huge numbers to support the progressive candidate who viewed the world’s problems with the same lens that we used and actually strove to fix them. President Obama gave us hope for a newer, better America; he was a remedy for the pessimism and nonchalance that eight years of George W. Bush induced.

We were a product of our upbringing. After approaching the new millennium with childish optimism, we anticipated the awe-inspiring advancements we imagined the next millenium would bring. However, we were disheartened to watch as the the Bush years became marred by wars, mass murders, economic calamities, natural disasters, and ever-more-frequent acts of bigotry, violence, and hatred. Our political leaders eschewed rational or ethical reasoning when forming national policy in favor of avarice and hatred, and saturated their rhetoric with xenophobia, extremism, and fear. Although we invented the iPhone, we also invented Guantanamo Bay, the Bush Doctrine, and Sarah Palin; although we attempted to spread Democracy and ‘liberate’ the Middle East, we continued to persecute Muslim and Arab Americans at home; and although we advocated for human rights abroad, we also continued to deny same-sex couples the right to wed, or women the right to make independent decisions about their bodies, or poor citizens the right to receive quality health care.