OhioPIRG brings Brown to campus

U.S. Representative Sherrod Brown spoke to students Monday night about the state of American politics and the roles of the two political parties.

Sponsored by the Ohio Public Interest Research Group (OhioPIRG) who has worked closely with him for some time, the lecture was advertised as a discussion about campaign finance reform, but Brown's comments were not limited to that single topic. Brown discussed the national budget and Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich's politics.

Brown was elected to his third term in November. OhioPIRG supported him, and has supported him in the past because of his strong environmental voting record.

Brown opened up the discussion by talking about the state of the budget under President Bill Clinton's administration. "The budget really worked to help the economy, it was a good deficit reduction," Brown said. This lead into a discussion of the Republican party's plans for reducing the budget.

"The Republicans really stuck together to cut welfare and weaken environmental laws. They basically attacked the consensus that society has been in for many years," Brown said. "There is a strong sense of party discipline." Brown said that this discipline is inspired by fear. According to Brown, Republican representatives believe if they vote against the party, they will suffer the political consequences.

"As much as I despise Newt Gingrich, he did what he set out to do," Brown said, referring to Gingrich's plans to unite the party.

Brown warned the audience to look out for the increasingly conservative southern Republican party. "This campus is more liberal than other college campuses, to put it mildly. You should all be aware of the implications of the Republican party being dominated by the South," Brown said.

Brown stressed that one of the most important issues to deal with in the upcoming year is campaign finance reform. "There is too much money in politics and it causes two problems. One, it corrupts and two, it keeps people who would like to run out of the arena. It leaves no room for the common man," Brown said.