“The Future of the Republican Party” Event: An Evening of Farce

On Sunday, October 24th, the College Republicans hosted a public panel featuring three prominent political figures who were to discuss the “Future of the GOP.” Doors opened to Filene auditorium at 7:00 p.m., outside of which stood a moderately-sized but invigorated group of protestors who had decried the event from its first announcement. 

The panelists were Alex Bruesewitz, a young conservative political consultant and CEO of XStrategies based in D.C.; Karoline Leavitt, Republican hopeful for the NH-01 Congressional seat; and, perhaps most famously, Madison Cawthorn, Representative from NC-11. Bruesewitz has previously garnered plenty of controversy for his prominence in the “Stop the Steal” movement, though he has taken steps to distance himself from the January 6th Capitol riots. Leavitt has raised plenty of eyebrows for her meteoric rise to prominence, despite being only 23 years old. She previously served in the Trump Administration as an Assistant Press Secretary under Kayleigh McEnany. Madison Cawthorn, 26, has also made waves in political circles for his youth. Cawthorn has been bound to a wheelchair since a car accident in 2014. Since August of 2020, he has also been the subject of numerous sexual misconduct, harassment, and assault allegations, including a public letter accusing him of “sexually predatory behavior” signed by 120 Patrick Henry College alumni, where Cawthorn studied for a single semester in 2016 before dropping out.

The College Republicans were represented by their President and Vice President.

The event was well-attended by all accounts. When we arrived at around 7:00 the auditorium was about 70% full, and filled to capacity before the night was over. The controversy likely helped fuel turnout; from what I could tell, the majority of those in attendance did not support the positions of the panelists. It was unbelievably awkward to see how few people laughed at the hosts’ and panelists’ attempts at jokes. The College Republicans President managed to get a rouse out of the audience once or twice, but I fear, poor kid, they weren’t laughing with him.

The Vice President, in her opening remarks, asked all those in attendance to be “polite, mature, and respectful.” She then asked us to give Mr. Bruesewitz, Ms. Leavitt, and Mr. Cawthorn a “big Dartmouth welcome.” The audience did not clap.

Mr. Cawthorn got off to a characteristically firebrand start in his early statements, decrying the extensive damage done to the American people because of the COVID-19 pandemic, a disaster for which the Chinese Communist Party and Dr. Fauci himself are apparently responsible. In fact, Mr. Cawthorn suggested the United States seize all Chinese assets on American soil as a “down payment” for the reparations they owe. We the writers are quite confident the CCP, famous for being reasonable when it comes to international relations, would agree with Mr. Cawthorn’s position and find it just and equitable. Still, let the record show the Congressman’s early advocacy for aggression, should this asinine proposal go through, and conflict erupt between our two countries.

Ms. Leavitt also came out of the gates swinging, urging conservative students in attendance, “do not listen to what some of your professors tell you”—a bold assertion on an academically renowned university campus. She followed this statement up by telling students to “do your own research” and “always speak truth to power.” She repeated this last aphorism frequently. We aren’t so sure she knows what this means, nor its legacy in the Civil Rights movement and not, as she uses it, in radical conservatism.

Much of the event followed the same pattern of outrageous and somewhat out-of-pocket statements. For the first fifty minutes of this hour-long discussion on the future of the Republican party, we heard nothing of the future of the Republican party, only claims that Marjorie Taylor Greene is “an admirable paragon of media savviness” (Bruesewitz), that you should “treat everyone with respect… and work your ass off, and you will be successful” (Leavitt), and that students should be “digilent” (sic., also Leavitt).

Look, I am not one to typically poke fun at someone for misspeaking or flubbing their words. Perfect diction during public speaking is difficult, a high standard to hold anyone to. But my hand has been forced here. I had to sit and listen to the panelists tease Biden for his admittedly poor public speaking ability only to moments later hear silly grammatical mistakes and lexical mix-ups that the speakers themselves laugh at. The most egregious example of this came when Bruesewitz derailed the conversation to make fun of the Dartmouth Democrats for employing the homophonous “insight” instead of “incite” on their poster denouncing the event. He used this mistake to leverage tongue-in-cheek criticism against the Dartmouth Department of English. Mere seconds later, I hear Bruesewitz use the word “prophesized.” Mr. Bruesewitz, you’ve made it far too easy for me to defend my major.

The event wasn’t a total slog to sit through. Ms. Leavitt may have come off a bit daft, and Mr. Bruesewitz almost evil, but Mr. Cawthorn, for his part, showed an articulate talent to speak to an audience. I like to think this is his Southern heritage peeking through; we are the best storytellers. It’s easy to find yourself smiling at his anecdotes of life back home in the hills, or his proud announcement that he would “prefer Waffle House and Cracker Barrel over those bougie D.C. diners any day of the week,” one I wholeheartedly agree with, only for him to follow with, “We have an obligation to stand up and fight, it is our duty to do this,” and you remember why he has been accused so often of having fascistic tendencies.

To be clear, this praise of his public speaking ability is not an endorsement or defense of his presence on campus.

Additionally, I found the behavior of the hosting members of the College Republicans to be entirely indefensible. About 40 minutes into the event, a student decided to stand up and leave. He may have muttered something under his breath, or perhaps made a face at the event organizers, we aren’t entirely sure, as we didn’t hear anything, and we sat mere feet from the student. Ms. Leavitt says, “Thanks for coming, guys,” and the Vice President of the College Republicans shouts into the mic, “Let’s go, Brandon!”—a not-so-secret Republican innuendo for “F— Joe Biden.” This incited a round of “Let’s go, Brandon,” chants from the event organizers, panelists, and a couple audience members. I know this was not, in fact, a statement explicitly aimed at the student leaving, but from inside the room, it felt a lot like targeted harassment of a peaceful attendee who was only looking to quietly leave out the back of the room.

Campus dissent’s protest tactics were perhaps the most disappointing portion of the evening. As we approached the front entrance of Moore, we heard a series of loud and spirited chants; the crowd seemed appropriately incensed for the occasion. Upon walking closer, however, we discovered that the protestors had been corralled behind a flimsy barrier. A handful of Hanover Police Officers stood on the other side.

We stopped briefly to hug a few friends before walking into the building. After the doors had closed behind us, it was easy to forget there had been any resistance at all. Speakers later joked that the protest made their job more fun. 

Later, around 20 minutes into the panel, a troupe of about 5 student attendees made a small disturbance by getting up to walk out. They stood from their seats and looked expectantly at one another until one of them put forth a sheepish “excuse me.” The rest of the group added a series of similar utterances for about 20 seconds, creating what can only be described as mild to moderate commotion. The speakers paused until they exited, looking at each other with knowing amusement. Cawthorn sarcastically remarked that the left on campus was positively “inspiring”. Around half of the room chuckled—or maybe they just blew air from their noses with slightly more gusto than usual. Either way, it was uncomfortably forced.

The rest of the night went on without a hitch. Audience members were allowed to enjoy their poorly delivered misinformation in relative peace.

Jim, a college employee, informed the organizers and speakers that the clock had struck 8, as the event was scheduled to end then. Cawthorn told the audience that they needed to go, since the man running the event said their time was up. Jim quickly grabbed the microphone and clarified, “First of all I am not running the event, I work for the college and I’m facilitating, I was told that you had to leave at eight so that’s what I was just saying to you.” He elaborated that he was willing to stay for longer to allow for organized audience Q&A. 

Eventually, a ‘25 had the mic. This freshman was apparently a wannabe Twitter pundit too. He asked Madison Cawthorn, “A majority of Republicans believe that President Biden was not lawfully elected. Now you know that he was, and that he won the 2020 election. So when will you stop lying to your constituents, admit that Donald Trump lost, and end this senseless attack on our democracy?” A pathetic smattering of applause from approximately 4 attendees followed. We were none of them. Madison and the ‘25 went back and forth, talking over each other for a time. See our fact-checking piece in this issue for details on Madison’s answer. 

This interaction seemed extremely cool to the 60 thousand Twitter users who liked the freshman’s recording of it, evidently, but as observers who were actually at the panel, we can attest to the second-hand embarrassment felt by nearly everyone in the auditorium. If anything, it honestly made Representative Cawthorn look cool, since this ‘25 failed to correct him on the actual errors within his statement, choosing instead to pivot to the January 6th insurrection before sitting down to quietly listen to the rest of the questions.  

The protest attempts at this panel were pathetic. At best, they provided fodder for the panelists’ victim complex. At worst, they seemed at home in a “Liberals Owned” compilation on YouTube. While student protestors’ motivations were admirable, their organizers failed them. 

Why was the huge group of chanting students outside the building? Yes, it made things easier for Hanover P.D. Yes, it complied with college policy. But these are not qualities associated with an effective protest. The campus left needed to display some semblance of legitimate resistance, and we got civil obedience. 

The students who caused the leaving disturbance had the right idea, at least, if not the commitment to the bit. Campus Democrats would do well to deploy our theater majors sometimes. What if the group got up one at a time, each accidentally dropping and inconveniently collecting a large stack of papers? What about spilling a pan of lasagna, and dramatically crying? Loudly answering a detailed and graphic medical phone call? Accidentally releasing a swarm of stink bugs, and killing them? There are so many hilarious, nonviolent, completely plausible tactics protestors could have used. With more careful planning, the speakers would have been the embarrassment, not us.