Conservative Organization TPUSA & University Elections

[Shiranu]

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/a-conservative-nonprofit-that-seeks-to-transform-college-campuses-faces-allegations-of-racial-bias-and-illegal-campaign-activity

On Tuesday, in a convention center in West Palm Beach, Florida, amid chants of “USA!” and “The wall is going to be built!,” Donald Trump, Jr., kicked off a three-day annual summit for Turning Point USA, a conservative nonprofit. Based outside of Chicago, Turning Point’s aim is to foment a political revolution on America’s college campuses, in part by funnelling money into student government elections across the country to elect right-leaning candidates. But it is secretive about its funding and its donors, raising the prospect that “dark money” may now be shaping not just state and federal races but ones on campus.


...


As Turning Point’s profile has risen, so has scrutiny of its funding and tactics. Internal documents that I obtained, as well as interviews with former employees, suggest that the group may have skirted campaign-finance laws that bar charitable organizations from participating in political activity. Former employees say that they were directed to work with prominent conservatives, including the wife of the Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, in aid of Republican Presidential candidates in 2016. Perhaps most troubling for an organization that holds up conservatives as the real victims of discrimination in America, Turning Point USA is also alleged to have fostered an atmosphere that is hostile to minorities. Screenshots provided to me by a source show that Crystal Clanton, who served until last summer as the group’s national field director, sent a text message to another Turning Point employee saying, “i hate black people. Like fuck them all . . . I hate blacks. End of story.”


...


While Kirk served as the public face of Turning Point, Clanton, its former field director, acted as its hands-on boss, according to former employees. In a 2016 book that Kirk co-authored with Brent Hamachek, “Time for a Turning Point: Setting a Course Toward Free Markets and Limited Government for Future Generations,” he described Clanton as “the best hire we ever could have made.” He called her “integral to the success of Turning Point while effectively serving as its chief operating officer.” He added, “Turning Point needs more Crystals; so does America.”

This is an organization that is funding, often times through very devious and sketchy means that protect the anonymity of the funder, the student organizations at universities across America.

Our new student president at Texas State was supported by the TPUSA; she was provided with over $2,800 in "gifts" that skirted donation regulations, and was also provided with 15 IPads (several thousand more dollars) that she used during her campaign. Her campaign was also caught vandalizing their own signs and then blaming their opponents (one was a Latino/a couple, the other an African American pair) for it.

All of this on a campus that protected Conor Clegg (Student body president who made multiple racial slurs and offensive remarks about Asian Americans and African Americans) and who it took 4 or 5 death threats and giant fliers that advocated white supremacy and linked to white-supremacist websites before they sent out an email that said, "This is kinda bad, we will probably look into it." (spoiler alert; they never really looked into it).


Also this is the same university that is selling the place I work at to a corporation with an absolutely horrible reputation (Folliett) that also happens to be third highest lobbying education lobbying group in Texas... even though the bookstore was founded so that all profits would be turned around and spent on facilities and scholarships for students.

I cant help but laugh when people actually think universities, particularly American universities, are left leaning. Maybe the student body... but certainly not the administration, and not the Student government either when it's backed by ultra-rich, racist right-wingers.

[Baruch]

You can always protest by transferring to Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow Russia ;-)

[Cavebear]

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/a-conservative-nonprofit-that-seeks-to-transform-college-campuses-faces-allegations-of-racial-bias-and-illegal-campaign-activity



This is an organization that is funding, often times through very devious and sketchy means that protect the anonymity of the funder, the student organizations at universities across America.

Our new student president at Texas State was supported by the TPUSA; she was provided with over $2,800 in "gifts" that skirted donation regulations, and was also provided with 15 IPads (several thousand more dollars) that she used during her campaign. Her campaign was also caught vandalizing their own signs and then blaming their opponents (one was a Latino/a couple, the other an African American pair) for it.

All of this on a campus that protected Conor Clegg (Student body president who made multiple racial slurs and offensive remarks about Asian Americans and African Americans) and who it took 4 or 5 death threats and giant fliers that advocated white supremacy and linked to white-supremacist websites before they sent out an email that said, "This is kinda bad, we will probably look into it." (spoiler alert; they never really looked into it).


Also this is the same university that is selling the place I work at to a corporation with an absolutely horrible reputation (Folliett) that also happens to be third highest lobbying education lobbying group in Texas... even though the bookstore was founded so that all profits would be turned around and spent on facilities and scholarships for students.

I cant help but laugh when people actually think universities, particularly American universities, are left leaning. Maybe the student body... but certainly not the administration, and not the Student government either when it's backed by ultra-rich, racist right-wingers.

As newspaper advice columnists sometimes say, there is a time to run and cut your losses.  Struggling through a bad situation that is getting worse is not a good life. 

I briefly held a job I needed to pay rent that involved selling really good cookware.  Then I learned the business plan was to sell the time-payment contract to experienced bill-collectors because the customers could not generally keep up the payments.   I left.  It wasn't easy.  I ate hamburger-helper for several weeks and snuck into the University dining halls for a few meals.  I ended up throwing tires off trucks into a warehouse for the Summer.  Found a slightly easier job at minimum wage after that.

But I never sold a poor sucker a cookware contract again.