Statement on the College Republicans Event 

To the Dartmouth Community,

 

The College Republicans are inviting congressional primary candidate Karoline Leavitt, Rep. Madison Cawthorn, and Alex Brusewitz to our campus for a talk this Sunday. Dartmouth Republicans are already sounding self-victimhood alarms. Let us first speak plainly about these people, their beliefs, and their actions: 

 

Madison Cawthorn has been accused on multiple occasions of sexual assault and predation. In his time at Patrick Henry College, Cawthorn quickly developed a routine for preying on his fellow classmates. According to alumni from PHC, Cawthorn presented himself as a charismatic person, often making friends with women and inviting them on rides in his car. Cawthorn drove these women off-campus “to the middle of nowhere” whereupon he made sexual advances on them. Isolation is a common tactic among sexual predators—and Cawthorn was no exception. Further, alumni reported that Cawthorn would get frustrated and drive recklessly when his advances were rebuffed. This pattern was so well established that RAs actively warned other women about Cawthorn and to not go on drives with him. These accounts have come out over the past year and have been previously substantiated by an open letter signed by upwards of 160 of his former classmates. 

 

Cawthorn has also repeatedly aligned himself with white supremacists and fascists within the American right. Cawthorn was an active participant in the “Stop the Steal” rally which preceded the riots at the U.S. Capitol by fascist mobs. Since the riots he has indicated there will be further bloodshed and expressed support to the rioters arrested following January 6th. This is a clear demonstration of where Cawthorn’s political allegiances lie. His voting record further proves this. In his time in office he has used his political power to promote xenophobia against immigrants at large and Asian peoples specifically, support ongoing warfare in Yemen and Palestine, fund police terror, maintain the settler colonial state, and aid the oil industry in its continued drive towards ecological collapse.  

 

Karoline Leavitt’s actions also align with the growing fascist tide in America. As an assistant press secretary for the Trump Administration, Leavitt worked to defend the administration’s oppression of the working class, Black people, Indigenous Nations, immigrants, women, the LGBTQ community, and to continue America’s imperialist machine abroad. Now, as a congressional candidate, Leavitt seeks to expand police resources, crack-down on immigrants, and restrict access to abortion. This comes at a time when communities in New Hampshire are facing poverty, housing crises, heightened exploitation and police violence. Instead of looking towards solutions that grasp at the roots of these problems, Leavitt’s agenda will only drive our communities into further precarity.

 

For his part, Alex Bruesewitz and his political consulting firm, X Strategies, have worked to undergird politicians like Cawthorn and Leavitt in their bids for power. X Strategies has also worked with groups like Power the Future, who do PR work for the oil industry. Bruesewitz himself also was an influencer in the movement leading up to the January 6th riots. 

 

In short, it is abundantly clear where their allegiances lie. In a moment where great sections of our campus and the Upper Valley are fighting white supremacy, capitalism, and heteropatriarchy at home and imperialism abroad, it is our obligation to respond in kind to this coming event. 

 

Freedom of speech is an inalienable principle with which to build a new world. What it is not is a tool to mystify how power works. Those with all the power, those with murderous power in their hands cannot claim to be the guardians of free speech. Make no mistake: it is the working peoples of this world who are the true heirs to the venerable tradition upholding the right to free speech and free association. Republicans are those who bastardize this principle and make it into a tool of censor itself, while they defame, doxx and jail activists fighting for justice at home and abroad, be it the Indigenous fight for decolonization or the Palestinian struggle for liberation. In this country, under the rule of those who the College Republicans serve, scores of people are forced to live imprisoned because of their political beliefs. That does not even begin to consider the millions of people abroad who have suffered similar fates at the hands of the U.S. and its allies. We are at a time in our history where economic and ecological crises are growing more pronounced and deadly. Right now, working people have the chance to seize the time and create a better system for all, one where the right to free speech and free association are realized and not bastardized. We are resolute in our stance: we will not let the College Republicans and their herd of white supremacists have their sway on this campus. This campus belongs to students and workers.  

 

We call upon our fellow community members to join us on Sunday in front of Moore Hall at 6:30 to send a clear message: fascist predators are not welcome here. Bring signs.

 

Sign onto this statement to add your voice to the struggle for a better Dartmouth and a better world. 

 

Without compromise,

Dartmouth United Against Hate Coalition

-The Dartmouth Radical

-Dartmouth YDSA

-Co-FIRED

-Sunrise Movement Dartmouth

-The Afro-American Society 

-Black Praxis 

-Dartmouth Student Union