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Rick Perry says Texas A&M handed student election to a gay man because of diversity

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D

Dalek

Member
Rick Perry says Texas A&M handed student election to a gay man because of "diversity

Rick Perry took a break from his job as U.S. Secretary of Energy Wednesday to criticize his alma mater’s election of its first openly gay student body president, suggesting that the victory was “stolen.”

Texas A&M University handed Bobby Brooks, a gay man, the student body presidency in an election last month. However, Brooks didn’t actually get the most votes; that would be Robert McIntosh, who was disqualified for voter intimidation and for failure to report a campaign expense on glow sticks, according to the student newspaper, The Battalion. A student judicial court later cleared McIntosh of the former charge but not the latter, so Brooks kept the presidency.

“Now, Brooks’ presidency is being treated as a victory for ‘diversity,’” Perry wrote in a Wednesday op-ed in the Houston Chronicle. “It is difficult to escape the perception that this quest for ‘diversity’ is the real reason the election outcome was overturned. Does the principle of ‘diversity’ override and supersede all other values of our Aggie Honor Code?”

When the school’s election commission disqualified McIntosh, they “at best — made a mockery of due process and transparency,” wrote Perry, Texas’ longest-serving governor and the first to graduate from A&M, a public university about 90 miles from Houston with more than 60,000 students. “At worst, [they] allowed an election to be stolen outright.”

Perry went on to speculate that if McIntosh “had been a minority student instead of a white male,” Brooks might not still be president, because the A&M administrators and students — known as “Aggies” — would not have allowed racial or sexual minorities to be treated in this way.

“The outcome would have been different if the victim was different,” Perry wrote. While diversity should be pursued, he said, administrators must explain their decision to A&M students and alumni.

The Houston Chronicle was evidently surprised that Perry took the time to write the op-ed, calling it an “extraordinary submission.” University officials were also caught off guard by the op-ed, the Texas Tribune reported, and said Perry did not reach out to them prior to publication.
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A

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Amy Smith, the school’s senior vice president of marketing and communications, firmly denied that allegation. She said student government elections are run by students, not administrators.

“I would say that we respectfully disagree with his assessment,” she said of Perry, “and his understanding of the election rules of student body president elections doesn’t reflect the facts.”

The student judicial court’s final decision on the election was unanimous and the A&M administration sees no need to intervene, Smith said.

“Honestly, we were just surprised to see that the secretary of energy would take the time to weigh in in detail and we respectfully disagree with his assessment of what happened,” she said.
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https://www.texastribune.org/2017/0...ial&utm_source=twitter&utm_content=1490231823
 
S

Silver Arrows

Banned
Poppy said:
i'd like to hand rick perry a knuckle sandwich and break his fake ass glasses and make him cry
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No, you have to find out what position he's coming from. Trying to call out bigotry is worse then being a bigot, yes?

So much for the intolerant left.

fuck bigots, and fuck the fact I have to /s this
 
PAULINK

PAULINK

I microwave steaks.
isn't a&m super conservative though? weird how he was elected based on that circumstance alone.
 
F

FortuneFaded

Member
In fairness, having an entire election result overturned because of a failure to report a campaign expense on glow sticks is pretty shitty and goes against the American ethos of ridiculous overspending in elections.
 
M

Mammoth Jones

Member
It sucks because no matter how good you are or what you achieve some bigots will always chalk any minority's achievement up to "diversity" aka affirmative action or some unfair advantage against the White man.
 
B

Black Mamba

Member
It needs to be said:

The person who lost race is the child of one of Perry's top donors.

So this is both bigotry and about favors.
 
A

ahoyhoy

Unconfirmed Member
FortuneFaded said:
In fairness, having an entire election result overturned because of a failure to report a campaign expense on glow sticks is pretty shitty and goes against the American ethos of ridiculous overspending in elections.
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He was likely spending the schools money, not his own or that raised by private donations.

Tough shit kid.
 
L

levious

That throwing stick stunt of yours has boomeranged on us.
riotous said:
The guy was cleared of voter intimidation; he got in trouble for not reporting a glow stick purchase as an election expense.

A little odd; but maybe that's in the rules?
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I dont think it was about what was purchased, but that the expense itself was not reported. That's pretty basic campaign finance rules.
 
O

Operations

Member
Why does the secretary of Energy feel the need to chime in on the legitimacy of the student body president of a university? Doesn't he have better things to do like learn about the role of its own department?
 
J

JohnsonUT

Member
Operations said:
Why does the secretary of Energy feel the need to chime in on the legitimacy of the student body president of a university? Doesn't he have better things to do like learn about the role of its own department?
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that would be Robert McIntosh, who was disqualified for voter intimidation and for failure to report a campaign expense on glow sticks
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Glow sticks falls under the DOE's umbrella, right?
 
R

Reeks

Member
FortuneFaded said:
In fairness, having an entire election result overturned because of a failure to report a campaign expense on glow sticks is pretty shitty and goes against the American ethos of ridiculous overspending in elections.
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True. But that's not what Rick Perry is talking about whatsoever.


Black Mamba said:
It needs to be said:

The person who lost race is the child of one of Perry's top donors.

So this is both bigotry and about favors.
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ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh
 
C

CitizenVectron

Member
The OP fails to mention that the other guy actually did win the most votes, but his victory was thrown out because he didn't claim as an expense the use of glow sticks for an ad.

That does seem pretty shady. Rick Perry is a moron, but the situation does appear to be fishy. Spending $50 on materials for an ad and failing to report it should not disqualify you from a victory, it should be a fine.
 
F

FortuneFaded

Member
Reeks said:
True. But that's not what Rick Perry is talking about whatsoever.
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I'm pretty sure he is talking about that. He's claiming if the roles were reversed, the administrators and students would have overlooked the rule break.

Perry: What if Brooks had been the candidate disqualified? Would the administration and the student body have allowed the first gay student body president to be voided for using charity glow sticks?
 
B

bozeman

Member
Why does anyone give a flying fuck who the student body president is after you graduate, let alone YEARS after you graduate?
 
T

tomtom94

Member
bozeman said:
Why does anyone give a flying fuck who the student body president is after you graduate, let alone YEARS after you graduate?
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Conservatives have made quite a lot of money out of the whole "universities are brainwashing your children into libruls" strawman.
 
W

waveuponwave

Member
TheGreatPotato said:
The OP fails to mention that the other guy actually did win the most votes, but his victory was thrown out because he didn't claim as an expense the use of glow sticks for an ad.

That does seem pretty shady. Rick Perry is a moron, but the situation does appear to be fishy. Spending $50 on materials for an ad and failing to report it should not disqualify you from a victory, it should be a fine.
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?

It's right there:

However, Brooks didn’t actually get the most votes; that would be Robert McIntosh, who was disqualified for voter intimidation and for failure to report a campaign expense on glow sticks, according to the student newspaper, The Battalion. A student judicial court later cleared McIntosh of the former charge but not the latter, so Brooks kept the presidency.
Click to expand...
 
D

driggonny

Banned
This has been frustrating to me... since I go there I've been seeing this article bandied about.

As I keep telling those who share it on my Facebook wall, while I find it understandable to disagree with the decision to disqualify the candidate, I don't think anyone would have been nearly as upset if the runner up didn't also happen to be gay.

This issue has nothing to do with diversity just because the runner up happened to be gay. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
E

Earthstrike

Member
TheGreatPotato said:
The OP fails to mention that the other guy actually did win the most votes, but his victory was thrown out because he didn't claim as an expense the use of glow sticks for an ad.

That does seem pretty shady. Rick Perry is a moron, but the situation does appear to be fishy. Spending $50 on materials for an ad and failing to report it should not disqualify you from a victory, it should be a fine.
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Why shouldn't it disqualify you? You don't want people to simply calculate that it's better to break the rules and pay a fine to win than it is to lose. Disqualification is an enforcement mechanism.
 
F

FortuneFaded

Member
Earthstrike said:
Why shouldn't it disqualify you? You don't want people to simply calculate that it's better to break the rules and pay a fine to win than it is to lose. Disqualification is an enforcement mechanism.
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It's what happens in the UK:

The Conservative Party has been fined £70,000 following an investigation into election campaign expenses, the Electoral Commission has just announced.

The Party failed to declare a total of £275,813 in campaign spending, an investigation has found.
 
T

The Maverick

Member
Anytime they lose, there has to be some treachery afoot. No way can they be beat without being propped up by the system, or the liberal media, or cheating, or...
 
T

The Lamp

Member
A&M is such a fucking stickler for rules, its almost impossible to get mercy when you break one. Of course the kid got disqualified.

In my 5 years there, all sorts of drama disqualified SBP presidents. We even had a recount once. Has Perry ever spoken up on any of the previous elections where shit went down? I distinctly remember campaign fund reporting drama.

Probably not. Now that a gay man won against his donor's son, he wants to speak up and complain. Minorities can't even win by playing by the rules without a white republican politician complaining that they still should have won everything when they break the rules.
 
L

Lkr

Member
The Lamp said:
A&M is such a fucking stickler for rules, its almost impossible to get mercy when you break one. Of course the kid got disqualified.

In my 5 years there, all sorts of drama disqualified SBP presidents. We even had a recount once. Has Perry ever spoken up on any of the previous elections where shit went down? I distinctly remember campaign fund reporting drama.

Probably not. Now that a gay man won against his donor's son, he wants to speak up and complain. Minorities can't even win by playing by the rules without a white republican politician complaining that they still should have won everything when they break the rules.
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It's also just the student body president, the fact that he cares so much about a dispute over something so trivial is telling
 
J

Jenov

Member
I can sympathize, Rick. Most votes but still lost -- how undemocratic, right??

To be fair, the glow stick thing does sound dumb though.
 
S

Syriel

Member
TheGreatPotato said:
The OP fails to mention that the other guy actually did win the most votes, but his victory was thrown out because he didn't claim as an expense the use of glow sticks for an ad.

That does seem pretty shady. Rick Perry is a moron, but the situation does appear to be fishy. Spending $50 on materials for an ad and failing to report it should not disqualify you from a victory, it should be a fine.
Click to expand...

Mr Fahrenheit said:
What a farce that someone who didn't get the most votes would still win the election
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Prost said:
I can sympathize, Rick. Most votes but still lost -- how undemocratic, right??

To be fair, the glow stick thing does sound dumb though.
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Rick Perry must really hate Trump then. After all, Hillary had 2+ million more votes than Trump, yet Trump still won by the rules.
 
D

Deepwater

Member
The real story here is why is the sitting Secretary of Energy is spending time writing op-eds about college student government elections.

The same SOE who admitted in his confirmation hearings that he not a damn clue about what the actual DOE does.

The same SOE who wanted to get rid of the DOE prior to his nomination.

Rick Perry doesn't have anything better to do with his time? Like maybe figuring out how to do is job?
 
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