Sessions visits campus to address students
U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions spoke before members of SMU’s College Republicans Wednesday to discuss his campaign and the goals and the future of the Republican Party.
“My primary goal as a congressman is to make sure that America’s brightest days are in its future,” he said.
Sessions, a 1978 graduate of Southwestern University and a former employee of Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, ran for Congress in 1996 because he disapproved of Bill Clinton’s “retroactive tax cuts.”
Since then, he has served Texas’s Fifth Congressional District for three consecutive terms and is currently running for a fourth term in a district that now includes the Dallas area.
Sessions spent time conveying his political principles and explaining the fundamental differences between republicans and democrats.
After his speech, attendees polled the congressman on his opinions on the issues pressing the nation today.
Sessions addressed several issues that students asked him about, from the Middle East conflict to campaign finance reform. Sessions closed his visit by taking photographs with attendees.
The Palestine-Israel conflict: “This is a war that has to be fought until there is a winner and a loser. We are at the point where enough is enough. I think we’re going to have to have a full-scale war, aggression, a blood bath, for things to get any better. [Inevitably,] America is going to support Israel. Period.”
American foreign policy: “America’s foreign policy has changed since Sept. 11. We now will go kill people who threaten us even if they are 8,000 miles away. That’s why we’ll go beat down Baghdad whether we like it or not.”
Kyoto Protocol and environmentalism: “I will work for conservation and not environmentalism. I believe we should do things to use renewable resources so that they do things for us. Kyoto would place restrictions on every single American consumer and exempt emerging countries. In a sense, we’re putting America at a disadvantage.”
Encroachment on civil liberties in a post-Sept. 11 world: “Our adversaries know how to take advantage of our law enforcement. We designed the laws of this country so there was no way we could have known about Sept. 11. We’ve now given law enforcement a total victory. We have leveled the playing field.”
Campaign finance reform: “[With restrictions on national elections,] I think we’re only going to see more emphasis placed on local races and more bloody noses than you’ve ever seen.”
Oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: “I’m for the ability to use our own natural resources. The highs [in recent gas prices] are only going to get higher.”
Political correctness: “We’ve gotten to a point where we’ve laid down our political correctness on the table and said it really doesn’t matter anymore.”
The Democratic Party: “They seek to level the playing field and empower the government to solve our problems. Overspending, waste, fraud, abuse, and outright thievery – that is why the Republican Party [in the House] came to power in 1995.”
Civic-mindedness: “If you let the government set the standards and decide who and how and where it will be done, progress will grind to a halt. Build in yourself a sense that you make a difference.”
