Jay Breslow is not your ASUO president. Jay Breslow is revenge gone wrong.
He is fulfilling his role as the George W. Bush of University politics. Someone I wouldn’t mind going to a barbecue with, but someone who takes orders from a shadow boss.
I don’t question that Breslow is passionate about student activism. Most people, upon embracing activism, are passionate. And single-minded.
For example, dozens of young fascists who have their parents buy them $1,000 tents so they can camp on a lawn and tell the world how to think. Or a few dozen anarchists who decided “breaking shit” was a movement and subsequently drowned out the message that 45,000 union workers, religious leaders, students and activists were promoting in Seattle last year.
Breslow, like most politicians and the government itself, is victim to the special-interest lobby.
Jay Breslow was not elected ASUO president on his merits. He was elected by the backlash to his opponents in last year’s election, C.J. Gabbe and Peter Larson.
Anyone who even remotely follows the ASUO knows this is the truth. When it was a real contest, based on political connections and grassroots activism, the Gabbe ticket devastated Breslow in the primary election. Then, fear set in.
If you do the math, Gabbe received 834 votes in the primary election, compared to 548 for Breslow. The other candidates received a combined total of 483 votes. Then, in the general election, Breslow surged to 1,037, while Gabbe dropped slightly with 806. Cut to the chase: Breslow won on a platform of collective hate.
Those voters (myself included) who did not support a Gabbe presidency simply transferred our votes from the candidates we actually favored to what we perceived as the lesser of two evils. We played a childish game, and now the Karma chameleon has bitten us in the ass.
Breslow flirted with fascism in a Sept. 27 Emerald interview: “Student leaders are student activists, and those who don’t believe it shouldn’t be student leaders.” Translation: Play by my rules or go home.
Jay, I didn’t get the new Dave Matthews CD. I don’t wear armbands to show my political affiliation (my Dad did as a Black Panther growing up in Watts, when that actually meant something). And I don’t base my beliefs on how many cameras show up. Am I disqualified from the cast of WRC Activist, 90210?
Now, put down your solidarity sticks. This is not an attack on ideals. I embrace some of Breslow’s adopted beliefs. He seems to be a decent and relatively intelligent young man. However, I also believe that the method is as important as the message. And his method is flawed.
If Breslow wants to be an activist, he needs to realize that activism is not just a code word for Worker Rights Consortium. The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered Alliance, the Black Student Union, the International Student Association and 90 other student groups deserve resources and recognition as well. These are the activists who fight every day to preserve their livelihood, even when the mainstream media and political circles look the other way.
The truth is, Melissa Unger is your real ASUO president. She has risen like a phoenix from the political ashes to seize control.
The invasion of the ASUO by members of the Survival Center mirrors the Republican take-over of Congress in 1994.
I’ll tell you what though, I’m glad Melissa Unger is my ASUO president. She’s an effective activist. Like her friends in OSPIRG, she has the credentials and the chutzpah I can respect. I just wish Jay Breslow, the ASUO and the students knew who really was in charge.