Vice President Dick Cheney is scheduled to speak at this year’s commencement at Utah’s Brigham Young University. The predominantly Republican student body and staff have been protesting Mr. Cheney’s presence on campus.
Even the Mormons don’t want him around.
In a usually peaceful environment, the students have been up in arms over the upcoming speech by the Vice President. The reasons they site aren’t political. They’re personal.
In an article appearing in today’s New York Times, writer Martin Stolz quotes a 22 year old student, Andrew Christensen, as stating, “the problem is this is a morally dubious man.”
Professor Warner P. Woodworth, 65, agrees. “We espouse honesty, chastity, integrity, ethics, virtue and morality, and he does not epitomize those values.”
Although Mormons in Utah tend to vote Republican, and value the same conservative values that Mr. Cheney claims to value, the population of Brigham University sees a different side to the Vice President.
Granted, corruption exists in all power structures. However, Mr. Cheney’s most recent approval rating, along with President Bush’s, have been extremely low (32% and 38%Â respectively).
When even a conservative, Mormon population protests the very presence of a Republican leader, it is clear that said leader needs to make some adjustments.
In the words of Abraham Lincoln, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all of the time.”