October General Meeting

Our October General Meeting is coming up! Meet us on Thursday October 27th at 7PM in Arts & Sciences 113.

We have a lot of events coming up, about one a week, so make sure you don’t miss this meeting! We’ll have all the details for the Halloween party on the 28th, which is going to be a lot of fun and a great way to meet new people. We’ll also be talking about some important events like our Get Out The Vote day of action we’re we’ll be registering students to vote more like our service event!

See you there!

September General Meeting

Our next general meeting is Wednesday, September 21st at 7PM in Arts & Sciences 104. We will be planning our Halloween social with the College Republicans and organizing the upcoming state party training event scheduled for October 1st. We will also be brainstorming for upcoming volunteer events. We would love to see you there!

Welcome to a New School Year at Mizzou!

The scorching summer of 2011 is finally coming to end and that can only mean one thing: another year at Mizzou! The Mizzou College Democrats are planning an exciting year in the run up to the 2012 election season and hope that you think about joining us.

Our first meeting is Thursday, August 25th at 7pm in Memorial Union – Stotler Lounge. Everyone is welcome, so bring your roommate and friends to the first College Dems meeting of the school year. We will be hearing from some exciting guest speakers including Boone County Treasurer Nicole Galloway and outlining upcoming events. We expect to see a lot of new faces in attendance in this year so don’t be afraid to meet some new friends!

Follow us on Twitter @mucollegedems!

Like our page on Facebook!

If you’re unable to make it to our first meeting, but still want to become active in Mizzou College Democrats email us at: mizzoucollegedemocrats@gmail.com

Finally one last thing. Make sure to keep checking back to the blog for up to date information about future events, writeups and pictures of activities, and relevant news and commentary about Missouri politics! Bookmark and/or Subscribe to the Blog!

August General Meeting

August General Meeting: 

Our first general meeting is Thursday, August 25^th at 7PM in Memorial Union Stotler Lounge II & III. We will be hearing from some exciting guest speakers including Boone County Treasurer Nicole Galloway and outlining upcoming events. We would love to see lots of new faces in attendance!

America’s Growing Inequality

The New York Times recently had a very interesting topic for its feature, Room for Debate, it addressed the growing inequality of wealth in the United States of America. The median income in America is lower now than it was 30 years ago. As to Americans’ thoughts about the distribution of wealth, here’s a disturbing graphic:

See more information here.

It seems the only redistribution of wealth in this country that has actually happened has been to the rich from the poor. One could draw a possible correlation, let’s look at the historical tax rate:

For more on this topic, please check out The New York Time’s Room for Debate.

Ed. Note: Sorry for the recent lack of activity, midterms and spring break has had me occupied. We’re still working on getting a new site up and running, so keep checking back for new surprises!

Reminder for the Debate with the College Republicans

Tomorrow night, March 16th, the Mizzou College Democrats and College Republicans are having our Debate! It starts tomorrow at 7pm in Stotler Lounge II in Memorial Union. It’s completely free so make sure you come out and show your support for the Mizzou College Democrats! Questions will be taken from the audience on the subjects of Federal Education Policy (Dept. of Education, NCLB, Race to the top, Teachers Unions, etc.), U.S. Foreign policy towards renegade states (Iran, North Korea, etc.), and Fairtax on a national level. So make sure you come prepared with questions beforehand so we can fully explore each party’s position, and don’t forget to bring along your friends!

A Week in Politics (3/10)

Welcome to the Mizzou College Democrats’ new column! I conceptualized this column to contain the most interesting stories of the week, whether they be news or commentaries. A bulk of the content will probably be news however, as we’ll try to give more prominence to editorials in separate posts. We’ll try to write a short description with each link to try to catch your attention, hope you enjoy!

Zachary Henry – Communications Director

A Week in Politics:

Governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, Flip-flops and Passes Union-Busting Bill

After being exposed as a deceitful politician, it seems Governor Walker has sheared any pretense of being about fiscal responsibility. He has tried numerous times to present his ideological crusade against the working class as the solution to the self-created deficit for Wisconsin, but now it seems he has separated the elimination of collective bargaining from the financial provisions, allowing the bill to pass.

Senator Roy Blunt‘s “Approval Numbers Already Under Water”

It seems Senator Roy Blunt got very lucky last year. His approval ratings are so dismal it seems to be that he would have lost in any other election cycle.

The Republican State Legislature Votes to Undo the Voters’ Will

Republicans in the Missouri State Legislature seem to be in a hurry to reverse what the people of Missouri have voted for. Not stopping at removing the Minimum Wage law (which passed with 76% of the vote), it seems that the Republicans are busy working on repealing the Puppy Mill law voted on in 2010.

United States Senate Votes Down the House’s Budget Plan

The United States House’s Budget, (which would cripple environmental and financial regulations, make draconian cuts in essential programs, and actually add to the national deficit) was thankfully voted down in the Senate. Here’s to hoping the Republicans can create an intelligent plan before they effectively shutdown the government.

A Bipartisan Proposal to Shrink Missouri’s Government

With the new census numbers in, Missouri’s growth is a wash. On one hand, Missouri’s population grew faster than most midwestern states, but was sluggish compared to most of the country. In fact, once the redistricting process is completed, Missouri will have one less representative in the United States House. This highlights an interesting fact about Missouri’s state government. Missouri’s population rank out of all the other states is 18th, while the size of the Missouri Legislature is 4th in the nation!

Susan Montee, the Head of the State Democratic Party, wrote a piece in the Missouri Record about an initiative that could possibly be on the ballot in 2012. It would shrink Missouri’s House of Representatives from 163 members to 105 members and take effect in 2023. She’s says,

“Politicians spend a great deal of time talking about reducing the size of government. A true reduction in the size of government should begin with a reduction of the number of politicians.”

See the letter here.

Not only would this make our state’s house more efficient, it’d save taxpayers millions of dollars a year! About $5 million to be exact. Other states have realized this long before; the Texas house has 150 members but the state of Texas has a population of more than four times Missouri’s population. This petition is currently collecting signatures to have this measure put up to a vote to the people of Missouri to amend the Missouri Constitution. And this idea is getting bipartisan support! Peter Kinder, the Lt. Governor, who happens to be a Republican, agreed with the idea. The idea was first proposed by Missouri’s Republican Governor John Ashcroft in 1990.

When the nation and the state have been forced to make cuts to all types of programs, we need a way to make our government leaner and more efficient! This proposal would save Missouri taxpayers millions of dollars, a noble goal especially in these challenging times. And it would have the effect of making our elections more competitive so that only the best candidates get the privilege to serve Missourians. The Mizzou College Democrats supports this proposal to improve the Missouri House of Representatives.