EDITORIAL BOARD: Austin and Morgan are our choice for USG president and vice president

In an era where USG’s powers have been so greatly expanded, the risk of an unknown entity in office cannot be taken

Much like our nation’s own executive branch, the powers of the Undergraduate Student Government have expanded far beyond their historical limits, paving the way for a over politicized, over powerful and partisan USG.

USG is meant to represent an intellectually diverse, international but fully Trojan family. It cannot be weaponized against the feelings of students from certain cultures, religions, sexual orientations or social affiliations. Given a demonstrated respect for all students and steadfast reason in the face of political fervor, The Tab USC endorses Austin Dunn for USG President.

Dunn and his running mate Morgan Monahan have not ran a perfect campaign by any means. They rightly came under fire from the Rachel/Rebecca and Million/Vorhoff tickets for beginning their social media campaign before the official start time. However, as Dunn rightly noted, he followed the precedent of USG Presidents Edwin Saucedo and Rini Sampath before him.

“We have owned up making a mistake since the beginning, and we are taking the punishments and trying to move forward,” Dunn told The Tab. If anything, beginning a presidential tenure with scrutiny may perhaps limit the USG overreach that has taken over in recent years.

Dunn and Monahan have a struck a vital balance in running a platform which includes all members of the Trojan family. They will support students’ right to freely associate, as Dunn himself is a member of ZBT who has not included the draconian and authoritarian mandatory deferred rush position in his platform.

With the endorsement of pro-Jewish stalwart of the Senate, Leena Danpour, as well as a number of other members from Trojans for Israel, Dunn and Monahan can be trusted to vocally support Jewish students from anti-Semitic resolutions. Dunn and Monahan also came out to publicly support the 252 students affected by President Trump’s executive orders last Friday.

Dunn told The Tab: “Even though that might be a small portion in regards to the 19,000 students on this campus, we think that Trojans deserve support, and we plan to hold the administration accountable through our ability to do that.”

However, most importantly, in an era where violent protestors silence dissident voices and enforce ideological hegemony, Dunn and Monahan have vowed to protect all speech on campus, a commitment that’s importance cannot be overstated.

We applaud Rachel Udabe, Rebecca Harbeck, Daniel Million and Timothy Vorhoff for running clean and dignified campaigns. Yet in an era where USG’s powers have been so greatly expanded, the risk of an unknown entity in office cannot be taken.

For Senate, The Tab endorses Natalie Antounian, Noah Silver, Blake Ackerman, Deborah Lee.

You can vote for USG President, Vice President and senators until Thursday.

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