This past weekend, Iowa and Wisconsin hosted the College Republican Leadership Summit 4 at Maquoketa Caves in Iowa.  It was not only a productive weekend, where our chapter chairs were able to learn from national leadership about how to effectively get students involved, but we had fun as well.  Friday night consisted of socializing around the campfire, which was a great bonding experience for the four states that were in attendance.  Among them were Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri, and Indiana.  National Chairman, Zach Howell, and Co-Chairman, Jeremy Hagen, were also at the campout.  Saturday was very productive in the morning and early afternoon–we were able to hear from the many other CRs in attendance about how to get involved on campus and how to make a difference in Republican politics.  Overall, it was beneficial to all attendees.

Saturday, got a little muddy as we took off to explore the caves.  It was a great experience to hike and crawl through the caves, because I had never seen caves like the ones in which we explored.  There were some that had such small areas that we had to crawl on our hands and knees.  I was a little too tired and possibly scared to enter some of them, but I still had a wonderful time.  This weekend grew our Iowa-Wisconsin Alliance and helped to start and strengthen the relationships between more midwestern states.

My political events never fail to stop–tomorrow morning I will be flying to Washington, D.C. to attend the Young America’s Foundation National Conservative Student Conference.  There, I will be joining many Republican and Conservative students for a week full of great speakers and a whole lot of fun.  I’m pumped to meet new friends and spend time with my good friends from Wisconsin!  I better get packing, and finally get a little sleep!

Emily

As I sit here in my kitchen, I glance to my right.  I see containers full of cookies that I have just spent the last two hours baking.  They are for the Iowa-Wisconsin Alliance Chapter Chair Training Campout this weekend.  My mind wonders from College Republican business to the state of the country.  Currently, as conservatives, we are in a battle over healthcare.  Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi are trying to pass legislation that will ultimately take away choice and freedom in healthcare.  This is wrong.  It occurred to me that a cookie can be a great representation of healthcare and how taking away this choice would leave us in a state of despair.

Take a simple chocolate chip cookie–it consists of the basic ingredients of flour, brown sugar, sugar, eggs, baking soda, vanilla, instant pudding mix, butter, and most importantly, chocolate chips.  Together, these basic ingredients make up more than a simple piece of food, they make up a cookie.  Cookies are traditionally thought to be a good desert or afterschool snack. They are the goods–just like healthcare is an important service in America.  Each receipe may be slightly different, just like each health insurance plan in America is slightly different from one another.  They all do the same basic procedure–providing health insurance, or in the case of the cookie, making the snack.  The common denominator is the chocolate chips–which represents the freedom of choice in each health insurance plan.  The choice that comes along with privatized healthcare is major.  Government interference is just like taking away the chocolate  chips in the cookie.  That common denominator is then gone, leaving a pretty dull-tasting cookie and a government regulated healthcare system. The way it is before the governement takes control is privatized healthcare with choice.

While some Americans don’t like chocolate and would prefer to eat a cookie without chocolate chips, there are about that many people who believe that government regulated healthcare is a good thing.  That amount, though, is a minority.  Not the majority.  Whether or not my analogy about healthcare is a good one, it can easliy be agreed that something must be done about this injustice of quickly attempting to pass healthcare legislation through the democratic congress.  When you take away the chocolate chips, you get a cookie that has lost its good taste.  When you take away freedom in healthcare, the good taste is gone once more.  You do not take one of the best things about a good or service away or the consumer will not be happy–a simple fact of consumer satisfaction.

Operation Waiting Game is a website that was recently launched by the College Republican National Committee to take action against a Washington takeover of our healthcare.  To learn more about the proposed healthcare reform and how you can make a difference in stopping this injustice, go to to http://operationwaitinggame.com .  There, you will be able to connect with your facebook and twitter accounts to make an impact.  You can invite friends to join, read up on issues, and take the “actions” that are listed.  Doing this, you build up points and have the potential to be one of the Leaderboard Top Activists. 

Why is this healthcare reform bad?  Well,  the answer is in the chips.

Until next time,

Emily

As I sit here about to write my first blog entry, I look at the clock.  It is nearly 1:00 AM and I still haven’t even begun to think about going to bed.  I guess that is what happens when you get caught up in so many exciting experiences.  You don’t want to sleep because there is so much progress to be made in life–in everything.  To begin, I will tell you a little bit about myself.

My name is Emily Elizabeth Lofgren.  I am eighteen-years-old and a soon to be Drake University Student.  The oldest of four children, I have always been a bit of a natural leader.   My sister, Olivia, is seventeen and is also part of the Muscatine High School Class of 2009.   She decided to complete her credits in record time in order to further her education to become an elementary teacher.  I never thought that my sister and I would be walking across that graduation stage together, but we did.  Sharing that experience with her has been really neat.  As children, we did everything together from singing and dancing to jumping through the sprinkler to taking a ride in the Barbie Jeep.  Now, we are entering the next chapter of our lives at the same time.  I can already tell that this chapter will be quite exciting.

Although I am not moving to Des Moines to attend Drake for another three weeks, I already feel as if I am a college student.  The reason for this being my involvement in College Republicans from the time I was just sixteen-years-old.  College Republicans has been one of the best experiences that I have ever had.  The ability to network with hundreds of students who share the same ideological views as me is extremely amazing.  I currently serve as the Secretary of the Iowa Federation of College Republicans.  My board is phenominal–some of the greatest people ever. 

In the next posts, I will tell of my work and observations dealing with politics locally, statewide, and nationally.  What politics really need, though, is a little more pink.

Until later,

Emily