Hillsdale College Republicans joined a statewide effort to rally against the Affordable Care Act at Michigan State University on Feb. 7.
President Barack Obama visited MSU to sign the Farm Bill Friday at the alma mater of the bill’s author, U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow. In response, the Michigan GOP Campus Coordinator Justin Bis, organized fifty students from more than six colleges to rally against the ACA.
“By no means are we protesting the President,” MSU College Republicans President senior Will Staal said. “Anytime you can have the sitting president at your university is an honor and privilege, that being said, the policies, including Obamacare that have plagued this presidency are promises and policies that haven’t panned out like they were supposed to.”
Bis agreed that the group’s goal was focused on the ACA instead of the Farm Bill.
“What we really wanted was to show a unified voice to the nation and state that there is another aspect to this Obamacare debate that hasn’t been explored very well,” Bis said. “Young people aren’t all for him [Obama], and young people aren’t all for Obamacare, this policy that is intrinsically harmful to young people.”
Sophomore Sam Holdeman, president of Hillsdale College Republicans organized 23 students to attend the rally after Bis contacted him the Thursday before the event.
“We want to get our message out and show the President that the people realize Obamacare has failed,” Holdeman said. “He couldn’t help but notice this hopefully, he drove right by.”
Obama signed the Farm Bill at MSU’s Mary Anne PcPhail Equine Performance Center and spoke about Michigan’s prospering agricultural industry. Then, his motorcade drove past the group of College Republicans holding signs and shouting chants opposing the ACA.
Students who joined the rally said they were excited to show Obama that he hasn’t won the entire college vote.
“We wanted to make a stand and show some opposition that not all college students are wacked-out Obama supporters,” Hillsdale junior Nathan Brand said. “His coming to MSU is just a PR stunt.”
Junior Andrew McLean, a student from Grand Valley State University, agreed with Brand.
“Obama is reaching out to college students, who he knows he can blindside,” McLean said. “So many people form their opinions just by watching the liberal media, so we’re here to show them the other viewpoint.”
Bis said his one critique of the event was that it was not more public. Approximately 40 MSU students, who represented campus organizations including the Black Student Alliance, College Assistance Migrant Program Scholars Initiative at MSU, and College Democrats, were invited to attend.
One of those students chosen to attend, MSU sophomore Jessica Hernandez, said students were selected based upon campus leadership and involvement.
“I think there probably should have been more students invited or been a first-come first-serve event,” Hernandez said. “But that could have been really hectic. Overall, I feel the way it was done, where students were chosen based on leadership and involvement, was done well.”
Although Hernandez admitted she didn’t know a lot about the Farm Bill prior to the event, she was aware that it could affect some of her classmates.
“I know students living off campus who applied for food stamps and this could affect whether or not they get them,” Hernandez said. “Obama said it [Farm Bill] would help those who are working and need a little more help, but he didn’t really talk a lot about college students.”
Hernandez and other attending students were able to shake hands with Obama, but she lamented not getting a picture of them together.
“There were cameras between where I sat in the bleachers and the podium, so it was hard to see, but it was still a very exciting experience,” Hernandez said. “It definitely made the cold not as cold to get that call that I was invited. Now I can say that I met the president and he came to my campus.”
Staal also emphasized his approval for Obama choosing MSU to sign the bill.
“The great state of Michigan represented by the Michigan State University, of course, if the president were to pick a school in the state, this would be it,” Staal said.
