Letter from Tony Listi, 2008-2009 TAC Chairman        

Howdy, and welcome to the website of the Texas Aggie Conservatives!

We were just re-recognized this past spring of 2008 and plan to be very active this year promoting conservatism and opposing liberalism on campus. If you are interested in joining our cause, visit the Join TAC Page.

The conventional wisdom is that A&M is already a conservative campus. People say that all the time. But the fact of the matter is that many people say it derisively or with disdain, as if conservatism was something negative, something to be overcome. There is more liberalism within A&M's administrators, staff, faculty, and even students than most people know or are willing to acknowledge. They see the conservative label as a welcome challenge, eager to "educate" and "enlighten" Aggies away from that label.

Sure, the student body may be more conservative than the teasips down the road, but I wonder: if the student body is supposedly so conservative, why is Rep. Chet Edwards representing A&M in the US Congress? Why was the campus chalked up with Obama and Hillary messages leading up to the primaries? Why does A&M host and why do students attend the Vagina Monologues on campus? Why are there student chapters of Amnesty International, NOW, Planned Parenthood (in the works), and Brazos Valley Coalition Against War? Something is wrong with this picture.

The campus is overwhelmingly Christian, and yet many of these Christians apparently mistake Marxism for the tenets of their own faith. I must have missed the chapter where Jesus commands his disciples to care for the poor by coercing the rich. And yet somehow many of these same people oppose the necessary force required to defend America from Islamo-fascists.

It is time to turn a passive, silent, oblivious majority of conservatives into an active, vocal, aware majority.

The reconstitution of TAC on the A&M campus is long overdue. I don't think students really understand what conservatism is anymore or why it matters. Part of the problem has been that conservatism has always been a diverse coalition and now the divisions within the conservative coalition have been highlighted and deepened by recent events and issues, especially the Iraq War and social issues.

Sadly, the Republican Party has been the other part of the problem. It has only made things worse. Since Ronald Reagan, the party has been steadily drifting away from its conservative principles. Compared with liberal Democrats, George W. Bush and John McCain may be the best that conservatives have had to choose from, but by no means do they fully embody what it means to be conservative. Increased government spending across the board, a new Medicare entitlement, amnesty for illegal immigrants, No Child Left Behind, campaign finance "reform," etc. This is not conservatism; it's liberalism. Now more than ever, it is time to defend and revive conservatism among the American people, especially among our generation, before we lose what has made Texas and this country great and blessed.

I have many friends among the College Republicans, but their hands are tied to party loyalty, whoever the candidate is. They are stuck supporting whatever moderate comes down the pipeline (or doing nothing when disappointed). But what sets TAC apart from them is our ability and willingness to put principle before any party or person. The Republican Party needs to regain its soul, the soul of conservatism. To those Aggies who feel the same way, who are tired of the status quo, join us in TAC! Help us fight liberalism wherever it may be!