RPA Launches Third Party Principle: Individual Responsibility and Initiative

Arkansas Federation of Colege Republicans Chairman Gabrielle Harvey defended the party's third principle, individual responsibility and initiative, in an op-ed this week as part of the RPA's ten-part series on party principles.

"Growing up in rural Arkansas, one often hears discussion of 'The American Dream,' and depending upon who you ask, the definition might sound a little different. The best I can come up with is this: 'The American Dream is the opportunity of upward mobility and the right of self-determination. In this Dream, I am the only one responsible for the quality and the direction of my own future.' These sentiments are echoed in the Preamble to the most recent Republican Party Platform which states that great outcomes can result 'through our own exercise of individual responsibility and initiative…independent of government.'

While members of the socialist Left might argue that a college education should be free for all, my peers have started to suffer from a serious lack of incentive. When I see people leave with the same grades and degrees as me without putting in the work, I’m deeply offended. Not only does this degrade the quality of my education, but it also teaches my generation that work is unnecessary and unprofitable – at least compared to what the federal government can give you." (.....)