| On Saturday, November 3rd, Nebraska Young Democrats honored Republican Attorney General and 2008 Senate candidate Jon Bruning with the Fallen Star Award at their 2nd Annual Forever Young Dinner. Following are the remarks delivered by NYD President Kyle Michaelis:
 With our first award tonight, Nebraska Young Democrats want to take the opportunity to salute a strong voice for Democratic ideals that once spoke to the very heart of what being a Young Democrat is all about. Sadly, that voice is no more - not lost to disease and death like our departed friend Peter Hoagland but rather forsaken to a force that can be every bit as powerful: political ambition.
Tonight, we honor Republican Attorney General and 2008 Senate nominee Jon Bruning. We do not honor Bruning for who he is today but, rather, for who he once was.
In 1992, as a 23 year-old 2nd Year law student, Jon Bruning wrote a weekly column for the Daily Nebraskan at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His voice was bold. It was provocative. And, without being overtly partisan, Bruning wrote with passion and clarity that would have made any Democrat proud.
In one of Bruning's earliest columns, he called for the defeat of the First District's Republican Congressman because "he ha[d] become increasingly arrogant and careless when it comes to taxpayer dollars." 14 years early, Bruning delivered a message that voters across the country rallied to in 2006, reminding them if they wanted change, that meant voting for the Democratic candidate.
Bruning's prescience did not stop there. Just days after the 1992 Presidential election, Bruning celebrated the number of women and minorities who had been elected to Congress. And, of the country's new First Lady-elect, he had very, very kind words. Bruning wrote:
Hillary Clinton, Yale Law School graduate and mother extraordinaire, is perhaps the better half of the Clinton team....
Clinton is an amazing woman...If anyone can lead the charge to destroy the glass ceiling holding women back, Hillary Clinton is that person.
Considering that today Hillary Clinton stands well positioned to break the ultimate glass ceiling around the Oval Office, we have to salute Bruning for his foresight. And, clearly, Bruning knew he was on to something when he actually repeated how amazing a woman Hillary Clinton is in his column the next week. |
| Of course, a lot of that is politics, and a person's politics can change over time. But, Bruning's was also a voice of principle - principles that Young Democrats across this state are still proud to call our own.
Jon Bruning proposed that the United States cut its military spending. At a time when no Republican would admit the dangers of global warming, there Bruning was advocating an increase in the gas tax to conserve fossil fuels and to prevent man-made pollution.
Bruning wrote about his belief in gun control. He denounced the NRA and challenged the idea that gun owners had a constitutional right to buy hollow-pointed, cop killer bullets. On the difficult issue of abortion, with which many of us struggle, Bruning wrote without apology:
I think a woman should have a right to choose. I'm not saying I personally believe in abortion, but I think a woman has a right to decide what to do with her own body....
How can conservatives say they are against the government meddling in everything, yet many want the very same government to declare abortion illegal?
These were not rantings. These were not childish statements. These were reasoned, thoughtful, and - most of all - compassionate arguments. It was this compassion that led Bruning to write:
I believe in helping those who are less fortunate than I am. While conservatives may believe that the poor must be born poor because they want to be, otherwise they'd be rich, I think we need to help out our fellow citizens. If a person who is born into poverty can become a more useful contributor to society through a government-sponsored education program, I'm thrilled to see my tax dollars spent in such a manner. If a single mother needs assistance to raise her child, I think the government should help her get on her feet. If elderly people need health care, the government ought to make sure they're getting it.
Bruning also wrote with disgust about 35 million Americans without health insurance. He wrote about the rising costs of health care - with doctor visits more than doubling and hospital charges quadrupling. That Jon Bruning was even willing to look beyond the problem and actually offer solutions. He wrote, "The best direction for the future includes a government-sponsored basic health care plan for all Americans."
What does Bruning say now? These problems have not disappeared. But, sadly, this strong committed voice has disappeared - while the problems have only become worse.
There are, however, sins worse than silence. In 1992, Bruning wrote:
I believe homosexuals should have the same rights as everyone else. They ought to be able to be Boy Scout leaders, soldiers and anything else they want to be.
How is it that, barely a decade later, Bruning would forget and forsake that which he once knew in his heart to be true, grossly declaring - as Nebraska's Attorney General - that allowing marriage between two people of the same sex is no different than allowing a woman to marry a dog or a man to marry a piece of furniture?
It's only fitting that Bruning once defended his right to make such an idiotic statement, when he wrote, like a card-carrying member of the ACLU:
Limitations on the expression of ideas, no matter how vile those ideas may be, are dangerous and violate the spirit of the [First] Amendment. Unpopular and even nauseating ideas must be protected.
Of course, we can't fail to mention some of the choice words Bruning had for our friends in the Republican Party. Declaring his belief in affirmative action, Bruning wrote:
If a woman or a black person takes the place of a white male in a law school entering class, we're all better off...If law schools consisted solely of white males they'd look like the Republican Party.
That was right before Bruning declared "Ronald Reagan was incapable of understanding complex policy arguments." As a Republican on the campaign trail, does anyone care to guess whom Bruning now claims as his political hero?
 Believe it or not, this award tonight is not about taking a cheap shot at Jon Bruning. Rather, there's a very serious lesson we must learn from Bruning's example.
Being a Democrat in Nebraska is not easy. If you are willing to sacrifice that which you believe - that which makes us Democrats - there's no doubt that it is easier to be a Republican. And, it's certainly easier to run for office as a Republican. We can't hide from that fact, and we can't just wish it away. What we can do is work our butts off to change it and to make sure that young people with progressive principles and passion - even political ambition - don't have to give up who they are for what they want to achieve.
Your being here tonight supporting Young Democrats - and everything you do to help build the Nebraska Democratic Party and make it strong - is making that future possible. It is in search of this strength and this hope that we salute Jon Bruning with this Fallen Star Award.
--------------
Bruning was invited to the Forever Young Dinner to receive his award, along with a golden sandal for Lifetime Achievement in Flip-Flopping. Bruning declined that invitation and had "no comment" for the North Platte Telegraph when asked for his response. |
