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Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Marie Cheney

KPU selects speakers from same political family

Correction appended.

Mary Cheney’s Kennedy Political Union speaking engagement on Jan. 21 marked the second time within the last 10 months that a member of the Cheney family has been hosted by KPU, after the organization hosted former Vice President Dick Cheney on March 27, 2014.

The contrast between the family members’ views on key social issues was the driving force behind why KPU chose to bring Mary Cheney to campus, director Tyler Bowders said.

“The decision to host two Cheneys in consecutive years is about the contrasts the two can offer to each other's views,” KPU’s Publicity Coordinator Monica Patel said. “Although they share a last name, [former] Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter Mary Cheney advocate for different issues.”

Mary Cheney has worked as a public relations manager at Coors Brewing Company, the vice president for consumer advocacy at AOL, an adviser to both the 2000 and 2004 Bush-Cheney election campaigns and as an LGBT rights advocate.

One of the most prominent differences between the daughter and father pairing is their opposing views on LGBT rights.

In her 2006 memoir “It’s My Turn Now,” Cheney spoke about opposing George W. Bush’s support for the Federal Marriage Act and working to reach out to gay communities through the Coors company. In 2013, she fought against a proposed Indiana constitutional amendment that would permanently ban all protections for same-sex couples and their families and publicly denounced her sister Liz Cheney’s support for traditional marriage on Facebook.

“I thought it would be a great opportunity to show that we tend to think of these large political families as these united fronts that kind of almost have their own ideologies,” Bowders said. “I think that she is very politically interesting.”

Approximately 30 students protested KPU’s selection of Cheney’s father when he spoke at AU on the grounds that he was a “war criminal,” The Eagle previously reported. At the same event, Dick Cheney denied that the enhanced interrogation techniques used by the U.S. military were torture, The Eagle also reported.

PHOTO: ALEJANDRO ALVAREZ/THE EAGLE

Some students, such as School of Public Affairs senior Mike Wang, believe that the decision was made more for the purpose of causing controversy.

“The fact is that KPU's decision last year was enormously unpopular, and this decision is meant to make light of that decision, to disregard criticism of KPU and to be a show of force demonstrating that KPU responds to no one but itself,” Wang said.

Wang said that KPU leadership is often vocal about seeking out speakers who will incite the campus left. Wang added that Bowders is candid about wanting to generate controversy.

“The fact that this is a key criterion in KPU's decision-making, rather than bringing speakers who fulfill AU's mission as an institution of higher learning, should outrage students,” Wang said.

Bowders did not wish to respond to Wang’s comment, Bowders said by email on Jan 24.

Former SG Comptroller Ben Johnson who was among the protesters in 2014, said that Cheney and her father are not so different.

“The Republican establishment is the Republican establishment,” Johnson said. “They’re all pretty terrible in that they’ve spent the past several decades doing their best to destroy the social safety network. Then again the same is true for the east-coast Democrats’ political establishment.”

Patel said that Cheney’s speech had something valuable for everyone in attendance.

“She is a woman who has worked on a presidential campaign and as an adviser, worked in the corporate world, and who has worked with nonprofits, and I believe that she has a wealth of experience and knowledge that she can impart during her talk at AU, especially because many AU students have interests and ambitions in those three fields,” Patel said.

For others like Wang however, Mary Cheney’s speaking engagement is just another in a long line of like-minded speakers.

“As an activist and as someone committed to inclusion and progress, I am profoundly disappointed in KPU for bringing Mary Cheney to campus,” Wang said. “For years, KPU has been the target of criticism for its lack of diversity in speaker choices. Year after year, KPU has brought in generally white, wealthy and male speakers to speak about similar topics.”

news@theeagleonline.com

Correction: A previous version of this article indicated that Monica Patel gave a response to specific criticism, while she was not directly asked to respond to it. The article has been changed to reflect this. 


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