U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., surveyed the crowd of more than 60 people in Case Hall on Thursday with a look of concern. Foreign policy missteps and breaches of constitutionally protected rights, he said, have left America in dismal standing.
"If you feel strongly about it, there's something you can do," Levin said of voting in the midterm elections. "Throw (President Bush's) support out of office."
He spoke for about 30 minutes before taking questions from the crowd of mostly members of MSU College Democrats.
Levin said this month — with 96 American troops killed in the war in Iraq thus far — is evidence of a war waged "casually, arrogantly and ignorantly."
"It is essential to adopt a plan to inform the Iraqis that we are going to withdraw by the end of the year," he said. "There is a deep, deep concern of what's draining us of lives and resources."
When it comes to domestic issues, efforts should go toward positive legislation such as health care, Levin said. But issues supported by the Republican-led Congress also cannot be ignored, he said.
Torturing prisoners is not an option if America preaches about its Constitution and the Geneva Convention, Levin said.
There's no easy way to address the issue of immigration, but simply throwing out millions of immigrants is not a sound plan, he added. Employers should be sanctioned and borders should be enforced, but the U.S. agricultural industry depends on immigrants picking crops, Levin said.
"You talk to any farmer or agriculture person, most of their labor comes from Mexico," he said.
Jeff Wiggins, chairman of the MSU College Republicans, said Levin's appearance on campus doesn't change his group's campaign efforts.
"It's election season. They're going to have a lot of big news speakers," he said.
No-preference sophomore Rochelle Briggeman said she went to hear Levin speak about the issues although she is not strongly affiliated with the campus Democratic group.
"When he was saying we need to get out of Iraq and we need to take responsibility, it just makes you think what we've been doing and where we're going," she said.
Levin also made an appearance earlier in the afternoon at MSU's National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory. MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon and U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, also attended the event.
MSU's laboratory, the nation's largest nuclear science facility on a university campus, recently received a five-year grant from the National Science Foundation, renewing more than $100 million worth of funding.
