Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
PARSONS
Chairman Secretary Chief Whip Chancellor
1 February 2018
The purpose of the Whip Sheet is to stimulate interest in the upcoming Debate Caucus. To that
end, it sets out arguments on both sides of a resolution on which conservatives are likely to disagree
among themselves. In doing so, it often employs hyperbolic language parodying both sides, along with
allusions to current events and canonical works of literature.1
The Whip Sheet is not a brief—it does not present an argument in support of a single
conclusion—and it certainly does not announce the views of the Society.
Indeed, the Society, as such, has no view on any topic. The organization adopts a point of view
in exactly one way. At the end of each Debate Caucus, all arguments having been aired, those who are
present vote either to adopt or to reject the resolution. At that point, of course, the arguments advanced
in the Whip Sheet have been superseded by those made on the floor. The Society chooses a particular
resolution precisely because the Chairman believes the issue is likely to be one on which Members will
likely have disagreements worthy of a Debate.
The Society does its debating on the floor. Other than these reminders, therefore, the Society
has no further comment on this week’s Whip Sheet. In that spirit, the Chairman again invites Members
and Friends to consider:
1
Such as Emma Lazarus’s sonnet “The New Colossus,” which is inscribed at the base of the Statue of Liberty
and contains the celebrated lines: