[media-credit name=’Ben Smidt’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]Students in Ingraham Hall Tuesday night were taught a lesson in “cognitive dissonance.” They were not taught from a psychology professor teaching a late-night class, but from Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton.

Lawton, speaking at a meeting of the College Democrats, argued there is a large gap between the rhetoric and reality of the Bush administration.

“Bush talks about how important Pell Grants are to the future of our country,” Lawton told the students. “This is the guy who has under-funded Pell Grants all four years and has never shown a commitment to bringing more young people access to higher education. But today in reelection he’s talking about a commitment to it.”

Lawton urged students to consider the ramifications of Bush’s tax cuts, saying the president’s claims of economic growth are obscuring the largest deficit in history.

“The Republican mantra is … smaller government and less regulation,” Lawton asserted. “The smaller government [argument] is a joke. Under President Bush we have the largest federal government ever in the history our nation, and we are spending like drunken cowboys from Texas.”

The lieutenant governor said the dissonance exists in the area of school choice as well. Bush’s support for vouchers and school accountability, she said, hides a link between taxpayer money and religious choice schools.

Republicans have pushed for privatization of industries best suited to be run by the government, Lawton said. She cited the privatized Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, where Lawton blamed a shareholder profit-driven mentality for a sewage overflow into Milwaukee lakes and streams. The pollution dump netted a lawsuit from Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager last week.

Although a supporter of former Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark during the Democratic primaries, Lawton expressed confidence in nominee John Kerry.

“I think of what it would be like with John Kerry at the helm where we could have real national security,” Lawton said, accusing Bush of lacking a plan to win the war on terror.

Students for Bush co-chair Frank Hennick claims it is Kerry, however, not Bush, who has a credibility gap between his oratory and his actions.

“George Bush is a very principled and committed man — he is a man of convictions and he sticks to his guns,” Hennick said. “John Kerry can’t make up his mind on a number of things, such as the weighty issue of national security.”

Lawton pled for the gathering of young Democrats to increase student voter turnout, saying they can make the difference in the “most important election in a lifetime.”

With such a close election anticipated in Wisconsin, surrogates like Lawton have made repeated appearances throughout the state recently supporting the Bush and Kerry campaigns.

UW sophomore Joe Dwyer, one of the students in attendance, was glad that Lawton brought her message to campus.

“[Surrogates] show leadership and they get a lot of people involved and wanting to help out,” Dwyer said. “It really brings a face to the issues we’re talking about. This reinforced my conviction to vote for Kerry.”