On Monday February 24th, the Young Democrats, Republicans, and Libertarian Clubs squared off against one another in a tri-club debate. Each political party’s platform was represented by one junior each; Cameron Davis for the Republican, Connor Kianpour for the Libertarian and Sean Gordon for the Democrat. The layout of the event was informal with a large student audience submitting questions for the debaters. Junior Harris Lateef was the moderator and was in charge of asking the questions and timing the participants.
The questions ranged from the party’s view on physician assisted suicide to Health Care to cloning of human beings. The hotly contested questions that served numerous rounds of rebuttals were affirmative action and the legalization of prostitution.
Kianpour especially enjoyed answering the Affirmative Action question, “because people would think I am in favor of it considering I am a minority and homosexual interests are protected under that legislation, but I understand just how immoral the concept of it is,” said Kianpour.
Overall, the debates enjoyed the opportunity to express their and their party’s opinions.
“I think overall the debate went really well because we were able to address many questions relating to all forms of public policy and all sides were able to articulate their platforms with ease,” said Gordon.
Davis added, “I think the debate definitely went well for me, but I was also quite proud of my colleagues and their speeches and portrayals of their own beliefs. I didn’t have a favorite question, but was wowed by the intellectual nature of all of them; they all were hard-hitting and didn’t miss any major points.”
The debate was attended by a fair amount of students who clapped, cheered, and laughed along with the debaters.
“I really enjoyed the debate! It was nice to listen to all the different opinions that kids of our school have on social and economic issues,” said Leila Ghaemi.