College Democrats and Republicans face off formally
Leaders of the Utah State University College Democrats and College Republicans squared off in a formal debate Monday to defend each party’s stance on current topics.
The debate, moderated by Associated Students of USU President Duke Di Stefano, was held on the Taggart Student Center Patio and attended by about 50 students. USU College Democrat President Medlir Mema and state chairman Matt Everett advocated the Democrat view of the economy and education, while state chairman of the College Republicans Tom Robins defended the war on terror and a fetus’ right to life.
Robins said it was ironic the Democrats “claim to be the champions of human rights,” yet they are pro-abortion.
“[Republicans] believe in the death penalty, that that should be an option,” Robins said. “We believe that unborn babies shouldn’t be killed but international terrorists should. I don’t know, it’s an interesting idea.”
Everett said he was a Utah Democrat, a Mormon, and for abortion rights.
“I don’t believe that anyone has the right to tell my fiancee if she gets pregnant through rape or if there’s incest or there’s something wrong or if she just plain does not want the child, there is nobody that can tell her she cannot have an abortion,” Everett said.
This comment was greeted by both cheers and jeers. Mema elaborated on the issue later in the debate and said he was also Mormon.
“That is actually part of the whole church thinking, that on the occasion of rape and molestation [abortion is accepted],” Mema said. “If that is the case, then maybe you should kind of keep your mouth shut.”
According to www.mormon.org, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ official stance on abortion is: “The Church opposes abortion and counsels its members not to submit to or perform an abortion except in the rare cases where, in the opinion of competent medical counsel, the life or good health of the mother is seriously endangered or where the pregnancy was caused by rape and produces serious emotional trauma in the mother.”
When Everett was asked by a student how he justified his belief in abortion, he said, “It’s a matter of choice, if it affects you, then it’s your choice as to how you’re going to deal with it. When you make a choice that affects another person, then that choice still is from you.”
On the topic of war, Robins said war is sometimes necessary to protect human rights.
Mema said Richard Clark, George Tenet and others warned Bush of the bin Laden threat.
“What did [Bush] do? Nothing. That’s absolutely right. He did actually bring 3,000 Americans to their deaths on Sept. 11 because of his inactivity,” Mema said to loud boos from many in attendance.
Robins said that if Bush had tried to go after bin Laden before Sept. 11, Democrats would “be saying, ‘we don’t know who Osama bin Laden is, Afghanistan’s way up on a map that we can’t even find.’ They would have rallied against him.”
Mema said, “Maybe we would have done an anti-war rally because we did not know what bin Laden was up to, but Bush knew before Sept. 11 what bin Laden was up to.”
Mema brought up the issue of education and said he was once asked why Utah was last in education.
“I wonder why,” Mema said. “I mean, how long have the Democrats been in power in Utah?”
Mema said in the last two years since the No Child Left Behind Act was passed, it has been underfunded for years, last year by $9 billion. He said Bush’s solution is to cut special needs and minority education.
Kerry’s plan, Mema said, is to give the state governments more flexibility and have mandatory funding for schools.
“I don’t know what we can expect from this administration when the Secretary of Education Tom Page called the National Association of Teachers a terrorist organization,” Mema said. “He called our teachers, our faculty members, all those people who get paid $20,000 a year, terrorists in the likes of Osama bin Laden.”
Mema said there should not be one-size-fits-all testing and class sizes should be reduced.
Robins said education is a complex issue with more than one solution and pointed out that Democrats are pro-choice when it comes to abortion, but not when it comes to the Republican-backed school voucher plan.
In defense of vouchers, Robins said “at least Republicans are willing to try a solution.” He said Hispanics have been victims of bad education and want vouchers.
Mema said he advocated John Kerry’s economic policy and job training.
“According to John Kerry’s plan, 98 percent of Americans will get a tax cut, 99 percent of the businesses get a tax cut, and you can check that. Check it.
“We will also get the economy going, we will not give tax incentives for corporations to go overseas to outsource our jobs,” Mema said to cheers from many students.
-heidithue@cc.usu.edu
College Democrats and Republicans debate current issues on the TSC Patio Monday afternoon. From left to right, Tom Robins, moderator Duke Di Stefano, Medlir Mema and Matt Everett. (Photo by John Zsiray)