After many years, the St. Lawrence University Republican club will come together with the Democrat club for a political discussion this week.
“The purpose of this event is to foster a bipartisan discussion and to have an environment where no one is being silenced so we can have open discussions,” said co-president of the Republican club, Placido Ramallo. From the start, the Republican club wanted to ensure that this event was not a debate but a round table discussion about relevant topics. Both clubs wanted to show the community of St. Lawrence that these two clubs can come together respectfully and have a discussion.
“This is a really great bipartisan opportunity for both clubs and St. Lawrence as a community,” said Jessi Tracy, president of the St. Lawrence Democrat club. Tracy emphasized her appreciation for this event and what this means for both clubs. Tracy stated that she is glad that both clubs are able to come together to have a civil discussion.
Both students and professors have expressed their opinions about the event. “I think this is a wonderful event where people can exchange their views, that’s what is suppose to happen on college campuses,” said Government Professor Alan Draper. With the magnitude of diversity at St. Lawrence, it is important for students to be civil to each other even if they have different views.
One of the biggest reasons for organizing this event was to show St. Lawrence that these two clubs are not as partisan as the parties in D.C. “One of the things that is so important today is tolerance,” said Professor Draper. “Today in Washington D.C, the sense between the parties is that they do not consider each other the loyal opposition but the enemy. This event helps create healthy opposition in which people realize that they share a common interest but disagree and that’s legitimate.” One of the goals for this event is to prove that two groups with opposite views can sit down and talk respectfully to each other, even though the media portrays the two parties as rivals.
Even though both parties have reached an agreement for participating, there were many complications in organizing this event. According to Ramallo, it was a long process to finally get the executive board of the Democrat club to agree on this event. “They thought we were going to come out guns blazing,” said Ramallo.
This is the first time in a year that the Republican club was able to discuss their idea for the event with the Democrat club. When the two clubs met to plan the event, the Republican club wanted to make it clear that they are not looking to have a unfriendly environment. They wanted to make sure that the event remains civil and will kick anyone out who is disrespectful.
Tracy stated that the reason why this event took so long to put together was that the Democrat club was busy with the upcoming election. However, both clubs stated that timing was not the only issue with coordinating this event. Both clubs were wary that this event could lead to heated debates instead of a respectful discussions. In order to ensure that this event remains civil, the Republican Club announced to their members that “ it better not be them who are getting out of hand,” said Ramallo.
“They may have felt afraid that an event like this would turn into partisan mudslinging kind of in the sense that we have seen in Washington D.C,” said Ramallo. The Democrat club was hesitant of the event because they believed that the Republican club would become hostile. “We are aware of the potential for the Republican club to be on the complete other side of the spectrum”, said Tracy.
According to Jake Devito, co-president of St. Lawrence Republicans, the ultimate goal of this event is to prove that both parties can come together civilly in order to plan a formal debate in the future. “A debate is something we have looked at since day one, but it seemed like the prospect of a debate at first really turned off the Democrat club,” said Ramallo. The Republican Club is aware that in order for the Democrat Club to agree on a later debate, this event needs to run smoothly. Tracy stated that she supports the idea of a debate in the future as long as both parties can find the time and enough participation from their members.
The topics of discussion for this event will be money in politics, supreme court nominations and immigration. The public is encouraged to attend the event in order to ensure that all student voices are heard. The event will take start at 5 p.m. in Pub 56 at Saint Lawrence University on Sunday.