By Christian Magdaleno. Nov. 5, 2024
The Cal Poly Pomona History Club hosted a debate between the Student Initiative for Justice and the CPP College Republicans club at Building 163 during U-Hour Oct. 22 to promote civil discourse on campus despite frequent opposite political views.
Students at the debate, named “Voices of the future: Engagement in politics,” discussed topics such as the economy, immigration, abortion and reproductive rights.
“It is always nice to have these conversations when there is no animosity and to find that we can come to a common conclusion as well,” said Jenaveve Gregory, the co-founder and co-vice president of SIJ and a member of the History Club.
The student debaters were given five minutes to respond to questions tailored to their club’s political party, and two minutes for a rebuttal to the other’s answer.
The hour-long event was moderated by Liza Taylor, an assistant professor in the political science department and the co-faculty advisor for SIJ.
Richard Gonzalez Jr., the president of the History Club and a history student, kicked off the debate by talking about presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris’ economic policies.
Some of Harris’ policies to tackle inflation are tax credits for parents of newborns, mortgage assistance for first-time homebuyers and banning price gouging at grocery stores, according to an article by the BBC.
“A lot of people will bring up Harris’ policies on home payments and inflation, but if you look at how she is as a vice president right now, she hasn’t done any of that,” said CPP College Republicans president Aadi Mehta in his rebuttal to Gonzalez Jr.
“You have to look at the facts, and President Trump has a record of economic success and Kamala Harris does not,” said Mehta in his response on the economy.
Gregory and Mehta discussed abortion and reproductive rights in the second round of this debate.
Representing the Republican side, Mehta said he believes Trump is not at fault for the controversial overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, which guaranteed the constitutional right to abortion.
Mehta argued any Republican president would have appointed three conservative justices, and if a Democrat was president, they would have appointed liberal justices.
“Trump put in three extremely conservative justices, there is nothing exceptional about that,” countered Gregory, representing SIJ. “These weren’t just any conservatives, these were people who had a very clear vision on this long-standing precedent taken away from the American people.”
Gregory continued her argument by questioning the interpretation of states’ rights and talked about different ways this will affect women across the country.
“When you look at the majority of Americans, the vast majority want abortion freedoms, but that is not being listened to,” Gregory said. “For some reason, we are still seeing immense restrictions take place.”
She also said there are no laws restricting men’s rights in the United States over their bodies while states are restricting women’s autonomy.
In the final round of the debate, Mehta and Giancarlo Abejero, the co-vice president and co-founder of SIJ, discussed immigration.
Abejero detailed his experiences as a legal immigrant and called out Trump’s remarks surrounding immigrants.
“Trump’s rhetoric has caused a lot of inflammatory reactions,” Abejero said. “His comments on Haitian migrants have caused a lot of backlash, and as they should.”
This was in reference to the 2024 presidential debate in which Trump said: “In Springfield, they are eating the dogs. The people that came in, they are eating the cats.”
Mehta expressed his support for Trump’s immigration policies and stated he trusts him more than Harris to secure the border.
“President Trump delivered on his campaign promises for deportations, and he will do so again,” said Mehta.
After the debate, Mehta said he wanted to share his club’s perspective since he feels there is a lack of representation for views like his on campus and was happy this debate gave him a fair and civil platform.
“A lot of people see us as Make America Great Again or ruled by Trump, when in fact that’s not the case.” said Mehta. “He may be the leader of the Republican Party, but he is not representative of all the members of the party.”
Mehta believes the purpose of the political clubs on campus is to engage students in the political process to better understand each other.
“We don’t just exist to rally our own people, we have to reach across the aisle,” said Mehta.
Both clubs stated they are open to more debates with each other and hope this can extend past the election.
Taylor said the students hoped to create a space where they could promote civil discourse between people who have differing political beliefs.
“They invited me to be a moderator, and I agreed because I think this is a really important activity for the students to be engaged in,” said Taylor.
“We need to encourage being civil and cordial, but also debating topics and issues we feel very strongly about.”
Images courtesy of Anthony Caballero
