Cal State Long Beach Republican and Democrat clubs debated in front of a half-full lecture hall Wednesday night, sparring on topics that ranged from Proposition 30 to the role of the U.S. military.
The night, hosted by the Political Science Students Association, started with Prop. 30, which the Democrats were in favor of and the Republicans were split on.
Shawn Graves, vice president of the Long Beach State College Republicans, parted with his Republican contemporaries and said that Prop. 30 is necessary to fund police pensions and firefighters.
“We need that money for more than just ourselves,” he said.
Democrats and Republicans also agreed on Prop. 32, saying that deducting pay from employees without their consent is wrong.
However, the concurrence ended there.
Spending on social programs was hotly debated, with points and counterpoints regularly met by applause from the attentive audience.
Democrats argued that all Americans are entitled to a bare minimum of social services, and that with the economy in such poor condition, cutting welfare spending would be detrimental to the economy’s slow recovery.
Republicans said social welfare programs are taken advantage of and that people use them as a source of permanent income.
“We believe in an emergency net, not a living net,” Andrew Spencer, media relations manager for the Long Beach State College Republicans and a debater for the Republican council, said
Audience members were not afraid to speak out, either.
While denouncing President Obama, Graves said, “I don’t want a lawyer as president.”
In response, Alex Aguayo, a junior film major, yelled from the back row that Mitt Romney has a law degree from Harvard and should therefore be just as undesirable as Obama.
“If he [Graves] is going to lie, he needs to be called out on it,” Aguayo said.
Discussion of the military’s role was spilt as well. The Republicans said that any cut in military spending would portray the U.S. as weak and leave the country vulnerable to attack.
College Democrats of CSULB disagreed, citing Obama’s use of Special Forces and cyber attacks as effective, smart and better adapted for modern conflicts. They also said the U.S. military is far more advanced than any other nation and that further militarization is unnecessary.
“We have the best military development in the world, we have F-22’s that we haven’t used yet, and we have a rail gun,” Marc Ouimet, a member of College Democrats of CSULB, said. “No one else has a rail gun.”
The debate ended with student questions and closing statements from both sides.
Opinions about the debate varied as much as the opinions in the debate.
“Democrats rule,” Wesley Young, an aerospace engineering major, said. “They were more prepared and overall more knowledgeable than the Republicans.”
Ed Kaskla, faculty adviser for the PSSA and political science lecturer, said the debate was a “train wreck.”
“I’m disappointed that the two major parties can’t find representatives to articulate positions that don’t replicate what the major candidates say,” Kaskla said. “I was hoping for a little bit more.”
Howard Oh, president of PSSA, said he thought the debate went well.
“I think it went really great,” Oh said. “Everyone knew their stuff, and there were good perspectives. I think this is a great way to see all the different viewpoints that we have on campus.”