Although the 2016 presidential debates are now over, Shippensburg University student Republicans and Democrats met to debate the issues a week prior to Election Day.

The Slate has hosted political debates consistently each election year since 2004, and off and on for many years before. This year’s debate began at 7:30 p.m. and was held in the Ceddia Union Building multipurpose room.

SU political science professor Steven Lichtman moderated the debate, giving each party three minutes to give a statement on the topic at hand. The three-student teams had one minute to give rebuttals. Four questions were given to the parties ahead of time to review, while Lichtman offered two surprise questions.

Issues discussed ranged from national healthcare to gun control. On the issue of the right to bear arms, the Republicans argued that in 2010 the Supreme Court ruled in favor of allowing Americans to carry guns on their person and keep them in their homes for protection.

The Democrats rebutted this argument, describing gun violence as “one of the most pressing matters we face today.” They support the Second Amendment, just not the right for the average American to be carrying major assault weapons. They also said they believe better background checks on individuals wishing to purchase a gun are crucial in decreasing gun violence in America.

After hearing gun violence described as the worst it has been in modern history, student Republicans said gun violence has actually decreased in the last 20 years. Expanding background checks to scope out criminals would have a very minimal effect, they said.

“I feel that the Democrats are pushing legislation for problems that don’t actually exist,” SU Republican Evan Shircliffe said.

When the topic of immigration was raised, the Democrats supported the national Democratic platform and said they recognize the problems with the current system, but they wish to build upon its foundation to make the immigration process easier. Both parties agreed that legal immigrants enrich the country’s economy and culture. However, illegal immigrants have the opposite effect, according to Republicans.

“Illegal immigrants endanger United States citizens and weaken the economy,” Shircliffe said. “Our highest priority is to protect our borders.”

According to SU’s Democratic panel, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has released data showing that illegal immigrants pay taxes just like every other American citizen, taking approximately $10 million from the government but giving back $12 million.

For the next two questions, addressing the issues of minimum wage and capital punishment, both groups remained true to their party’s national platforms as they had for almost the entire debate.

Lichtman turned to the audience for its opinion on the current presidential nomination system and questioned if it should be amended to give American citizens more or less say in the process.

Lichtman cited the actions of the Republican Party during this election cycle as a way that politicians can try to influence who will be receiving their party’s nomination.

While some audience members argued in favor of giving the American people more representation, others believed Americans are not educated enough to make these decisions completely on their own.

“As much as we put into our schools for [quality] education, people don’t really care as much about the big political issues,” SU student Shefali Parmar said. “I don’t think voters know as much about current issues [as they should].”

At its conclusion, SU students on opposite sides of the political spectrum agreed that the debate was educational about current American issues.

Senior Lauren Miller said she enjoyed the debate, but believed the student Republicans arrived better prepared with research and prior knowledge about the beliefs they were defending.

“I thought the debate was really well presented, really well performed and thought they did a good job keeping cool,” sophomore Keri Barth said.

Share