The Political Science Club held a debate called “Yes We Can All Get Along!” on Wednesday, in an effort to prove that different political parties can come to an agreement with each other, in contrast with what happens on social media.

This is the second time the event was held, the first was held last semester. The panelists speaking were Maxwell Mozes, from the Oswego State International Socialist Organization club, Tyler Toomey from Oswego State Young Americans for Freedom club, Wyatt Fulton from College Republicans club and Alexander Ehrenberg from College Democrats club. Ericka Solomon, the president of the political science club helped organize this semester and last semesters event. She said that the debate last semester was “constructive,” making it an easy decision to continue it this year.

“They were all very kind to each other, while still being able to show different sides of issues,” Solomon said. 

The debate covered issues like climate change, gun control, poverty and much more in-between. The topics were broken down into questions and each panelist was given a few minutes to respond and then speak with each other. The first question started the debate off in a light-hearted manner asking the panelists, “What is the best place to eat off-campus?” 

The debate then went into the more serious questions for the panelists. Throughout most of the issues brought up, the panelists seemed to agree with each other, and if they did not agree, it was respectful. 

A question about the impeachment hearings sparked more debate with the panelists, than other questions. The YAF and the College Republicans leaned toward one side while the College Democrats and the ISO leaned toward the other side.

“No matter how you feel about the political arrangement, the inquiries into the impeachment proceedings of Donald Trump will affect you one way or another. I tend to lean on a side that they are grabbing for straws,” Fulton said. “They haven’t come up with anything, besides bribery, that actually carries weight … They are honestly just throwing darts at a board and seeing what sticks.”

Fulton, vice president of the College Republicans, and Toomey, president of YAF, both agreed that they do not think the president committed any crime, or any impeachable offense. They also agreed that this was not a smart move for Democrats, with the 2020 election coming up.

“I see this as only boosting the president’s re-election efforts,” Toomey said. “If you don’t like the president, vote for somebody else, volunteer for somebody else, donate to somebody else. I see this as a way for Democrats to get the president out of office because they know they can’t beat him in an election.”

Although Mozes, vice president of ISO, and Ehrenberg, president of the College Democrats, both disagree with Toomey’s and Fulton’s positions on the matter, they did find common ground in the publicity around the impeachment.

“I do, unfortunately, agree that it probably does bode well for his fan base,” Mozes said. “But I think that Trump believes in unitary executive power. Meaning that the president, by definition, is inculpable from wrongdoing. Which is something that is absolutely ludicrous to me, I don’t understand how you cannot hold a man accountable for doing illegal things.”

Opposing from the other panelists Mozes and Ehrenberg thought that Trump had committed a crime, and it was in plain sight.

“If you’re giving aid to a country and you say, ‘Okay, we’ll give you this aid, but you have to do us a favor first. You have to investigate my political opponent’s son for his involvement in an oil company,’ that is a crime within itself,” Ehrenberg said. “And it needs to be investigated. Since he is the president of the United States, it’s an impeachable offense.”

The impeachment and this presidency is one issue that is seen as a partisan issue in the United States. This debate showed the audience and the panelists that they are able to talk to each other in a calm and professional way, without offending one another. 

After many productive debates, the floor opened to questions from the audience. Most of the students that came to listen to this debate came with questions ready about an issue they care about. One student, Lauren Fitzgerald came to see what the panelists thought about climate change, and was satisfied with how the debate turned out.

“I obviously did not agree with every single thing that was said,” Fitzgerald said. “But I thought it was nice to be surprised to hear certain people that I don’t necessarily agree with say something that I actually do agree with.” 

One student asked the question, “What impact do you think Trump appointing two conservative judges is going to have on Roe v. Wade in the future and if so how is that going to change abortion rights across the country?” 

This immediately caught the concern of Solomon, who asked the panelists to keep their answers short, recognizing that the whole panel was straight, white males.

“We don’t love to hear an entirely male panel talking about abortion,” Solomon said. “[It] just so happened to work out that it was all white straight males, which is unfortunate. But I hope that in future years we will see people of color, people of the LGBTQ community, women, in these leadership roles so that those are the people that are speaking on this panel.”

Photo by Rachel McKenna | The Oswegonian