Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians face off on issues
Democratic, Libertarian and Republican student groups gathered together Tuesday night for the first Carolina Clash, a political debate between the three viewpoints.
The debate covered an array of issues including foreign policy, the economy, student loans, gun control, gay marriage, abortion, health care and privacy rights.
Each group was represented by two debaters. The debate was moderated by two students from the Carolina Debate Union.
One of the most hotly contested issues was the Affordable Care Act. The College Republicans’ Anna Chapman took the stance that there was nothing wrong with health care before the law’s passage.
“The reason there is a mandate is because people don’t want it,” said Chapman, a second-year political science student. “Health insurance is not a guaranteed right.”
However, both the Libertarians and Democrats argued that the American health care system did have problems. Ross Abbott, president of the College Libertarians, said a better alternative to improve health care would be to turn it over to the open market.
“Why we decided to take an industry that was overly bureaucratic and was too expensive and gave it to the only thing we could think of that was more bureaucratic and more expensive, in the U.S. government, I don’t know,” said Abbott, a second-year business economics student.
Democrat Nick Sottile said that health care is a human right. The College Democrats argued that millions are uninsured or underinsured and that health care needs regulation.
“We had a broken system, and it would have been irresponsible not to fix it,” said Sottile, a second-year political science student.
Abortion was also a divisive issue among the three groups. The College Republicans argued that tax dollars should not go to fund the procedure, while Democrats said women should have the right to choose whether or not they should be able to have an abortion. The Libertarians said that the government should not be involved in any of these affairs.
On the issue of gay marriage, the College Republicans deviated from the party’s platform and said that same-sex couples should be able to enter into civil unions.
“This isn’t the typical view; it’s the College Republicans’ view. I think in the new generation of Republicans, there aren’t as many that are against gay marriage,” Chapman said. “We think that civil unions should provide equal benefits that marriage provides.”
The Democrats supported same-sex marriage on a federal level, while the Libertarians reiterated that the government should not be involved.