Students Seek Bipartisan Politics in New Club
by: Neil Smith ‘12New student group looks to foster pragmatic, moderate approaches to political issues
Hampden Sydney College has recently recognized a new group that aims to look at political issues through a pragmatic and moderate lens. What is the group? It is a nonpartisan organization known as the Student Advocates for Hopeful Politics. The ambitious Brent Hyler, the chief of staff of this new politically innovative group, claims that the members have plans “to gain knowledge through the club about how our government can work affectively through bipartisanship.” Dr. Carroll is the academic advisor for this club. The aim of the club, as described by Alex Cartwright, is the “fostering of bipartisan collaborative discussions and the crafting of pragmatic legislation,” and this will optimistically allow students to “collectively work together with opposite political ideologies.” In their view, this idea would defeat the divisive politics that plague our world today. According to the club’s constitution, the members of the organization are “dedicated to encouraging youth involvement and advocacy in current political affairs.” The club plans to show how politics is a worthwhile subject to follow and that students can work together and create positive results in today’s world. The members seek to encourage students to get involved, by finding common goals and working together to figure out the pragmatic path to solving today’s problems.
Freshman Braxton Marcela hopes the new group will foster a dialogue between different political views.
Current problems will be open to discussion periodically by the group. As of right now, the current topic that has been attracting the attention of the group members’ hearts and minds has been immigration reform. According to the group, the issue has a lot of middle ground and many bipartisan goals can be accomplished by working through the moral difficulties that arise from such a heart-felt topic. For example, the group plans to look at questions like “Should we grant illegal immigrants amnesty?” and “Should we build a large concrete wall to fence along the border of the United States?” Some of the leadership has argued the position that we can’t close off our border because it is un-American, that it contradicts an interpretation of fundamental American beliefs. Other members in the group claim that crossing the border and receiving amnesty is insulting to immigrants who come legally. Even though the members have starkly different views on the matter, they want to work with each other and hopefully other students through the issue to find a pragmatic and moderate solution to the problem of illegal immigration. Not only will the group discuss other topics, but throughout the course of the semester, the group also plans to have speakers come in to discuss provocative topics, in hopes of promoting free political thought on H-SC’s campus.
One of the definitive attributes of the group is the great difference in political opinions among the leadership and members. The group intentionally has bipartisan leadership, in order to ensure that each side of the issue is stated boldly, succinctly, and receives proper attention. According to one of the leading members of the group, Braxton Marcela, “The bipartisan leadership prevents the leadership from moving the initiative of the club to one side or the other of the political spectrum.”
Alexander Cartwright says that it is simply to reflect the ideology of the club.
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