If there is one word to describe the debate between the Wakefield Republicans Club and Young Democrats Club it would be: intense. It was a battle between the donkey and the elephant. #warriornation. Senior Nick Cadby-Spicer stole the debate with his appeals to humanity and connection to his audience. There was no clear winner, but a venue for teens to voice their opinions was created at Wakefield.

The debate started off with an hot topic, immigration. This has been at the center of the mainstream debate of the political spectrum for a while now. Wakefield Republican Club (WRC) member Andriy said, “they steal jobs from U.S citizens, they cost taxpayers billions of dollars, they’re more likely to commit crime.” Young Democrats Club (YDC) member Nick Cadby-Spicer responded with, “the problem with our immigration system is that there is no clear path to citizenship. Immigrants work hard, pay federal income tax, work for lower wages. They’re American in every way except papers.” Both sides agreed on one thing; immigrants are getting exploited by their employers who pay them lower wages.

The next hot topic was gun control in America. Arti Shala, of the WRC, cited the second amendment stating that, “it’s a constitutional right to bear arms.” YDC believed gun control must be very strict, even some weapons banned from use. This topic was heavily argued and both clubs agreed that stricter background checks for mental stability were needed.

The WRC believed American companies who moved their factories to get cheaper labor and more profit should be tariffed for importing their goods to America; the government should move back to manufacturing jobs. YDC member Matthew Parker said, “our country is always progressing and changing.” He believed the country has passed the manufacturing phase.

Increasing taxes was the next idea up for debate. WRC believe it won’t benefit the middle class.  YDC believed on the other hand that they should tax the wealthy 1% of the people of the US to help the middle class in the sense that they would pay less. Wakefield Republicans believed more jobs will benefit the middle class while Young Democrats believed less taxes will benefit the middle class. The topic of taxes came to no resolution between the two parties.

The second to final topic was foreign aid; the Republicans started talks with a plea to worry about our country first instead of other foreign relationships because of the huge national debt. The Democratic representatives believe we should keep some kind of focus on foreign relations with our allies so that we don’t isolate ourselves from the world.

One of the world’s largest threats came up, ISIS. Wakefield Democrats were against taking troops to Syria and foreign relations with Russia. YDC member John Petrich came out strong and said, “Troops to Syria will be ineffective, will cost a lot of money and lives. We’ve learned our lesson in Vietnam and Korea, we should stay out.”  Wakefield Republicans believed that they should send troops to Syria to defeat ISIS and have strong diplomatic relationships with Russia.

It was an very heavy and heated debate that showcased some of Wakefield’s finest in the role of political candidates.

We hope this debate helped to inform some of #warriornation on what Republicans and Democrats generally hold as truth.

Pay attention to the only poll that matters, Election Day is TOMORROW.