"I've got two pieces of bad news," said fourth-year College student Vinay Jain at the start of last night's debate between members of the University Democrats and College Republicans. "The first is that young adults are largely overlooked by both political parties ... The second is that it is largely our fault due to our lack of action."
But for nearly two hours, students tried to disprove the second part of that statement.
University Democrats Adam Green and Jon Lange and College Republicans Tim Johnson and Monique Miles deliberated the candidates and issues of the upcoming presidential election.
The debate began with Jain, the moderator, posing questions to both the Democrats and Republicans. The representatives debated the environment in a heated manner.
Johnson, a second-year College student, stated that the environment in Texas suffered from democratic governors prior to Bush.
"Bush has made drastic improvements in the environment of Texas," Johnson said, when questioned about Bush's leadership in a state with the worst environmental record in the country.
"Children all across Texas are crying because their goldfish are dying," Green said. "George W. Bush is the mascot of all oil companies."
During the second half of the debate audience members questioned representatives, testing their knowledge, passion and wit.
"When confronted with the facts, Democrats throw out gross generalizations. Do the University Democrats see this as part of a growing trend of not answering questions in politics?" asked second-year College student Dan Burrows.
Green, a second-year Law student, answered, "That's why we support Medicare reform," a response that drew laughter from the crowd.
First-year College student Kate Bedingfield questioned the College Republicans on the party's pro-life policy and support of capital punishment. "Why the importance of life inside the womb but not out of it?" Bedingfield asked.
"There is a difference between the life of an innocent child and between that of someone who has committed a heinous crime," Johnson said. "Abortion and murderers steal innocent years. We're against both."
Supporters of both candidates said the debate reinforced the views they already had.
"I am even more of a Republican now than I was coming into the debate," third-year College student Adrienne Lemasters said. "The Democrats did a poor job of answering questions with regards to the facts. They answered with attacks on Bush and not facts about Gore"
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