On Monday 7 November, MGCI’s World Politics Club hosted a school-wide debate in Room 339 at lunch. The topic of focus was the American Presidential Election. Specifically, students discussed the Republican and Democratic nominees, Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton respectively, and which of the two was the most qualified to be president. With a significant turnout of forty students, the debate allowed twelve individuals to participate, six on either team.
Twelve students argued over the best U.S. President at World Politics Club’s school-wide debate on 7 November 2016. Photo: David Chen-Li
The classroom was set up in rows of desks for the spectators, and six seats were put up on either side of the mediator at the front, for the debaters. No debate questions were posed by the mediator; each side simply defended the candidate they were supporting and attacked the opposing side. The teams alternated, each side speaking for one minute at a time. The debate started out fairly civilized, but became heated near the end, with both sides going over the time limits and attacking the other team’s statements.
One of the main arguments from the Trump defenders was the fact that Hillary has been a senator for thirty years but hasn’t taken action on anything she says she intends to do. They also attacked her promises of increasing taxes on the upper class, saying that Trump is a businessman and understands that decreasing taxes will promote investment, and therefore stimulate the economy.
Hillary’s defenders argued that Trump makes decisions based on impulses, and refuses to admit his mistakes. One Hillary supporter even stated, “Is there one position that he hasn’t changed his position on?” Furthermore, Trump denies climate change and says it is a hoax, and those who support Hillary think that if he becomes the next president, all the work the United States have done to put the Paris Treaty in place will be reversed.
Some other topics of interest to the debaters were the source of funding for the candidates and their plans to take on ISIS.
All the members of the World Politics Club were extremely knowledgeable and had well formulated thoughts and opinions. They were aware of world politics and issues, and the debate was very enlightening. When asked why he enjoyed coming to Politics Club, Adil Haider said, “I get to argue over something that matters to me. I can hone my skills and liaise with like-minded people.”
