On a Wednesday evening, about 30 students gathered in the student union building on the University of Wyoming campus to hold a panel and discussion group. It was hosted by BridgeUSA’s Wyoming Chapter, a university group looking to bring students together for civil discourse.
The panel was made up of four representatives from political organizations on campus. They included College Democrats, the collegiate extension of D.N.C, represented by Sam Riley; Young Americans for Liberty, a Libertarian-leaning group, voiced their beliefs through Joseph W. Rzeszurt; Gabe Saint spoke for Turning Point USA, a right-wing college organization that aligns with Trump conservatism; Hayden Mackensie with BridgeWYO, was the final member selected to speak, approaching with a center-of-the-aisle mentality.
After the panel, students and panelists separated into groups to talk about specific topics in a little more detail. (Due to the organization of the groups, WPM was unable to get the names of everyone who spoke.)
Thoughts on the election campaign and outcome
“After her [Kamala Harris] initial start, they [Democrats] started doing stuff like abandoning liberal immigration policy and a whole bunch of other liberal policies,” said Riley. “I don't really remember all of them off the top of my head, but, the death penalty, the PRO Act (Protecting the Right to Organize Act), as well. They kind of abandoned that too. [And they] snuggled up to Liz Cheney. That was a real question for me.”
“They had an opportunity to go a slightly more populist route, like Trump or Bernie in 2016, and I think that they are suffering the consequences.”
“I think people saw that she [Kamala Harris] was going to do the same thing as Biden, which they [voters] weren't really thrilled with as seen by Biden's numbers, and they didn't want to vote for her because they'd be voting for the same thing that they already have now. Then again, she did focus on groups that weren't going to vote for her. She tried to grab these groups that were way out of her league and it just didn't work and that's why I think we saw the election in the numbers that we did.”
Immigration
“Trump gets a lot of flack for his immigration policy, and in some ways, rightly so,” said McKenzie. “I don't frankly agree with a lot of Trump's policy, but I will say at least he's doing something with it. Quite frankly, the Democrats, for all their promises over the last few years, have not really addressed the border crisis in any fulfilling way.”
“Sure, you should have the ability to seek asylum. But once our quota is met on legal immigration, there shouldn't be more immigration. I think, instead, they need to figure out how to boost their economies and their home countries to make it more viable. I do understand though that if we restrict immigration, then we are also going against a democratic way of the pursuit of happiness, life and liberty.”
Economy
“The entire federal government was funded off of tariffs. We didn't have an income tax,” said Saint. “That would make us less competitive on the world stage. I might remind you guys that, one, our economy became the strongest and biggest economy in the world when we were just running off of tariffs, and we were the world's number one global trade partner. Who's the number one global trade partner right now? The country that tariffs everybody, and that's China.”
“I think there will be more tariffs and less individual taxes. I don't really think it's going to change beyond that. If it were up to me, I actually tend to be a pretty big proponent of tariffs.
“I don't think wars will spur the economy but I do think trade wars will,” replied Saint. “I think it'll spur domestic industry and manufacturing just like it did last time. The reason I said that hard assets were good for the economy is because industry and manufacturing increase local productivity and you need productivity just for a good economy.”
Foreign policy
The item that united students across ideological lines: disappointment and distrust of America’s foreign policy.
“Something that probably all of us here at this table, young people in general, seem to agree on, is that we're giving far too much military aid to Israel,” said Rzeszurt. “That's something that's just not sustainable in the long term. We've created a lot of the ongoing political chaos in the Middle East through this clumsy intervention that we've continually backed.”
A preference for Cowboy Politic
Another common thread held between students with a deep interest in politics: they’re not going anywhere. All four students on the panel said that they have plans to remain in Wyoming and become politically active after college.
