Junior Gus Gerlach speaks during the Campus Crossfire debate (Ella Giere | Student Life)

The Washington University College Democrats and WashU College Republicans (WUCR) debated abortion, gun violence, climate change, the Israel-Hamas war, and the Russia-Ukraine war in their semesterly Campus Crossfire in Tisch Commons, April 24. 

Approximately 20 audience members watched the hour-long debate. A moderator directed questions to one side, with that party having 90 seconds to reply, followed by 30 seconds for the opposing party’s response, and then another 30 seconds for the original party to add final remarks.

Juniors Gus Gerlach and Naren Chittem represented College Democrats, and junior Mason Letteau Stallings and sophomore Graham Taggart represented WUCR.

WUCR took their 90 second introduction to discuss abortion and ask the College Democrats for their justification for their pro-choice stance.

“I would like to ask the Democrats when they think personhood begins and why or if abortions can begin after this point,” Stallings (R) said.

During their introduction, the College Democrats discussed their approach to the topics of debate during the crossfire, as well as their perception of the larger Republican Party.

“I think in general you’ll see [me] and [Chittem] are going to take just like common sense, pragmatic stances that the majority of Americans support,” Gerlach (D) said. “The Republican Party is one of the most regressive, anti-democratic political parties left in the developed world and I think you’re going to see that on pretty much every issue tonight.”

The first topic of debate was abortion, with WUCR wanting to decrease access to contraceptives, citing that it “violated natural law,” while the College Democrats called for additional access to contraceptives, sex education, and abortions on the federal level.

Stallings (R) said the issue of abortion is the reason he is a Republican. He stated that he would die on the hill of banning abortion, citing a “culture of death.” 

“Since 1973 and Roe vs. Wade, 64 million or more Americans have died because of abortion,” Stallings (R) said, “…We live in a culture of death, and part of that culture is contraception, part of it is abortion.”

Chittem (D) responded that WUCR and the College Democrats approach the issue from different angles.

“The Democratic side views [abortion] as an issue of woman autonomy and bodily autonomy,” Chittem (D) said. “The idea is that a woman who wants abortion should get an abortion with no questions asked.”

The discussion then shifted to gun control and gun violence. The WUCR representatives said there are already robust background checks for buying firearms in the United States so there is no need for additional barriers to purchase a gun.

“When you purchase a firearm, you have to go through a federal background check regardless,” Stallings (R) said, “States [also] have their own registries of background checks…so you already have a background check system.”

The College Democrats said there are loopholes in the current federal background checks for gun sales, namely the “gun show loophole,” although Stallings later contested the loophole’s significance in the commercial sale of firearms.

“It’s perfectly legal to go buy a gun at a gun show and never have to undergo a background check,” Gerlach (D) said. “States that close loopholes like that have lower rates of suicide, lower rates of domestic violence, and lower rates of like aggravated assault by using a gun.”

The debate then moved to climate change, which included renewable energy in relation to economic growth. WUCR stated that fossil fuels allow us to create cheap energy, and that we should focus on other countries who have damaged the environment more than the U.S.

“What we need to look at more so is the effects globally by other countries who have done more harm to the environment statistically than America,” Taggart (R) said, “While [oil] maybe not desirable at the moment, it is still cheap, still able to be used easily, and not as deadly as many clean energ[ies] are, that just aren’t spoken of enough.”

The College Democrats said that, in the long-term, renewable energy is in fact cheaper than fossil fuels. 

“Renewable energy, on net, is [cheaper] than fossil fuels in the long-term,” Chitten (D) said. “I would say that green energy is boosting our economy to untold levels; Biden and the IRA [have] created hundreds of thousands of jobs in both blue and red states.”

Gerlach (D) stated the U.S. still significantly contributes to greenhouse gas emissions while other countries have been changing their ways to accommodate renewable energy.

“[T]he U.S. plays a pretty big role in global carbon emissions and other polluting countries, like China, are kind of reworking their entire economies to focus on green energy,” Gerlach (D) said.

However, Stallings (R) said Democrats have opposed effective green energy alternatives which could actually make a difference.

“There are two very worthwhile forms of green energy, both of which the Democrats oppose,” Stallings said, “The first of these is nuclear…which is very effective; it’s very safe. We’re America, we don’t produce things [like] Chernobyl,” 

Foreign policy, specifically US involvement in the Israel-Hamas and Russia-Ukraine wars, was the last topic of the debate. The moderator asked the representatives if WashU should focus on protecting freedom of speech amid controversial speech and demonstrations this year and in the year prior. 

Chittem (D) said “I think it’s a false dichotomy; we can have freedom of speech and all viewpoints [can be] represented on Washington’s campus.”

WUCR then thanked the College Democrats for contributing to the open dialogue at WashU.

“I would like to say thank you to the College Democrats, as I feel like WashU has a very good on-campus atmosphere that is open to discussion and is open to differing viewpoints,” Stallings (R) said. “We are not Columbia University. We are not Harvard, and that is a good thing.”

The debate concluded with both parties giving their recommendations for the 2024 presidential election with the College Democrats advocating for Biden and WUCR supporting Trump.

Senior Brandon Rothenberg, who attended Campus Crossfire for the first time, wished there were more people present for the debate.

“I was disappointed in the turnout and the energy surrounding this one, which I find especially unfortunate considering the vibrant political climate on campus currently,” Rothenberg said.

This was also first-year Noah Reichilin’s first time at Campus Crossfire; he said the crossfire exposed him to different perspectives than his own.

“It definitely introduced me to some new perspectives on some issues that I kind of had a firmer stance about leading into this,” Reichilin said. “It kind of made me more aware.”

To Stallings (R), the crossfire is not about sides but instead about the commonalities that WUCR and the College Democrats share.

“The partisanship is not what matters; instead, we are all working towards the same goal, we all want a more prosperous country, and we all want a better future.”