Two clubs that were once prominent in the McLean activist community had gone dormant. The Young Republicans have yet to reboot while the Young Democrats are up and running.
“The attention is really to create civil political discourse,” said junior Helen Bloom, leader of Young Democrats. She believes the political playing field should be a place open to all opinions.
“You should be able to have a discussion and respect what the other person has to say because they still have something to offer,” Bloom said. We’re also going to try and get affiliated with campaigns for local and later national elections, hand out stickers, go door to door, etc.” Bloom said.
“We’ve spoken to John Foust, Kathleen Murphy, etc.–people who ran for election and reelection for the school board. Local elections are really key and they needed volunteers, so we encouraged people in Young Democrats to get involved,” Bloom said.
The club has been reaching out to students through social media (Twitter: @syoungdemocrats; Facebook: MHS Young Democrats) in order to recruit members. The previous club leaders graduated, and the club lost popularity due to an essay entry requirement.
“The democratic party is about providing opportunities for everyone and allowing anyone from different backgrounds, culture religion, anyone to provide an opinion,” said Bloom, in summation of the club’s mission.
With enthusiastic leaders, the Young Democrats club is ready and willing to help establish the Young Republicans club ,despite their differences.
“They were inactive too,” Bloom said. “Our goal is to have a bi-monthly meeting where we would meet up with the Young Republicans to have debates and open discussions. We still have to figure this out.”
AP US History teacher, Dylan Wedan has agreed to sponsor the club’s meetings in room B182.
“They’re trying to organize to help local candidates as well as doing work with campaigns and nominees. They want to help local and national democrats and the general elections,” Wedan said.
A new club at McLean has been holding crossfire discussions on controversial issues. The Ideal Voters club allows members from all parties to engage in debates and promote civil discourse, as Bloom emphasized.
The Ideal Voters Club has its own ideas on how to get students engaged, including academic incentives.
“One of the proposed ideas was delegating one day in an AP US or Comp Gov class to register to vote and do research on what students may need to keep in mind (i.e. social security). After researching, we would reach out to those Gov teachers and see if there’s some day in the schedule that could be devoted to voter registration.” said senior Michelle Ma, leader of the Ideal Voters Club.
Ma also thought of making voter registration an extra credit opportunity.
“It’s in line with what AP Gov classes are teaching, and I think it would be a really cool addition to the curriculum.”