Saying that politics is complicated is an understatement. In today’s atmosphere, every issue has more than one side to it, and and each side has more than one answer. MU has numerous political organizations currently welcoming students — whether those students know where they stand regarding politics, or are brand new to it.

For more left-leaning students, the Mizzou College Democrats or the Mizzou Young Democratic Socialists of America may be organizations of interest.

“[U.S. Sen. Elizabeth] Warren Democrats are probably as far right as [YDSA goes], and then all the way [left] to ideologies that don’t even have parties,” sophomore YDSA President Quinn Coffman said.

While the Mizzou College Democrats, headed by senior President Jeffrey Bittle, is not an exclusively socialist organization
like YDSA, its members encompass a variety of political ideologies, from center left to far left.

“On an official basis, our platform mostly aligns with the general [Democratic] party platform, but being on a college campus, we
tend to align more on the progressive side of things,” Bittle said.

If the right side of politics is more appealing, Mizzou College Republicans is an option. Sophomore President Josiah Mendoza
said that the organization’s goals include “limited governments, lower taxes and deregulation.”

Health care

An issue that has almost always been at the forefront of political campaigns is health care. According to the most recent data from the National Health Interview Survey, in 2020 13.9% of adults ages 18-64 were living uninsured. The leaders of YDSA and Mizzou College Democrats aligned on the issue, both proposing a single-payer health care system as a way to get more Americans insured.

According to Harvard Health Publishing, single-payer health care is a system in which a single agency takes responsibility for financing health care for all residents, eliminating the competition of health insurance companies. Sophomore YDSA Vice President Adam Mertens said that in a nation like the U.S., there should be no system besides single-payer health care.

“You see on the news feel-good stories about ‘Oh, little Susie paid for her cancer treatment by selling lemonade.’ That kid should
never have to do that,” Mertens said.

Mendoza, on the other hand, said “competition result[s] in a quality increase and price decrease,” and supports private companies
continuing as an ideal health care system in America. According to Mendoza, socialized health care would not account for different situations in different states.

COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected America’s health care institutions, overwhelming hospitals with infected patients. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID-19 has killed over 630,000 Americans as of Aug. 28. The leaders of each organization responded with their opinions on the differences between the two most recent administrations’ handlings of the pandemic.

Bittle commends President Joe Biden for a quick vaccine rollout.

“I wasn’t expecting access to a vaccine until now, or even September, but I think the current administration could do more in terms of reducing vaccine hesitancy,” Bittle said.

Mendoza shares similar sentiments as Bittle, agreeing on an efficient vaccine rollout.

“As for the current administration, I’m not so sure as to whether or not it was more effective than the last one,” Mendoza said. “I am certain that I don’t think that the most crucial parts of the response would’ve been much different under the Trump administration.”

Coffman criticized the current and previous administrations.

“What I could say about both [presidents] is that, as capitalists, they’ve made the pandemic a lot harder on Americans,” Coffman said.

Coffman believes that through a socialist economy, the pandemic would have been far less deadly. This economy would make it so that vaccine companies could not profit off public vaccines and the government would provide enough funding for a full shutdown, including direct payment to people while work and education are halted.

Afghanistan

On Aug. 15, the Taliban captured Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. In the wake of the takeover, many U.S. citizens were left behind and the U.S. Embassy was evacuated. Mendoza felt strongly that Biden managed the pullout poorly, leading to consequences like Americans being left behind and an aggressive Taliban offensive.

“The pullout of Afghanistan was atrocious,” Mendoza said.

Mendoza expressed disdain that there were Americans “left abandoned and without a plan” in Afghanistan. Bittle, however, pointed out the large number of people evacuated.

“A lot of war-hungry actors from some of the largest media sources are eager to paint this as a crisis for the ratings, and the extent of it being botched overall has been very exaggerated,” Bittle said.

Coffman said the pullout was inevitable.

“While a religious extremist, nationalist regime is not the government we want for the Afghan people, an American occupation is almost no better,” Coffman said.

Climate change

While on the topic of international affairs, climate change is an issue that defies borders. According to the U.N., “greenhouse gas concentrations are at their highest levels in 2 million years and continue to rise.”

Both the Democratic and YDSA leaders support the Green New Deal. They both expressed support for creating new jobs in renewable energy so that workers in the fossil fuel industry are not out of work.

“It’s a complicated topic because there’s people working in the energy industry, and I don’t want them to lose their jobs, so we should provide retraining programs, or alternatively UBI [universal basic income],” Bittle said.

Coffman added that a capitalist society would not be able to support a green future.

“A profit motive is always going to make any form of green capitalism fail. You can’t have infinite growth on a finite planet,” Coffman
said. “A prerequisite to saving our planet from self-destruction is an end to capitalism.”

Mendoza, on the other hand, disapproves of the Green New Deal and favors green conservatism. He also went on to highlight how innovation in a free market could bring solutions to reduce carbon emissions. He said property rights are a big factor in environmental
accountability, so the free market is “the solution” to climate change.

“If someone’s building a factory and their waste is leaking in your backyard, you have the ability to fight back and say ‘That’s notright, it’s in my property, so I can do something about it,’” Mendoza said.

Police reform

The Black Lives Matter movement saw a resurgence in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd. Many Black Lives Matter protests called for police reform or defunding the police. According to mappingpoliceviolence.org, Black people accounted for 28% of the people killed by police, despite being 13% of the population in 2020, and 98.3% of killings by police from 2013 to 2020 have not resulted in officers being charged with a crime.

All of the leaders agreed that change needs to happen, however, their solutions differ.

Bittle said the Mizzou College Democrats support reforms such as “requiring body cameras to be on [the body] and turned on at all times, demilitarizing police forces, abolishing private prisons, ending cash bail, ending the practice of qualified immunity and expanding community oversight on local police departments.”

Coffman, however, thinks that reform is unachievable.

“As president [of YDSA], I don’t think police reform is possible or really our goal [as an organization], Coffman said. “Police aren’t something to reform, they’re something to abolish.“

Mertens, in contrast to his YDSA colleague, believes in reforming police departments.

“I do think that there is room to reform,” Mertens said. “I don’t think every cop is evil or every police officer is bad.”

He also said decriminalizing drugs might be an effective step toward police reform.

Mendoza also believes in police reform throughsmall, gradual changes, like requiring body cameras, as opposed to defunding. He said that rather than. choosing to either love or hate them, offenders must be held accountable.

“I’m a very pro-police person; I support them all the way and I’m not believing in [the] defunding the police movement by any
means,” Mendoza said. “If there [are] any tangible laws that can be enforced at a local level — that have been proven to be effective
— then go right ahead.”

Political organizations at MU are more than just politics, they are a place where students can find a
community. Bittle stressed that Mizzou College Democrats is a group of people who enjoy being with each other.

“As much as we would love you to get involved in our political activities, we also just want to have you there as a member of our
community,” Bittle said. “It’s open to everybody.”

Coffman also commented about the plurality of ideas within his organization.

“We’re the two executive officers of YDSA, but even we have different opinions on issues,” Coffman said. “We have a lot of ideological plurality. If you agree with either of us or disagree with either of us, there is probably room for you in YDSA.”

Mendoza calls on students who feel alone in their beliefs to join his organization.

“If you feel like you can’t speak your mind, then I think you should come to an organization that is welcoming of your views, because campuses tend to be more left-leaning,” Mendoza said. “If you feel like you’re alone, come join us.”

If you want to reach out to any of these groups, contact them at: @mizzouydsa, @mizzoudems and @ mizzourepublicans on
Instagram, or email mizzoudems@gmail.com and mizzourepublicans@admin.

Edited by Emmet Jamieson | ejamieson@gmail.com