Northwestern’s chapters of the Platypus Affiliated Society and Young Americans for Freedom discussed the political trajectory of the United States based on American Revolution ideals in Harris Hall on Thursday.
Moderated by BridgeNU, the discussion between Platypus, a group that focuses on Marxist ideology, and YAF, a group that focuses on conservative ideology, centered on the Revolutionary War and the Trump administration.
“We’re going to be offering an opportunity, not only for those of us on stage but for you as well, to discuss the American Revolution, what it meant in 1776 and what it means now, 250 years later,” said Weinberg junior and BridgeNU President Henry Fleck, who was the discussion’s moderator.
Following a brief introduction of the three organizations, McCormick senior and YAF President Caleb Nunes began with an opening statement.
Nunes argued that there has been a shift in authority from the people to the administration, weakening national cohesion. He said that, as someone who leans conservative, he believes the core of America depended on the people’s power rather than any ruling monarch.
“The crisis of our time is constitutional,” Nunes said. “It is a crisis whether the American people still exist as a self-conscious nation capable of governing itself.”
Medill junior and head of Northwestern’s Platypus chapter Allen You followed with his own statement, which broke down the current American political state from a socialist perspective.
You said bourgeois control of labor and capital was inadequate and that the Constitution enabled further political change rather than restrictions.
“The Founding Fathers understood liberty as self-mastery,” You said. “Humanity becoming the masters of our own destiny. Such a condition is only possible through socialism overcoming capitalism. Thus, socialism is the only true inheritor of the American Revolution.”
Both were given the opportunity to engage in a brief crossfire where they questioned opposing arguments and reinforced their own.
You explained how Platypus has a thesis that the left must critique their own contributions to capitalism. He said that only by questioning such ideologies could there be a conscious movement in the pursuit of socialism.
“The left must transform itself, must overcome its own ideological obstacles in order to refound the working class movement for socialism,” You said.
Conversely, Nunes claimed restoration of civic culture and state limitations were necessary in contemporary crises. He argued that the present task should be to recover self-governance within “a liberal bourgeois order” rather than working against it.
He also questioned the feasibility of unifying the working class as You outlined.
“I don’t really see such a class consciousness being able to coalesce,” Nunes said.
Fleck also instructed the audience to deliberate among themselves.
The current presidency in relation to fundamental American values arose as a main point of contention. Audience members questioned whether President Donald Trump was upholding or undermining the American Revolution.
You described the current political situation as “Trump versus the deep state,” with American people being denied sovereignty by the executive bureaucracy. He said Trump was questioning the influence of these legislative powers but did not continue foundational American values.
Opposingly, Nunes argued that Trump’s limitations of executive power were in the spirit of traditional, republican ideals similar to those presented by the American Revolution.
“I do think there is a bit of a return of republicanism in the way that Donald Trump is trying to rein in the powers of the executive branch,” Nunes said.
However, despite disagreeing on whether Trump was upholding the ideals of the American Revolution or not, You and Nunes both said Trump was questioning the American identity.
Nunes said the American Revolution was a statement defining the people, yet the question of national identity in the modern day has been completely neglected for so long.
You said that within foreign policy, there remains a question of the identity of the American people and what political position the country holds within the world.
“These are questions which Trump is raising again, which seemed to disappear in the course of the 90s, 2000s and 2010s,” You said. “But maybe we should consider how Trump is not continuing the American Revolution. Like I said in my speech, socialism is the true inheritor of the American Revolution.”
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