Sam Niu ’15: As the school year welcomes a host of new clubs, one that is certain to gain much interest is the newly formed Young Independents club, which joined the Young Republicans and and Young Democrats as the third of EA’s political clubs. Cheryl Mitchell, Upper School Biology teacher, and Bryan McDermott, Upper School Physics teacher, are the faculty advisors for the Young Independents and are both registered Independent voters.
Mitchell explains that the pair “thought it would be nice if students had an alternative option to a political club, so that in addition to Young Republicans and Young Democrats, the other large political party in the US [can be] represented.” According to McDermott, “[The members are] going to get together once a cycle and talk about current political events and how [they] feel about them as independents.”
The mission of the Young Independents is to create an environment in which students can express their own personal political philosophies, without having to label themselves as Democratic or Republican and conform to any party agendas and policies.Like the Young Republicans and the Young Democrats, the Young Independents will “Talk about current events, issues, controversial items within the context of their own personal philosophies, and the philosophies of those around them that they respect,” said Mitchell.
The two other political clubs, the Young Democrats and the Young Republicans, support the addition of the Young Independents.“America is not strictly a two party country,” said Andrew Jannetta ‘14, Young Republicans co-president along with Dutch Buckley ‘14. Janetta continued, “[The Young Independents] provide a good middle-ground.” The
Young Democrats president, Clellie Merchant ‘14, is also “really glad the Young Independents exist.” In terms of the members of each club, there is a sizable difference in number, with the Young Republicans having about 70 sign ups and the Democrats having about 30 sign ups. In response to this, Merchant is not disheartened as she does not “think there’s a huge disparity” and looks forward to leading the Young Democrats to be “more visual and active” in order to increase its numbers. However, Jannetta finds it, “frustrating, because I don’t know how many [students] know what they’re signing up for. Some kids might just be influenced by what they see at home.” Likewise, the faculty advisors of the Young Independents are not discouraged by the relatively low signups. McDermott notes, “Only two signed up at the club fair, but that’s pretty good considering that the club was just put out there, no one had any idea what it was… [There has] already been, just within a few conversations with a few kids, plenty of interest.”
The wide disparity between the signups for the clubs brings to question whether these numbers accurately represent the demographic within the student body. Merchant and Jannetta both believe that the school is much more balanced, a belief supported by last year’s mock election debate. The Democrats won with 51% of the votes, the Republicans having a close 49%. According to Mitchell, “a disproportionate number of republican students is likely due to the students aligning with their families, and likewise with the liberals. What’s nice about independents is we don’t have to be beholden to all of the policies of either party.” Ultimately within the student body, McDermott wants “to develop in people independent thinkers, as students, before we turn you loose. Hopefully we’ll find a very satisfying niche for a number of people.”