The Young Republicans Club at CHS finds itself in MAGA Trouble

By ANTHONY BURNS
The Young Republicans Club (YRC) at Canton High School is finding it difficult to unite amidst the rise of the Donald Trump presidency as some students begin to question their ties to conservative values with the Republican Party as of January 2017.
Students see these concerns within the YRC and sees no future with the club, while others see promise and a hope for eventual unification.
As the Donald Trump presidency affects all Americans, some clubs such as the Harvard Republican Club in particular, loudly protested his candidacy. For the first time in 128 years, they decided to not voice their support for the candidate.
A junior student at Canton High School says, “I don’t know much about the club, only that it has its disagreements pretty often, but that happens to every club once in a while.”
This issue matters to Canton High School Republicans, because public schools have somewhat of a minority when it comes to conservative viewers, especially in the major democratic state of Connecticut.
According to the president and founder Connor Treadwell, this place was where intelligent people of a certain political affiliation could come and agree with each other and spread their message to the rest of the student body.
Many students believe any candidate would cause a “destruction among the club” simply because similar groups already was diverse in its beliefs despite its conservative standings.
Treadwell believes the group was in strong correspondence with each other, but when it came to Trump’s immigration ideas, the members began to disagree.
He continues to say that of the many strong members who regularly show up to meetings, well over half of them support the presidential nominee, thus the situation everyone hears about is simply being “blown out of proportions.”
In contrast, according to The Crimson, the incident at Harvard is happening to most college clubs across the country, stating that only approximately 10% of Republicans who attend Ivy League schools will support the idea of a Donald Trump president.
Many Democrats in the school seem to not care as much about this issue, as they prefer to keep to themselves. Some left-wing students see no reason to start a club since the party is so diverse in the first place. He also adds that this issue could happen to both conservatives and liberals.
“Seeing this happen to a conservative group is not surprising, considering the fact that a racist man was elected president. His ideas are controversial among a lot of Americans, and this crosses party lines,” another student explains.
An unidentified self-proclaimed liberal student at CHS also points out that some college liberal clubs have gone out of their way to vote in favor of Trump.
Christian Rickers, founder of the Virginia-based ‘Trumpocrats” PAC, said that when he was a kid, his small town had 15 manufacturing plants and they now have one. He explains that he fully supports Donald J. Trump despite being a lifelong Democrat.
While all political clubs have their troubles, Treadwell says he will continue to defend the club’s vote to support the president of the United States.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly  attributed comments made by “a junior student”  and “an unidentified self-proclaimed liberal student “ to Lauren Underkoffler and Evan Mingo, respectively.  Neither Underkoffler nor Mingo was interviewed for this article