While the Republicans and Democrats have hosted joint debates in the past, Thursday's event was the first time the Libertarians participated in such a discussion, according to College Libertarians President Joshua Schiefelbein '14, who planned and moderated the panel.
The debate, which attracted an audience of approximately 20 students, provided an opportunity for students to compare their political philosophies, College Republicans President Parker Hinman '13 said in an email to The Dartmouth.
"It also gave students who do not know where they stand ideologically a chance to hear both sides of the political argument," Hinman said.
The three groups began by discussing changes to health care policy recently proposed by the U.S. House of Representatives Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
Health care is the "perfect example" of a topic on which the views of Libertarians could be easily distinguished from those of Republicans and Democrats, College Libertarian Kris Brown '14 said.
Republicans and Democrats promoted the reform of existing government health care programs. Brown said the College Libertarians hoped to entirely abolish such entitlement programs, which he described as a form of "robbery at gunpoint." Removing government involvement from matters of health care will allow market forces to provide "the same quality of service for cheaper prices," Brown said.
In discussing the United State's involvement in Libya, the College Libertarians again promoted a hands-off policy, asking audience members how they might feel in a reversed situation in which a foreign country was intervening in the United States.
The College Republicans asserted that although the United States has an integral role to play in international affairs, President Barack Obama's response to the Libya situation was inconsistent with his stance on invading Iraq and might not serve American interests.
In response to such arguments, the College Democrats accused the Republicans of contradicting themselves by both urging Obama to act and then criticizing him for doing so.
Although representatives of the three campus groups differed in their ideological positions on the majority of issues, several panelists attempted to forge consensus between the disparate parties.
Students from all three parties said the recent earthquake in Japan and the subsequent reactor disaster should not dissuade the United States from pursuing nuclear energy as a power source.
"There clearly is a need here," College Democrats panelist Mark Andriola '14 said. "I don't think the tsunami in Japan demonstrates a significant threat to the possibility of nuclear energy."
Nuclear energy is "still a lot safer than alternatives like coal" in terms of how many people die per watt of energy produced, Andriola said.
The panelists also debated taxation, abortion, Social Security, the Defense of Marriage Act and how to reduce the country's budget deficit.
Each group was given two minutes to answer the moderator's questions. Panelists representing the other parties then had one minute for cross-examination. The response and cross-examination order rotated throughout the debate.
Schiefelbein said he would consider reducing the number of topics addressed in the future to allow the panelists more time to articulate an opinion on each subject. The debate, originally scheduled for one hour, lasted approximately two hours.
"I think what I'd probably do next time is to condense the questions into fewer questions," Schiefelbein said. "It became kind of hard to stop the debaters if they were going over two minutes."
Although the debate was not as well attended as the organizers had hoped, Schiefelbein said he believed that the low attendance was due to the busy nature of this week.
"I think the number might have been a little smaller given that midterms are occurring," he said.
Schiefelbein said he considered the panel a success, particularly compared to past debates. The debate was organized by the College Libertarians and co-sponsored by the College Democrats and College Republicans.
He said he hoped the discussion would show audience members that a political option exists beyond the two main parties, and that it would increase the College Libertarians' on campus.
College Democrats President Ryan Tincher '12 did not return requests for comment by press time.
