Do you think the United States should have a universal health care system?
Would you like a refund on your entire car tax?
Do you admire the Netherlands as an example of successful socialism?
If any of these apply, there is a place for you in one of Bakersfield College’s nascent political clubs.
Three are currently awaiting approval by the Associated Students of Bakersfield College: BC Republicans, BC Democrats, and, yes, a BC chapter of the Kern County Socialist Local.
Each sees itself as in some way galvanized by the current political climate in California.
For political science major Clayton Plake, 20, that meant organizing a socialist group to give a voice to what he sees as the abandoned left in the California Democractic Party.
“What people have yet to fully understand is that the reason why so many people have lost faith in Democratic ideologues like Gray Davis is the fact that they no longer represent a progressive consciousness,” he said, adding that he expects Arnold Schwarzenegger’s tenure as governor to “ultimately demonstrate the necessity for a legitimate push to the left to alleviate the problems in California.”
Plake says that while he differs with BC Democrats President Isaiah Perez on some important points, he intends to work with Perez on many issues.
Perez, a 21-year-old history major, believes the formation of a socialist third party is ultimately damaging to the progressive goals they have in common, among them universal health care and strong unions.
“I think to start up a third party, it would do the same thing which happened in the 2000 election with Nader,” he said. “If we would have just voted (together), we could have gotten a more progressive candidate in. That’s why I think some of the things Clayton wants to do is a little bit unrealistic.”
BC Republicans Chairman Mike Alesso, a 20-year-old computer science major, credited the successful recall election with the large showing at his club’s last meeting.
“I would say that hatred towards corrupt government caused the recall, but definitely they both had major impacts on how people think they should be involved in their state government, and what effect they can have,” he said.
All three clubs see the current political turmoil as an opportunity to get people more involved in the process.
“I really like the spirit of bipartisanship between the two clubs”, said BC Democrats Vice President Mike Gutierrez in reference to Democrat-Republican club interaction. “Our biggest goal is just to make Bakersfield more politically active.”
Toward that end, the clubs have cooperated on a number of fronts. For one, they are committed to discourse. Perez, Alesso, and Plake all have worked together on the club approval process, and according to Alesso, all three have committed to a series of Campus Center debates in the coming weeks.
In the debates, Plake plans to represent the Kern County Socialist Local in a “united progressive front” with the Democrats while at the same time differentiating between the two.
“It isn’t so much that I’ve lost faith in the Democrats,” he said. “It’s just that I realize that within the present system, either party represents capitalist interests and there needs to be a viable third option.”