Ryan Smith talks to KVNU People host Jason Williams
LOGAN – It’s been on hiatus for a while, but someone is busy reviving the USU College Republicans group ahead of the return of students to the Logan campus this year.
Ryan Smith was a guest on KVNU’s For the People program on Thursday and he admitted that the problem is that many young people don’t care about politics and how it has been done, but he said that their group is interested.
“This bothered me when I got up to Utah State, early last year, there were (there were) all the clubs on campus, and I saw there were college Democrats, and I said, where are the college Republicans. There was no conservative club on campus, so I said, ‘I’m just going to start it myself. Don’t need someone to push me to start it.’ , so we started. We have 129 members, we’ve had a good turnout for most of our events,” Smith explained.
He said they have grown the most in a year and are the most active they have been in a long time.
“There used to be College Republicans, so I agree with you….we need students and the younger generation who are the new leaders to get involved in politics and to have good ideas. I think you see a lot of young people who really want to have a good conversation. Arthur Brooks, a careful thinker right in the middle, and he says ‘we don’t want less dialogue’ like some people say, ‘I don’t want to talk about politics’, we want better dialogue.'”
In talking to the students, Smith gets the sense that they’re just tired of all the arguing.
“I definitely think there’s a big feeling on campus that has that, whether it’s people I talk to a lot on the right or more on the left. People, especially these students, often say ‘I’m just sick of the two-party system, I’m sick of all this and us going against their views’ that’s exactly what the root what they’re getting at, this division and polarization. In the world.”
Smith said they just want a better way and better conversations.
