In the liberal climate of Belmont, not everyone is always comfortable sharing their conservative views, but the students in the Conservatives of Carlmont club are different.
Founded by Ryan Versen and Jordan Brandenburg for the 2017-2018 school year, the Conservatives of Carlmont club meets every other Monday and Wednesday in E-6 to share their right-leaning views.
Vice President Versen said, “Our club wants to give an equal playing field to the Republicans at Carlmont because conservatives are constantly given a bad name by people at Carlmont.”
The club discusses a variety of current events at their meetings every month. At their latest meeting, they discussed the recent kneeling by NFL players, gun control, and the Las Vegas massacre that killed 58 people and injured 489 more on Oct. 1.
To show unity in the face of such a horrific act, Versen invited members of the Carlmont Democrat Club to discuss the topics on their agenda.
“I think we had a great conversation with the Democrat Club because everyone was able to share their opinions freely and I think that’s the way it should always be,” said member Nathan Zamecki, a junior.
Despite only becoming a club this school year, the club has been active on Instagram since late July 2017.
“We made the Instagram to show our political views similar to the Democrat Clubs Instagram so that students could hear both sides of a topic, not just the liberal side,” said Versen.
Even though Carlmont is a mostly liberal school, students found it refreshing that the club was sharing its views.
“I’m not a Republican, but I liked looking at their Instagram page because I am able to see a political view that you usually don’t hear at a school like Carlmont,” said sophomore Sunya Abhasi.
As the club continues to have meetings, the club stresses that not all conservatives are bad people.
“I believe it’s important that students know that not all conservatives are white supremacists, fascists, or homophobic,” said Zimecki.
