2020 has been a tumultuous year for all, and the election was no exception in adding to the madness. Stirring up feelings of anxiety in some, and confidence in others, the election of 2020 was surely one for the history books. While the majority of Generation Z was unable to vote this year, students still had lots of thoughts and opinions to share. This past week, the Newsroom decided to interview a handful of students to see how the election has affected them, and hear what they have to say.
Do you consider yourself someone who actively keeps up with politics and everything going on in the world? “I’m a loose politics person, I used to be really into every single thing that happened in politics during my freshman year, but as it took a bigger toll on my mental health now I sort of just check what’s going on but I make sure to not let it affect me a lot because I don’t want my mental health going down as a result of it. I think during the elections I actually distanced myself more from politics because it felt super saturated with just election things and it felt really overwhelming so I just decided to take a pause.” (Regina Aka, Senior)
“Overall yes, I try not to dwell on it too much because I have anxiety, and sometimes thinking about it too much will give me a panic attack but I do like to stay informed.” (Veronica Vega Fernandez, Sophomore)
“Yes I do. I feel like I’m always checking the news and researching some things regarding current events. I feel like I’ve been pretty up to date with this election and generally Trump’s presidency for like the past two years.” (Kyle Namgostar, Junior)
How do you feel that this election has affected you? “I guess for me I was just really happy to hear that Trump was out of the white house. I know this caused a lot of anxiety for some people, but I honestly felt like it was almost a given that Biden was going to win. I didn’t think it was gonna be as close as it was, but when it was getting closer it made more sense to me… so I wasn't super surprised, but I was a little disappointed that it was close as it was, but I was pretty sure that BIden was going to win.” (Regina Aka, Senior)
“It was very stressful, that’s for sure. My anxiety levels definitely skyrocketed for a minute there. I watched the news a lot more than I usually did. I tend to check in like once a week to see how everything’s going, but this time I had the news on everyday while I was doing my schoolwork and it was very unnerving.” (Veronica Vega Fernandez, Sophomore)
“Right now I feel a little bit worried because I expect that there could be some civil unrest depending on how our current president continues to act about the election results. I feel like there is tension brewing, so I am a little bit concerned. I’m also of course concerned for LGBT people and people of color because of the actions of the Donald Trump administration for the past four years, and especially Amy Coney Barrett. I do not like her track record, I think that she’s a little too conservative for me. So I can say that I’m nervous and worried.” (Kyle Namgostar, Junior)
Do you feel that this election has affected your relationships with others? (friends, family, etc.) “All of my family members aren’t pro-Trump and none of my close friends aren’t pro-Trump but one of my family members who didn’t want to vote in this election I got really frustrated with.” (Regina Aka, Senior)
“Especially the past two months, I’ve definitely unfollowed people and realized that some people I was acquaintances with I wasn't going to talk to anymore. It was really eye opening.” (Veronica Vega Fernandez, Sophomore)
“I don’t think so, because it’s always been easy for me to look past people's political opinions. I’m not a conservative, I have respect for their ideas, but I do not support them or agree with them, so I just try not to talk about politics. For most of my friends that probably lean conservative, I just really haven’t talked about the election with them. So I wouldn’t say that it really affected any of my friendships.” (Kyle Namgostar, Junior)
What are your hopes for the next four years? “I hope that Kamala Harris being a police officer doesn’t mean nuclear warfare for other countries. I know people are talking about how Trump wasn’t engaged in bombing countries in the middle east super actively compared to other presidents during his time, and I just feel like we have a win with Biden being better than Trump on some humanitarian policies but I think that It would be unfortunate if the tradeoff for us having a better leader would be other countries feeling unsafe.” (Regina Aka, Senior)
“Hopefully everyone gets the rights they deserve, and everyone is cared for the way they deserve. I did not support Trump, so the way he went about a lot of things did not sit well with me, so I’m just hoping we can correct a lot of his mistakes.” (Veronica Vega Fernandez, Sophomore)
“I do hope that Donald Trump concedes and that we can have at least four years of Biden. He wasn’t my Democratic pick, but I do believe he is the lesser of two evils. I think that Joe Biden’s policies are just a little bit more leaning progressive than Donald Trump’s, which I’m excited for. So I hope for the next four years we can see Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.” (Kyle Namgostar, Junior)