Phoebe Barr ’19: The presidential primaries are increasingly dominating daily news reports and many EA students seem to be choosing sides.
Among students interviewed, all could name Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio as Republican candidates and Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton as Democratic candidates. Yet, only four of the five people interviewed could name Ben Carson as a candidate, and only three could name John Kasich. In addition, only one person interviewed could name the date of the Pennsylvania primary on April 26th.
However, students do seem to be getting involved in political discussions.
“I teach seniors,” said Robert Trumbull, a teacher in the History Department, “and fortunately, this year I have two classes of mostly seniors in my AP Government and Politics class. We talk about the candidates quite often. I think the seniors, by and large, are paying attention to the campaign and to the issues; certainly some seniors will pay more attention and be much more involved, but it’s a great time to get involved.”
Chris Stein ‘16 voiced his doubts on the awareness of students. “I think that a lot of people have a lot of opinions, but not a lot of facts to back them up. On both sides I think I see a lot of kids just parroting what their parents think.”
That being said, many students are vocal about the importance of student participation in the voting process.“Registering to vote as a young person is very important because we need to have our voices heard in society,” said Ellie Neilson ‘16. “Much of Washington is run by older legislators who might not always have the interests of young people at the front of their mind and since we are the future of the country it’s important that we learn how to participate in government.”
Kathryn Wilson ‘16 also voiced her agreement, specifically addressing students who choose not to vote. “You have no right to complain about the government if you aren’t exercising your constitutional right to influence it by voting for your representatives,” she said.
Single issues seem to be a major factor in the primaries. Stein continued, saying “immigration is a hot topic issue for this election, whether you think there should be a path to citizenship, or whether you believe there should be deportation.” This seems to be true, as immigration policies, especially those of Donald Trump, are being discussed at length. “Certainly Donald Trump is a phenomenon this year,” said Trumbull. “…He is very good at hitting big topics that resonate with people… clearly one of the things is the wall he wants to build between the United States and Mexico, and have the Mexicans pay for it. I’m not sure how he could force a foreign government to pay for something, but he has absolutely been successful in getting people to talk about that. And he has moved the entire field of Republicans to much more of that kind of idea. All of the major Republican candidates now are in favor of a barrier of some type to keep illegal immigrants out of the country.”
One of the interesting things among students interviewed is the consideration more of who they would not like to be president than who they would. Anaya Cherry ‘18 said she wants “anyone that’s not Donald Trump. If Donald Trump wins, I’m moving to Canada.” This was echoed by Bella Merchant ‘17, who said that, although she did not know who she would support, “I’m not going to vote for Trump, but it looks like he’s getting the Republican nomination, so I would probably do whoever the Democratic Party nominee was, if I could vote.”
On the other hand, many students are vocal about who they support. “I am voting for a Hillary Clinton in this upcoming election. She is the most qualified candidate from a foreign policy perspective. She supports raising the minimum wage to $12 an hour which stands with my values of hard work literally paying off in America,” said Wilson, citing her reasons for supporting the Democratic candidate. Stein also said that “I’d vote for Donald Trump over Ted Cruz. They both have awful stances on economic issues, in my opinion, but Donald Trump is actually reasonable to an extent when it comes to women’s reproductive rights and gay rights whereas Ted Cruz is… very socially conservative, in a way that I find repugnant.”
Cherry also voiced her opinion on the upcoming primaries. “The primaries are very interesting,” she said, “around our country but specifically around our school. Because you don’t really know how much people know about the election, but they go and pick one person – but maybe they don’t know their beliefs, or their motives, or their plans for the country. It’s very interesting.”