red, white and blue

Students support ideologies across political spectrum Red,white and blue red,white and blue

Brooke Baron

Between Libertarian and Republican Kennedy Coleman

Leftist

Ialign with [beliefs between Libertarian and Republican] because I support lowering taxes, free market capitalism, and I typically have conservative stances on most situations. The [issues] I tend to focus on most are how the Democratic Party is becoming more and more ‘woke,’ tending to pander to far-left ideology, also the politicization of the coronavirus. The current political climate is definitely wacky: COVID-based authoritarianism, incompetency and flat-out lunacy with our current president and vice president, both sides becoming less moderate. The mass media needs to stop pushing their agenda as well as shilling for Democrats and just tell the news how it is, remaining mostly moderate. “ 12 12 Andres Fuenmayor

Left-Leaning

Iidentify with left-leaning mostly because of my experiences as a minority in America. My parents are immigrants from Venezuela, so they faced a lot of struggles and hardships to get where they are right now. Along with my friend’s experiences and based on the research that I’ve done, identifying with left leaning policies benefits more me and those I care about the most. I think the situation that’s happening between Ukraine and Russia with the possible invasion that may happen [is the most important political issue]. Due to the fact that Russia is bating the United Nations into beginning armed conflict and setting up situations, so it looks like they aim for sort of democratic and peaceful negotiation. If it’s handled poorly enough, it could scale to an international conflict. [I read] mainly the Associated Press and international resources like the UN. I try to stay away from main channels sources because they tend to push a narrative rather than actually provide information. I think far-right extremist view point that is being grown into America’s point of view, and it’s being seen as centrist; it is not a good thing I can guarantee you that. I would say politics is inherently a toxic 10 10 environment, but there’s nothing we can do as of now. When you are able to register to vote and vote for you want in office, voting is a civil duty, you should vote as much as you can. “ I mostly align with leftist ideologies because I feel that ‘the other side’ doesn’t do enough as far as getting people what they need; I feel like it’s all or nothing. I feel like the most important political issue would be healthcare, due to the amount of people that are dying currently, and they can’t get help because they don’t have healthcare, and it’s too expensive to get the things that they need. I follow different pages and read the news, sometimes I feel like an old lady for watching the news. Right now, there’s not much to comment on about the political climate. I feel like we need to take third parties more seriously in elections. People are like ‘don’t vote for a third party; you are wasting your vote,’ [but] I feel like if we did take third parties more seriously in elections at least it would be less toxic because only two parties are taken seriously. “ 9 9 Addison Parker

Moderate

Idon’t believe in extremist views on either side, but I feel that with the combination of actual politics and human rights, I fall straight down the middle. I think everything with COVID-19 [is the biggest political issue], because it’s a widespread issue usually among education and jobs. I think it has more of an impact in a lot of things that we have seen especially since it’s something we are living through, I think that’s especially something that needs to be dealt with right now, and the requirements for each state, since they are all different I think they should all be unified agreement on what should be done over all. I see a lot of things from TikTok, but I don’t like the reliance of that, so I’m always checking newspaper articles, like the New York Times [and] Daily Wire to provide different political views but still giving the same information. I think overall [the government] is not where it needs to be; I think there are a lot of widespread problems with the current political climate. It’s not going to be a quick resolve issues but there need to be adjustments. I think overall less judgment of someone’s character because of their political beliefs with their personal character and their actual personal beliefs 9 9is a lot easier to hear people out and being able to have a fair conversation between two people who disagree, and it not turning into a fight and rather than just a conversation. “ Feature • Political Viewpoints 17