Student Impact: First in Our Six-Part Series

In the 2022 midterm elections, the Democrats rode a youth wave to victory. A near-historic number of youth voters exercised their constitutional right to vote, and the majority, according to the Pew Research Center, voted for democratic. Gen Z news feeds are filled with their top concerns: the war in the Middle East, the border crisis, geriatric candidates, and access to healthcare and good jobs. Students on our New Britain campus express concerns through rallies and messages to university President Toro to broker peace. Others give a glassy-eyed stare when asked their opinions on the candidates. One student’s political views were so strong that they asked us to pull their interview in fear it might jeopardize future career opportunities. We polled nearly twenty new voters to gather a general understanding of Gen Z’s political alignment and top priorities for the next president. 

Blue Muse: Growing up did your views align with your parents’ political affiliation? If so, how has it changed?

Bailey: They’re Republican, and I just listened to what they would say as it sounded good growing up. Around my sophomore year I switched to Democrat. College gave me a new perspective on big issue topics unknown by my small town.

Elyse: Growing up I believed what my parents said even if they didn’t know what they were talking about. I now have my own beliefs. There are things that even my mother, who’s also independent, and I don’t agree with.

Josh: Growing up I was around more democratic values. My mother is a Democrat and my father is independent. Around my junior year of high school I became more Republican.

Blue Muse: Has social media affected your political views?

Bailey: It definitely has an impact because of the way social media works. Deleting all my social media helped me switch to Democrat because I wasn’t only seeing one side of the political spectrum.

Elyse: Especially through TikTok as it is huge with getting things spread like wildfire. Now should I trust it? I’m not sure. I don’t know how credible everyone is.

Josh: Maybe. It’s the easiest way for people of my age demographic to stay in touch with candidates, but with it, a lot of stuff can be promoted that’s untruthful. You have to find reliable, primary sources, so the information that you gather is correct.

Logan: Gaining access to social media didn’t necessarily sway me a certain way, but it provided me with an endless stream of content that reinforces my own beliefs.

Blue Muse: What are some issues that you feel strongly about?

Bailey: Healthcare. It’s a human right. There are people out there who weren’t raised in the type of town I was raised in, and don’t have access to the resources, it’s really unfair.

Elyse: I can’t believe that this is a political issue, but the whole Roe v. Wade case. Abortion is a huge concern for me as that is my reproductive rights. Roe v. Wade goes against any woman’s reproductive rights, and takes away women’s rights to their own bodies. As a social work major I am also concerned for anything discriminatory. Along with police brutality and racial injustices that occurred in 2020. It’s just really scary. 

Logan: I have a problem with injustices across the country. Not everyone is being treated equally and given an equal path. While it may not be possible to rectify that 100 percent, we should be conscious and help those in need. 

Blue Muse: What are your thoughts on America’s economy?

Josh:  I believe in American values, growing the economy by creating more jobs and opportunities, along with promoting the value of the U.S. dollar. My economic view is based on pumping money back into the American infrastructure and workforce. Not necessarily closing down foreign trade, but focusing more on our own domestic product. 

Blue Muse: What party or candidate are you leaning towards in the upcoming election?

Josh: If she could pull it off I would vote for Nikki Haley, as I align with most of what she believes in. She is a new face with young energy. I really think it’s high time that the country had a female president; she’s got the guts to do it.

Bailey: It’s stupid to just vote for a party, almost like the blind leading the blind.

Logan: Nothing about this election really appeals to me. It feels like you are choosing between the lesser of two evils. You’re just voting against someone else’s agenda, instead of an agenda that you actually want.

Blue Muse: Do your views match with your party’s platform?

Logan: I have views that aren’t held by a decent amount of the Democratic Party, such as differences in welfare, and how social safety nets should function. Unlike traditional Democrats, I want to see things like free college and free universal healthcare. 

Blue Muse: How should our next president handle foreign policy?

Fun Fact: In 2022, the government spent about $45.4 billion in foreign assistance.

Link

Bailey: A lot of people need our aid, and being a world superpower it’s our obligation to help those people out. Although putting our hands too far in the pot is only going to lead to worse things for us. 

Logan: If you’re going to be president you should be focusing on how you can better the lives of the people in the United States. I don’t like the isolationist policy because that’s how you become irrelevant on a global scale. I want us to be less relevant, especially with the exploitation of other countries. A lot of countries in the global south are being exploited for their natural resources and I’d like to see less of that.

Blue Muse: If you can ask one question to any candidate, what would it be?

Bailey: What’s their goal, and what do they want out of it? A lot of politicians are there for power. They don’t really care about what’s important. 

Elyse: Neither of them are running the country by themselves, so the biggest question that any presidential candidate should be asked is, do they have the balance that is required to be president?

Logan: I would ask them what their plan is for climate change. I don’t really care who you are, or what party you’re affiliated with, I only care about what you’re going to do.

Blue Muse: Does age affect your choice for presidential candidates?

Old Fact: Biden is 81, Trump is 77, Kennedy is 70, and Stein is 74.

Bailey: Definitely, as there’s a cognitive decline after a certain age, and everyone hits that point in their life. It’s not something that someone who is eighty-one-years-old is going to be able to do. 

Josh: I don’t want to put anybody over the age of eighty in the White House anymore. You have to question anything mentally, intellect-wise. They’re past their prime, and the country needs to be led by someone who’s in their prime.

Logan: They’re both so old, but a candidate that was fifty-five would play a significant impact in my choice. Both are over the age of seventy-five, and I am not. There’s a future for me while there really isn’t for them.

Elyse: It is not my place to discriminate and make that decision if you’re unable to run for president because you’re too old. They have every capability of making the correct choices regardless of their age. 

Blue Muse: If you could pick one person, dead or alive, to be president, who would it be, and why?

Elyse: Barbie. I watched the movie, and it was great because it really shed light on women’s issues. There’s a lot of things that need to be done with gender roles. That’s still an issue to this day.

Logan: FDR because of how he handled The Great Depression. The marginal tax rate for the 1% was extremely high during that time period which gave way to the booming middle class. In the 1980s, the tax rate for the 1 percent got significantly lower, and ever since then minimum wage hasn’t steadied inflation.

Interviews conducted and condensed by Alexis Lykowski, Noah Roy, Gia Edwards, Jenna Pare, and Jason Sabetta

Featured image credit to Duncan Shaffer