“Can we keep politics out of…” No, we can’t.
If you claim that you don’t care about politics, you are part of a bigger problem. Every day, the decisions made by elected officials affect people. If you claim you don’t care about politics, you are a part of the bigger issue: apathy towards others.
It’s easy to sit back and ignore political debates when you’re privileged enough to do so. When policymakers are spewing information, you may not think their decisions affect you, so it doesn’t matter if you pay attention. Congratulations, you’re part of the small fraction of the American population that has the privilege to say that.
You don’t like anyone running for president? Pick the one that you hate the least and vote for them. Vote against the person you hate the most.
On July 15, former President Donald Trump announced that Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance was his pick for vice president.
Voting for Trump and Vance would be like wanting to travel back in a time when only white men had rights. Not voting against this would be the exact same. Not voting is saying, “I see all of this, but it’s not my problem, so I’ll let them discriminate.”
Vance wants police to track people who have had abortions by accessing their personal medical records. He also endorsed Ohio’s six-week abortion ban with no exceptions for incest or rape, and even compared abortion to slavery.
In 2022, Vance said he would oppose the Respect for Marriage Act — which ensures same-sex couples and interracial couples have the same federal marriage protections. He also refered to the LGBTQ+ community as “groomers.”
We need to talk about these issues. The tough conversation is worth it, especially when Trump is seen as “hilarious.” His humor is funny for reality TV, but not when he holds the lives of over 333 million people in his hands.
There are many things in this presidential election that we need to worry about, including Project 2025. In a NewsWeek article, Carrie Barker, professor of women, gender and sexuality at Smith College in Massachusetts stated, “It stigmatizes single parenthood, and makes cuts to social support for single parents and children in single-parent families. To incentivize marriage, it punishes people that don’t get married.” Barker says that it wants to revive traditional patriarchal families.
I never thought I would have to give grown adults the “being a bystander is just as bad as being a bully” lecture on a greater scale, but it feels necessary.
You don’t care about politics? Then you are helping detain another 500,000 children, just like in 2020, while you sit comfortably at home. You are allowing discrimination based on gender and race. You are allowing the ownership of semi-automatic and automatic weapons and then saying, “Oh no,” when a classroom full of children are murdered. You are the problem.
I’ve also heard the argument that we shouldn’t teach politics in school. Not teaching politics, specifically ideals and arguments, creates an uneducated group of students, and ultimately an uneducated new generation.
Of course, teachers shouldn’t implement their own political beliefs to students, but teaching them to be informed citizens is important. We should want every person of every age to talk about politics and not “stay out of it” like it isn’t important. Because it is.
You can either use your voice to help protect others or remain silent and harm others.
