A majority of high schoolers have not yet reached the legal age to vote in the United States, but that doesn’t mean that students cannot have tremendous amounts of input on politics; especially thoughts on the upcoming 2024 presidential election.
First, some context. The 2024 election has been an eventful one so far. Current President Joe Biden had previously planned to run for reelection, but eventually dropped out of the race in July, leading to his Vice President Kamala Harris running.
According to the Washington Post, this has been a close election, with each opponent racing to win the polls. As of October 4th, 2024, Harris is leading by two points nationally.
It is challenging for many to talk about politics without conflict, especially among students who may not be well-educated about various political topics.
It is common for political talks to get heated, especially due to the misinformation students may spread to one another or receive through social media and various unreliable sources.
To avoid this seemingly inevitable strife between politically involved individuals, it’s important to stay respectful of other people’s opinions no matter how differing they are from yours.
Junior Ari Avila had many thoughts overall on the election and her views of the candidates.
She remarked that “both sides present why they should be the next president and looking at the polls Kamala Harris is definitely leading strongly, but now getting closer to the election it’s definitely a lot closer. Harris presented a lot of key arguments in the debate, like on abortion.”
Avila went on about her views regarding talking respectfully to one another concerning politics. “I think it’s important to respect everyone’s opinion, there are some things we can all agree on, and there are some things we don’t, and that’s okay. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.”
These opinions are very distinct from one another, many times leading to some pretty heated arguments between peers. It can sometimes be hard to avoid these arguments that seem inevitable from these pressing topics, but it’s not impossible.
Junior Mia Winters stated, “We can be mindful and respectful and realize that it’s okay to disagree. I also think that we shouldn’t speak on topics that we don’t know much about, like religion or other sensitive topics.”
Many things can cause disagreements, and the topic of politics is not immune to these disagreements. Many students can be subject to political strife, but there are multiple ways to prevent it.