How Temple Students Feel about the 2020 Election

By: Ashlynn Gunn

We are living in one of the most influential and disturbing presidential elections of our time. With the ongoing conflicts of COVID-19, climate change, and police brutality, just to name a few, we as young adults are living in what feels like an existential crisis.

It never seems to end, and the upcoming election, which is a culmination of all of these topics, adds to this neverending anxiety. As election day rapidly approaches , it may help to see how your fellow Temple students feel about the same issues.

When it comes to top issues, Taylor Angelo, a junior social work major, said she cares most for progressive and civil rights topics such as women’s rights, LGBTQIA rights, climate change, and health care. “While he is not my first choice, I feel Joe Biden is the best option to get closer to the goals I’d like to see achieved,” Angelo said.

Yazmin Pabon, a junior Spanish and global studies major, believes in similar core values, but specifically advocates for reproductive and international human rights. “I am settling for Biden,” Pabon said. Pabon also believes that Kamala Harris is the best candidate to help with these specific issues,“With Kamala as VP I think they could likely make changes but that also depends on the majority party in Congress.”

Peyton Catalano, a sophomore sport management major, said that “the issues most important to [him] are having the smallest government possible, [along with] the economy, and taxes.” Catalano is a libertarian and will be voting third party, due to Jo Jorgensen’s emphasis on small government.

The students commented on what their reactions will be if their chosen candidate doesn’t win. “I am extremely scared for what’s to come in the next four years if Donald Trump wins. There is so much that he already overturned and I don’t want to see what's next,” Angelo said.

This harrowing reality is one a lot of leftists fear, especially after the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Women voters fear this could be a threat to their rights for bodily autonomy, which is one of the main values she deems important to uphold.

Pabon says she is a “triple minority of POC, gay, and a woman.”

“I have been fearful since Trump first became president,” Pabon said. “The surge in hate crimes and hate speech of Americans against POC, especially Black people, is terrifying.”

Pabon also believes that voting is an important way to help with these fears. “I was raised in a family that doesn’t vote. This election only my grandpop and I are voting.”

A lot of Temple students feel the same way, saying that the lack of voting is due to distrust in the system or ignorance of how it works.

In order to vote properly, it is important to be educated on what matters politically. Universities are a part of higher education and are partially responsible for people receiving new information in history, government, and laws that could possibly influence a new generation of voters.

Temple students feel like they have been influenced by the curriculum, while some wish there were changes in our courses to help understand our rights as Americans better.

“As a libertarian, I feel Temple forces us to study the two-party system and discourages true democracy,” Catalano said. “We should teach about freedom of vote; not being forced between the two.”

In order to make the best decision, it is encouraged to know all the facts and try to keep them unbiased. This is why most Temple professors have kept their political affiliation a secret, but have encouraged their students to vote regardless.

“Temple has made me more right-leaning and a lot of it has to do with the arrogance and hypocrisy you see in a lot of liberal students,” Catalano said.

While Catalano has been influenced to solidify his more conservative stance, Pabon feels as if Temple has provided facts that would push her towards a more left leaning worldview.

“Temple has shifted my views from liberal to leftist,” Pabon said. “I think the system needs to be dismantled and rebuilt.”

In the end, if a student chooses to follow one ideology over the other it should be from their own research and how they interpret it. I’ve learned this to be the best way to make my own decisions based on knowledge I have gained from classes here. This is how the most successful political science courses I’ve taken at Temple have run.

Overall, I think the most important message is to vote. People often have qualms about voting, and rightfully so. I, as a senior political science major, understand the hesitation due to the lack of faith that different demographics and generations have in the system.

We live in a country that has a two-party system and relies on the electoral college. We are a representational democracy that is theorized to slowly be turning into an oligarchy. This means we vote for people to make important decisions, and more power is being concentrated into a smaller and more elite group of people. Black and low income voting areas are subject to gerrymandering and not enough polling stations. They are often subject to not knowing where official polling stations are, not enough equipment to let huge lines of people vote, and are given little information on when voter registration is due.

“My family doesn’t feel represented because they are POC and Latino,” Pabon said.

I am not going to sit here as a white person with privilege and tell you to go vote, it is not my place. But I would like to say something to all the women reading this, young and old.

If our vote doesn't matter, why do those at the top try to prevent it? Women fought for our right to vote when the patriarchy preferred to keep us silent. However, the 19th Amendment only applied to white women. Black women only started voting years after due to intimidation, and Native women were not even considered citizens with the right to vote in every state until 1962.

In the year 2020, #repealthe19th trended on Twitter. Yes, this year, men were praying for our voices to be silenced once more. My vote was not just for the President, it was for my right to be able to participate at all. To choose, to speak, and to protest. So again, I ask why? Why if our single ballot means nothing, do they try so hard to stop us?

My answer is simple, but it rings true. Because if we all vote, we are powerful. If we all vote, we are irrefutable. If we all vote, we have a chance. Also, why vote if not for the simple fact it agitates misogynistic racists? We can get through this scary time, and we will persevere through this together.