With the midterm elections over, college students say they want a less combative politics in the years ahead, and many say their generation has to help drive that change.
Voters under 30 made up about 10% of midterm voters, according to AP VoteCast. That is down from 12% in 2022, according to Edison Research exit polls.
Kyle Goodwin, a senior at Union College, said combat politics is all he has known.
“I’ve only ever really known like a very combative, aggressive, put your opponent down kind of politics,” Goodwin said.
Cole Sanderson, a junior at Union College, said he wants to see that approach end.
“It’s just attack, attack, attack, and here’s why one party could lead to the destruction of another and all of this, and just to see that wiped clean would be fantastic,” Sanderson said.
Sanderson said he hopes the country can come together despite its differences.
“To see two groups of people who may share some similarities but also have some differences, but can come together as a nation, I think would be fantastic,” he said.
Ryan Clark, a senior at Siena University, said he hopes the country changes course over the long term.
“At least in the next 10, 20, 30 years, I hope that we’re going to reverse that course and be able to agree with one another and compromise and get things done because it’s not healthy to continue the way that we are,” Clark said.
Some students said change has to start inside the political parties. Clark said younger people need to step up.
“We need to get involved in these parties and make positive changes from within these parties. And that starts by getting politically involved in any way that you can,” Clark said.
Denise Murphy-McGraw of Headcount, a group that works to register and engage young voters, said young people should not wait for others to act.
“They’re always an underestimated group, and the future is theirs. So if they’re not taking this into their own hands, nobody else is going to do it for them,” Murphy-McGraw said.
For other students, the focus is on specific issues.
Jenna Wyner, a junior at Siena University, said young people’s requests are modest.
“We’re not asking for a lot. We’re just asking to get by, whether it’s affordability, healthcare, paying for college, and we’re asking politicians to be brave enough to help us get by,” Wyner said.
Goodwin said he is looking even further ahead.
“I think politics as a positive force in our country instead of a negative one would be like a really beautiful change 30 years down the line, where we can work towards building something instead of breaking things down,” Goodwin said.
Social media also came up in the interviews. Students said it is how many of them first became interested in politics. Several said it can make the country look more divided than it is, and a few said they want rules on things like AI-generated content.
Several students said they hear from friends that politics does not matter, and they disagree. They said politics affects everyday life and that voting makes a difference.
Source: spectrumlocalnews.com
