This is perhaps one of the most heavily publicized and high stakes elections in modern history. It can be difficult to quantify the significance of the election, especially if you are too young to vote and live in a state like New York where the outcome of the state is relatively predictable. But it is crucial to understand modern politics and how they relate to you and to the world. On Monday, November 4th, the day before the election, Professors Mike Woodsworth and David Meskill held a panel to discuss the election in the Black Box Theater. Professor Woodsworth said that the goal of the panel was to create “space for dialogue” and said he felt that there has been a “very repressed feeling about political issues in our school, and people are afraid of [debate] because of the explosive possibilities,” something I agree with.
Two students, Ethan Hsu and Anya Berkowitz, participated in the panel and gave context to the crowd and answered questions. What began as a calm debrief of the most pressing issues addressed by candidates this election cycle became more energetically fraught when a student with a MAGA hat entered the room and made pointed comments about the candidates. This article is not to address the conversation that occurred, but an important point was made by the student about the bias of the panel, all presumed to be left leaning (no one outwardly declared their political alliance, but Trump was spoken of in a generally disapproving tone).
All members of the panel remained relatively moderate in their analysis of the election, but there is a point to be made about neutrality. You would be hard pressed to find a Trump supporter willing to debate key political issues on stage at BHSECQ, but it is always important to remember that the community we have here is not the liberal monoculture it sometimes seems to be. When it is clear that the administration and faculty at Bard tend to lean left, it is all too easy to forget the opinions of students, especially those who disagree with the dominant politics of this institution. When asked about the way political discourse is handled at Bard, Will Woodsworth, a sophomore at BHSECQ, said he believed that the “tyranny of the majority within Bard is trying to suppress the more [right leaning] kids” not necessarily because of direct censorship but because of the perceived popular opinion at this institution.
It’s unfortunate, really, because student opinions are crucial and everyone at Bard should feel represented and heard no matter their political views. Professor Woodsworth articulated this at the panel and during our interview, stating that he was “happy to have that [republican] perspective on display” as it helps to add more realistic representation to political discourse at Bard. He expressed the importance of acknowledging our own biases and creating space for more open and honest discourse, saying part of his goal in the class he is teaching this semester, Winning the White House, was to “consider the candidates on their merits and based on what they were saying about themselves, not only about what other people were saying about them.” He wanted to create an environment “to offer space for interpretations that would be outside that supposed monoculture,” of the left learning perspective pervasive at Bard.
Something discussed in the wake of the 2016 election was the phenomena of the ‘shy Trump voter,’ someone who would vote for Trump but not necessarily share their political affiliation publically for fear of judgment and ostracization. Today those voters are mostly gone, but as Professor Woodsworth said, they remain in certain areas where the left wing dominates political discourse. Recalling the 2016 election and the response at Bard at the time, he said that Trump supporters “were in our community, and they felt ostracized, and that’s not how we should make any of our students feel.”
I would encourage the reader of this article to reassess the way they think about politics in this city and at this school: the recent election showed that Trump has been gaining support in solidly blue states and cities, something manifested perhaps more obviously in recent weeks. According to Will Woodsworth, support for Trump is pretty high among the male population at Bard: he estimated that the support was, “at least in the tenth and eleventh grade, […] 65/35 in favor of Trump,” and added on that the political divide between genders at this school “is indicative of what is there in the country,” namely, that the increased support of Trump amongst the male population makes sense in the current political climate.
Professor Woodsworth articulated in our interview that the attitude of the left has proved alienating towards young men, that “things like promoting equity and diversity…rings very hollow when it becomes a rhetorical stance that is not backed up with real change in the world.” This analysis of Democratic politics is becoming more mainstream in the wake of the election, as major media outlets like The New York Times suggest that grouping people based on racial, ethnic, gendered, and other social categories contributed to Harris’ loss. Appealing to people as part of a social group, and assuming that a person’s vote can be predicted based on these groupings, is something Democratic candidates have consistently counted on: but electoral patterns are changing, as this election proved, and people do not always vote in predictable ways.
Something that was underestimated this election cycle was Trump’s incredible ability to shed past wrongdoing and gain power, even after scandals that would end another politician’s career. Professor Woodsworth thinks that an important part of Trump’s appeal is his image, that “he just breaks all norms, violates all rules of decorum and all rules of society, commits criminal acts[…]and just gets away with it.” Trump is perhaps the first politician to fully understand the power of social media, and just how far his image can take him. Will expressed similar views in the appeal Trump holds for young men, that Trump “represents masculinity, strongness, […] alpha male culture” and that to many, Trump is a “beacon of strength.” (Democratic politicians, by contrast, come off as boring at best and hard to get behind). Politics have become less about policy and more about the ‘mood’ of the candidates, the way they make people feel: both sides are guilty of this. To successfully bridge our political differences, we need to return to valuing policy over image and speak rationally about what is going on in the world around us.
Too many people held scorn for Trump voters this election: I’ve heard peers ask no one in particular how voters in swing states, like the people in Pennsylvania ‘could have done this to us’. This type of thinking must be avoided. As someone who has quite a lot of extended family in Pennsylvania, these people are not voting to spite you. They are voting in ways they believe will create a better world, just like everyone else. Just because the electoral college puts excess power in these swing states doesn’t mean you must, too. Voters in Pennsylvania should not be disdained for their political affiliation (lest we forget 48.6 percent of them voted for Harris) because Trumpism has become a regular part of American politics.
All too often, people in left leaning spaces, myself included, tend to see Trump as an unthinkable choice, a candidate with no legitimacy and no logical appeal. This is unfair to everyone, to the incredulous liberal and the Trump voter. It delegitimizes an entire political party and proves overly divisive: no matter what policies the administration tends to promote, and how they influence the political sphere at Bard, the fact remains that people at this school support Trump, even if they are not vocal about it. We need to prove to each other that our school community matters more than our perceived political differences. Being dismissive of another person’s politics is harmful and alienating.
I urge everyone to analyze their own political stances in the wake of this election. Whether you supported Trump or Harris, didn’t care too much about politics, hated both candidates, or something else entirely, you must strive to understand the people around you. In a time when college campuses across the country are being divided by politics it is important not to let ourselves be overwhelmed by political difference. Remove yourself from the echo chambers of social media and look at how politics will directly affect your peers at Bard. As students close to voting age, it is important for us all to prepare ourselves for political engagement and be dedicated to active participation in democracy. Society only functions when people strive to share and feel their voices heard.