It’s that time of year again. Whether you are active in politics or not, it is impossible to miss the non-stop ads on every social platform possible, chatter about individual candidates throughout the halls and the infamous Twitter memes. Yes, it is officially the political season.

If you know me in the slightest, you probably know that I am pretty involved in politics. I have attended various rallies and marches throughout  the years for my personal beliefs and am still a little upset by the fact that I won’t be able to vote come November 8. Nonetheless, political season is always my favorite season, especially once the presidential debates roll around. Nothing seems to beat the feeling of sitting down with a bowl of popcorn and watching presidential candidates, and possibly the future president, discuss relevant issues, most of which pertain to us as high school students. However, there has been one recurring theme throughout the past few debates that has made watching them almost unbearable and that is the constant and irrelevant arguing between all the candidates.

Now, don’t get me wrong–I love watching democratic hopefuls hash it out over current topics. The problem is the candidates have gotten past the point of hashing it out and are now in full-blown chaos mode. I recently watched the debate in South Carolina, where it mainly consisted of me reaching to turn down the volume as all candidates spoke at the exact same time about gun control, a bill they had just passed, and sometimes even arguing about time given to speak. By the time the two hours were up, my head was pounding and I felt like there was no true winner of the debate because the bickering was so ceaseless and distracting.

I understand that the candidates are not going to agree on everything. That’s the entire point of having the debates. But once the debates get to the point where it is nearly impossible to understand each person’s stance on an issue, because they choose to focus on tearing each other down, it has gone too far. There is a difference between respectfully disagreeing with someone’s beliefs and viciously attacking them for being different than yours.

The thing is, this problem with tearing each other down isn’t just happening in the debates either. I see people all around me using fierce  accusations  and  having meaningless arguments instead of choosing to treat everyone with the dignity and respect they deserve. Hostility  is at an all time high for most issues concerning society, whether you’re discussing politics or not.

I get that choosing to be the bigger person can be hard at times, but in the end, you will cherish the moments when you chose to respectfully see another person’s perspective,  not  the  moments where  you  are  in  a constant  argument. That being said, I highly encourage everyone to tune into at least one debate and, if not at least hear relevant topics being discussed, see the squabbling I’m talking about. Hopefully in the future, people will attempt to be more civilized and drop the debate drama. 

Anna Schenkel

Assistant News Editor