On September 10th, Common Ground coordinated a Presidential Debate watch party for students. Prior to the event, posters, emails, and social media created buzz surrounding the debate swarmed Hamilton College’s campus. After the event was over, people’s general ambivalence about the future of America’s political landscape increased.
When asked how they felt about the political atmosphere on campus, one anonymous student responded that they “do believe people do care, but they are still artfully apathetic towards talking about politics. Unfortunately, I don’t know if there is a way to get people to change their minds.” When asked to elaborate on what they wish to see of Hamilton students' engagement with politics they said “Honestly, I don’t really know… I think the best thing one can do is to continue having these conversations and events such as Common Ground and Hamilton Democrats. Keep reminding students that their voice matters, and encouraging their friends to vote.”
Lee Casstevens ‘26, an art and history double major, felt the opposite. “I did not watch the debate. I haven’t watched anything since the one with Biden during the summer. I’m feeling a bit pessimistic because it feels more like a ‘business as usual’ kind of thing,” he said, adding, “I don’t feel as though either candidate accurately represents my values. I think Harris is a much better candidate than Biden. “She’s charismatic, eloquent, and knows how to pull coherent sentences together. However, Harris seems to talk a lot about joy, which is kind of ridiculous based on the events that are going on around the world. She has actively helped commit genocide in Palestine, and for her to talk about joy right now is pretty disappointing. It is almost as if with her, you get this question of ‘Would you like your genocide with a smile or a frown?’ And I think she is leaning more towards a smile.”
Regarding America’s current political landscape, Casstevens said “I am from Massachusetts, a predominantly liberal state. Thankfully, I have the privilege to vote for a third party member. Unfortunately, it kind of feels like my vote won’t even matter because it is going to go blue anyway.” When asked how he felt about the political atmosphere on campus, he said “Oh the school is very apolitical. Which is surprising because everyone seems to be left-winged. The administration is pretty conservative. I remember when I was protesting with my political activist group after the Rafah invasion. I was late to my Civil Rights activist class, and once I got there, no one from that class had been at the rally. I felt extremely disappointed.”
Common Ground Event Poster
Lucy Meola ‘26, an archaeology major, felt a similar division among students. “I feel like everyone on campus is extremely apathetic when it comes to politics, which is very baffling to me. I think there are students who are extremely passionate about specific causes, and they take action towards them. However, overall, it seems as though people do not care. I don’t think I have ever had a conversation with my friends about this stuff. I know there are people on campus who disagree with me politically, but I just do not know who they are.”
Elaborating more on this apathy, she said “I think there are two reasons for this: one is the physical isolation campus provides us. We are centered in the middle of nowhere, so it is really easy to get wrapped up in this tiny bubble, separating us from what is going on outside of campus. The second is the degree of privilege people have on campus. Despite what is going on outside, people know they are going to be fine regardless of what’s going on, therefore, there is no need to keep up with current events.”
Common Ground will have another watch party event for the vice presidential candidates on October 1st, 2024. More coverage on the students’ perspectives on the vice president candidates will be provided in the future.
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