Although the mandatory government class may be most high school students’ only exposure to politics, certain politically active students choose to go above and beyond, both in their views and their extra-curricular activities.
In fall of 2011, senior Ben Esenstad interned for a candidate running for mayor of Rockville. Though the candidate, Piotr “Peter” Gajewski, lost the election, Esenstad said the internship exposed him to many city issues, including local education and traffic reduction. He said that his favorite part was going door-to-door, trying to persuade people in the community to vote for his candidate.
Esenstad, a self-declared moderate and a registered Democrat, said that he tends to “lean to the left” on many issues. Some of the largest issues that government is facing today, he explained, are the economy and the lack of jobs. Esenstad said that he feels addressing military spending would help deal with these governmental downfalls.
“I’m not an economist, but it starts with cutting back our deficit and to me that starts with bringing our troops home and bringing down our military spending,” he said.
However, Esenstad’s political views and the way he views government have evolved over time.
“I adopted my views as I was growing up. My parents talk about politics. I read the paper,” he explained. “When I was a freshman and Obama was running for President, I was this flaming liberal. Now I’m sort of liberal, with ideas I’ve always had, but having more conversations [with others] has slowly brought me more to the center [of issues].”
Among topics on which he is strongly opinionated, Esenstad mentioned foreign policy and the war on drugs.
“For one, weed should be illegal,” he said. “[I am] definitely for war against drugs. Foreign policy, I think we should pull out of Afghanistan. I’m much more adamant about the way the United States conducts itself in relation to other people than domestic policy. Like foreign policy and the way it handles drug policies in Mexico.”
In contrast, sophomore Ana Petricel believes that the drug war is “pathetic,” as for over 40 years the government has spent close to a trillion dollars with little result. The drug war, she explains, will not fix the core problem of drug addiction.
“Drug addiction should be treated as a medical problem and not [dealt with] by the police,” she said.
Petricel supports the legalization of marijuana, though she does not use drugs nor does she endorse their use. She cites that although medical marijuana is less damaging to the liver than certain other pain medications like Oxycontin, it is extremely difficult to obtain.
“Medical marijuana should certainly be legalized, if only to lessen the pain cancer patients have to go through,” she said, adding that legalizing marijuana would also create many jobs for struggling Americans as the demand for medical marijuana rises.
Petricel, a liberal Democrat, considers herself very opinionated on social issues, gay rights and health care, to name a few. Regarding the highly controversial topic of abortion, Petricel believes that women should have the right to choose whether to not to terminate the pregnancy.
“I don’t believe the government should have any involvement in a woman’s right to have a child; that is a ridiculous point of view in my opinion,” she said, and added that she believes that the United States should have a system of universal health care, like “all civilized nations.”
She also said that citizens are entitled to their freedom until it impedes upon the freedom of others, using the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community as an example.
“That’s what the Republicans are doing when they argue against LGBT rights,” she said. “They are exercising their freedom of speech [and] religion, but it’s impeding upon the rights and freedoms granted to the LGBT community by the constitution.”
According to Petricel, politics play a large role in her everyday life. Petricel often uses the majority of her time spent in front of the television watching the news and other political programs and talk shows.
“I’m a political junkie,” she said. “My political views influence nearly every action I take in my life. I try to spread my political views as much as I possibly can.”
For senior Jake Karlin, his current internship with Congressman Erik Paulsen, who represents the third district of Minnesota, provides an educational experience.
“[The internship] definitely is educational,” he said, explaining that before he wouldn’t pay much attention to what was going on in politics, “but once I was right there where everything was happening, I just had a broader view of everything that was going on.”
Two or three times a week, Karlin takes the Metro downtown into Washington D.C. He spends three hours a day at his internship, and his responsibilities include answering phone calls from constituents, responding to letters or researching various bills. However, with the increased communication with constituents come some people displeased with the government.
“You can get some really, really angry people. I have definitely had my share of screaming men and women who were not happy with what was going on,” said Karlin. “[The] issue with that, is that it’s our job to basically be nice to them, so it’s: ‘Hi Sir, thank you for your message. I’ll be sure to pass it on for you and have a great day.’ Just kill him with kindness.”
Karlin, who does not currently identify with any one political party, describes himself as conservative on economic issues and liberal on social issues. He said that his political views were influenced over time by things such as the AP National, State, and Local Government (NSL) class he took sophomore year, in addition to his internship.
“I’m definitely against universal health care. That’s my main thing, but whenever I get in a conversation, it always gets people into an argument,” he said, adding that instead, the government should focus on educating people how to take better care of themselves and how to manage their money wisely so that they can put funds away for insurance benefits.
“I think the government definitely should be helping out people that can’t afford their own health care, but it shouldn’t be forced on to the everyday, taxpaying, middle-class American,” said Karlin.
And while there may be many issues looming in today’s government, the biggest news in politics at the moment is the upcoming 2012 presidential election, specifically the Republican primaries and caucuses, which will determine the GOP candidate who will run against Obama this fall. The Iowa caucuses, as well as the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries yielded different results. Candidate Rick Santorum narrowly beat Mitt Romney in Iowa, though Romney took the victory in New Hampshire. Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, won South Carolina. America looks toward the Florida primaries, which will take place on Tuesday, Jan. 31.
“I definitely am not going to vote for the current president,” said Karlin, who also added that he doesn’t believe there is a perfect GOP candidate. “Mitt Romney isn’t bad but he’s not president material. I definitely think that Ron Paul has some good ideas but they’re a bit too extreme for him to be supported by the whole country, and Newt Gingrich, I personally think would make the best president but no one is going to vote for him because he’s not a good person morally.”
Petricel agreed with Karlin in the sense that there is no strong GOP candidate. She does not believe that current President Barack Obama will have any challengers.
“On the Republican side, it’s more like a circus than anything else,” she said. “I will not say I whole-heartedly support Obama in the coming election but at this point, he’s the only way that this country will not go down the drain.”
In contrast, Esenstad said that he will be supporting Republican candidate Jon Huntsman in the upcoming elections, despite the fact that he doesn’t believe he will win. If Huntsman is not nominated as the Republican candidate, Esenstad will support Obama.
“It’s going to be Romney against Obama,” he said, “and ultimately I don’t think anything that Romney would bring to the table would be better than what Obama’s bringing to the table. And granted Obama, he’s working hard, and it’s not really working.”
Despite their differing preferences for the outcome of the election, all three students agree on one thing: Barack Obama will most likely win re-election.
“I think Obama is going to win the election. It’s pretty obvious that the Republican party is completely divided at this point,” said Esenstad. “Obama has way too much money and too much organization not to lose and he can drive out supportive voters like no one else can.”
