Students express political opinions on Election Day

Amira Carter

BSM students express their political views with election themed T-Shirts on election day 2016

BSM students showed their political colors with red “I voted” stickers, political t-shirts, and social media posts. However, some students are more politically opinionated than others, like senior Democrat Mark Racchini. “I am voting for Hillary Clinton because, although I don’t believe that she is the best person for the job out of everyone, out of everyone who’s running for office right now, she is the best person for the position because of her experience being Secretary of State, and then Senator of New York. I also think she is the most experienced in foreign policy, and I think Trump’s foreign policy proposals would lead to catastrophe. I think that her tax incentives are better versus Trump’s; you can’t run a country on the amount of tax cuts Trump wants to impose. It’s more so I’m against Trump’s viewpoints than for what Hillary stands for. Another big thing is I believe, as Americans, it’s our expectation to accept refugees,” Racchini said.

Senior Republican Carson Haefele is also very opinionated in regards to the election. “In my opinion, our debt is one of the biggest issues of the election because we have trillions of dollars in debt, and we keep spending and spending and spending to the point where we’ve lost control of what money is. We don’t know what money is anymore because we’ve spent so much of it. We don’t know what trillions of dollars is, or looks like, and we need to get that under control,” said Haefele.

Sophomore Democrat Sara Ben commented on why she wants Hillary to become the next president.“She is more for all the people; she’s very qualified and knows what she’s doing; she can bring the country together instead of separating people. My biggest concern is for foreign policy, and the world is in a very critical place, and she has that experience, and has been in contact with other foreign leaders,” Ben said.

Senior Republican Allie Lang expressed her enthusiasm for the election by wearing star-spangled socks and a political t-shirt to school. “In the past, the election never meant anything at all, but this time, this is our last chance to get it right, and if we don’t, this country will go downhill real fast. The most important issue right now is with our borders and ISIS, and I think with electing Trump, we could not only defeat ISIS but let refugees come into our country after proper scanning, so they can become citizens and not illegal immigrants,” Lang said.

Senior Democrat Gracey Scott expressed her opinion on the election, explaining what it meant to her. “It really, as a girl, just means so much. I know we didn’t grow up in the time where [women] were just beginning to vote, but it’s not too long ago where they just got the right to. Hillary has based so much of her career off of the education of girls all over the world, getting women out to vote more, equality for pay, and I think in this election especially, it’s just such a message to girls not only in America, but in the world where they have no rights, where this woman is running for the highest office in the world,” Scott said.

Junior Republican Jake Leonard supported Trump through his apparel and expressed his opinion on why he wanted Trump to be elected. “He would stop corruption in our government, lower taxes on middle and upper class families, reinforce the military, revamp the VA system around the country, and take corrupt officials out of our government,” Leonard said.

Many students, with many opposing political opinions and beliefs roam the halls of BSM. The unique variety and passion people have shown how great it is to be active and true to yourself in politics. However, when the candidate supported by those strong opinions is not elected, it can upset some more than others. When asked what they would do if their candidate loses the election, Lang, Haefele, and Racchini, all responded the same: “Move to Canada.”