[heading size=”14″]Pondering conflicting party positions [/heading] As political characters like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders steal the attention of the media, students react with blazing support or burning despise.
These students agree or disagree with the politicians’ ideologies and find themselves directly aligned to a party and its views. But a few find themselves expanding beyond traditional boundaries.
Senior Addison Horsey has no difficulty in determining her political party or views. As the president of Young Democrats, her opinions are fairly transparent.
“Ever since I was probably eight or nine, I was really interested in politics,” Horsey said. “As I grew older, I saw both sides of an argument, and I seemed to always side with the liberal view.”
While many students confidently side with a specific party and its views, fewer students know where they developed their opinions.
Justin Dyer, a political science professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia, investigates how a person receives his or her political ideology.
“It is mostly shaped by social interactions of which the family is the most important,” Dyer said. “Friends and social groups are less influential but still matter. Life experiences also have some influences.”
[quote cite=”Addison Horsey”]I don’t think people can be liberal Republicans or conservative Democrats, because they’re two different viewpoints.[/quote] Senior Luke Chval, however, developed his political ideology mostly through his own research and interest in world news, rather than influence from his parents.
“My father is a Republican, and my mother is a moderate, [and] both pay attention to politics,” Chval said. “But I wouldn’t say that I was influenced by them so much in my view.”
Neither of Chval’s parents were very invested in politics, leading to a personal development of political ideas. Chval fits the uncommon category of students who do not perfectly align with a single party.
“This is less common now than in the past,” Dyer said about those whose ideologies are not parallel with a party. “Party and ideological orientation are most consistent than previously.”
Although Chval does not personally identify with an exact party, he does pick a side when it comes to elephants and donkeys.
“If I had to associate with one party over the other, I would say Republican because I think that limiting the size of government is important,” Chval said. “But I hold a liberal view on most social matters. For example, I am pro gay marriage and think that the [United States] should be relatively isolationist.”
Chval’s views are typically placed under the Libertarian party. But, especially in today’s political environment, third party views are often washed by the wayside.
Gallup.com noted that 44 percent of Americans lean towards the Republican party, while 45 percent align with the Democratic party, leaving only 11 percent to be involved with a third party.
Although a handful of RBHS students hold libertarian views, enough to make a new club, Horsey feels that political parties and views are more of a ‘pick a side’ type of discussion.
“I don’t think people can be liberal Republicans or conservative Democrats, because they’re two different viewpoints,” Horsey said. “I feel like if you’re a liberal republican or a conservative democrat you might just want to consider yourself moderate, if you have opinions that are on both sides of the spectrum.”