GREENFIELD — For most of the seniors in Alex Wilson’s civics class at Four Rivers Charter School, watching the presidential debates has been more than a lesson in the debating basics they’ll consider employing — or not — in their upcoming tournament over ballot Question 2.
It’s also a chance to engage in the political process that some of them will get to cast their ballots in as first-time voters.
Following a discussion of the final debates his students watched the previous night as an assignment, Wilson asks one of his two classes to show thumbs up, down or sideways about whether they’re inspired to be engaged, disengaged or so-so. Several show they’re less than enthused about the system they’ve been keenly observing.
“It’s not like, ‘oh my God, I need to get out there and vote,’” says Lydia Anderson of Greenfield, who was among those who had her thumb sideways and is preparing to vote for the first time. “The only reason I’d get out there and vote is I don’t want (Donald) Trump to be president, and I guess that doesn’t seem like a great reason, like I should vote because I really like the candidate.”
As a former Bernie Sanders supporter, like many of her friends, she expresses reservations about Hillary Clinton, adding, “I don’t trust her a lot … (but) I don’t think she’d do anything really bad for our country.” She’s enthused about the notion of electing the first woman president, especially instead of someone who “treats women like property.”
For his part, Wilson walks a careful line as he tries to keep discussions focused on whether the final debate qualifies as “civil discourse: engagement in conversation that’s intended to enhance understanding.”
The day before, he says, he watched one of the Romney-Obama debates to help remember how politics used to be and found it “very boring,” compared to the “reality TV” antics of this year’s debates.
Sarah Slade of Wendell says, “It’s all about expanding your knowledge and understanding, but when I’m watching the debates, my knowledge is not being expanded.”
Clancy Shaw is among the students who points out that the two candidates won’t even extend a handshake.
“That’s called being honorable,” he says, demonstrating that both candidates need to rise above politics.
The students also read into Trump’s refusal to declare that he would support the outcome of the election.
“Why is that a big deal?” Wilson prompts his class. “Why does that matter? You guys are just kind of entering this public sphere.”
“That challenged the fundamental structure of our democracy,” says Lucia Mason of Montague, who found in the most recent debate “examples of incoherent arguments.”
Sophie Garbus of Greenfield, who at 17 will be too young to vote this year, calls the campaign “unsustainable and not safe. It’s just built on so much personal attack. It’s focused less on bettering America, more on taking down the other.”
Garbus admits, “I have been trying not to look for the wrong in Hillary, because I know there is wrong there. But you’ll see that in any candidate, and there is no other option, really.”
Karrigan Walsh, 17, says, “I’d like to be able to vote,” but says it’s been discouraging to see, in debate after debate, the candidates behaving “like two children fighting about who knows what? It all seems so immature. In past years it all seemed so organized and respectful.”
Wilson raises questions for his students’ about how both candidates use arguments and rhetoric, as well as who they’re trying to appeal to.
“If I had asked you guys before the primaries if we needed somebody to shake up the political system, would you have maybe raised your hands?” he asks. “There’s an element in society right now that’s frustrated, that sees Donald Trump as a changing agent. That’s one of his appeals, as it was for Bernie (Sanders.)”
Several students point to how much information and misinformation the candidates seem to hurl at each other, often talking over one another, and trying to sort it out gets overwhelming.
“There’s so much thrown at the average voter throughout this whole process, all these different scandals and stuff,” says Anderson. “I do my best to not let that affect my decision making because I think a lot of it’s really just built up and over-dramatized. Obviously, some of it’s true. Like with Trump’s video, that’s pretty serious. But I kind of get tired of it all eventually, because it’s the same things over and over again. Like Hillary’s emails, blah-blah-blah. I don’t care anymore. I’m past it. It gets discouraging.”
Slade, too, expresses disappointment that she will just miss being old enough to vote.
“I feel like this election will have a big impact on the future of my generation … In the next four years, I’m going to be going to college, so some of Hillary Clinton’s ideas about lowering college tuition are really important to me personally, and some of Donald Trump’s ideas of getting rid of (the Affordable Care Act) are really scary as I’m going into being an adult, not being under my parents’ wing. It’s scary to think of being in a place where I could possibly not have adequate health care … Some of the topics are pretty close to what I’m about to experience being an adult.”
More than anything, she says, “I’m scared. They’re perpetuating this hatred toward one another, which their supporters are then perpetuating toward the other supporters, and that’s perpetuating hatred in this country. This country doesn’t need more hatred.”