If you watched the 2023 TikTok Congressional hearings, you most likely noticed many representatives, even across party lines, have two things in common — they are old and don’t understand how technology works. If you did not, I encourage you to. It will be both humorous and deeply concerning. 

Within the 119th Congress, 137 representatives fall between the ages of 60 and 69, 98 range from 70 to 79 and 18 are 80 to 89 years old, according to Pew Research. One representative is over 90 years old. By contrast, only 38 representatives are under 40 years of age and one, Florida Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost, is a member of Generation Z. 

There is something to be said for bringing career experience to the table in government and public policy, but new ideas and perspectives are also essential for moving forward and increasing representation. 

In the face of climate change, gun violence, economic instability, rapid advances in AI and an increasing partisan divide, among other issues, the stakes for Gen Z are high. We’re simply going to be around longer than older generations to face the future consequences of our current actions. We should do everything we can to have a hand in deciding what that future will look like. 

Gen Z is severely underrepresented in government and the most direct way to address that is for more Gen Z candidates to run for office and for young voters to elect them. 

Preeyal Parekh, co-communications director for the Undergraduate Political Science Association (UPSA) at the University of Minnesota, said politics is an important avenue for young people to address the issues they worry about, such as making a living and providing for others. 

“I think people tend to disassociate politics and just write it off as like, ‘Oh, I don’t want to get into politics, I don’t want to talk about things that are maybe uncomfortable to talk about,’” Parekh said. “But those uncomfortable things are exactly what will make or break your future.” 

Parekh said Gen Zers have a unique opportunity to increase their representation in office and address the issues that impact them most. 

“I think that it’s very important for Gen Zs to be involved in politics,” Parekh said. “It would be the best route for our generation to take because we need to control our future through our own hands.” 

In the effort to take our future into our own hands, we also must learn to work together, even if we disagree. We are all facing the same future, regardless of how we view the present. 

Emma Weilage, co-communications director for UPSA, said looking up to Gen Z candidates can encourage others to run for office. 

“Representation is everything,” Weilage said. “So if you see someone who looks like you in a position like that, you see yourself in that position.” 

However, there are not many Gen Z politicians and candidates to look up to, and being seen as a viable candidate for office can be one of the most difficult barriers Gen Z must overcome when running for office, Weilage said. 

“‘Why should I vote for someone so young, you don’t have experience,’ compared to their opponent, who’s had career experience, political experience, whatever it is,” Weilage said. “So I think just being taken seriously, and then the finances is super difficult to overcome.”

Long-standing ideological beliefs can also make it difficult for Gen Z candidates to establish themselves in political spaces, especially female candidates up against both age and gender limitations, according to Weilage.

“I saw this one person, it was like a Republican, I think, who was Gen Z, who ran for office,” Weilage said. “She said her hardest part was being a woman and Gen Z, and just having her constituents be like, ‘Oh, well, you should be at home doing all this stuff and not run for office,’ so that was one of her biggest challenges.”

Weilage said she took a class where the professor had students take a survey that viewed their own qualifications to run for office, which highlighted the internalized misconceptions many people have about women running for office. 

“It’s like, ‘Do you think that you’re qualified to run for office?’ and the men in the class said yes at a much higher rate than the women even though they have the same qualifications, the same education,” Weilage said. “It’s the imposter syndrome and not thinking that they’re good enough to run.”

Weilage said education is an important place to start addressing these misconceptions and limitations. 

“I feel like it could start with education, social studies, government,” Weilage said. “The school system could show all these people, not just these old white men in office, but also the women in office, the people of color in office, and kind of plant that in their brain that the government is reflective of everyone, so you can run for office as well.”

While Gen Z needs to increase their representation in government, running for office is not for everyone. But, that does not mean you cannot make a difference. 

“I definitely think Gen Z should run for office and not be discouraged, because their voice matters just as much as people who’ve been in office for like 50 years,” Weilage said. “ I think running for office can be very intimidating for people, so there’s other ways to get involved with politics, like working on a campaign.” 

Simply using credible sources of information to be informed is an important place to start and a way for people to be involved in politics if they are not able to participate in other ways, according to Parekh. 

“Just be in the know of what’s happening around you,” Parekh said. “Talk with your peers about the important things that’s happening right now, the important things that’s actually happening in the world. And because you are educated, you have the potential to educate the ones around you who may have the ability or actually want to directly involve themselves.”

Politics can be overwhelming, especially right now, but a future without the engagement and initiative of young people in office is even more worrisome. 

It can be difficult to know what direction we are going as a country right now and the future is painfully uncertain, but that is all the more reason to get involved. Educate yourself and others, join a campaign or run for office. 

Gen Z, take the wheel.

In 2020, the word “unprecedented” was named the People’s Choice 2020 Word of the Year by Dictionary.com after receiving the most user submissions. A 2024 article by Wired concluded “unprecedented times” are becoming a new normal. 

Given the first two weeks of President Donald Trump’s second term, the word may be on its way to a second Word of the Year title. But how unprecedented are the times we’re living in? 

So far, Trump has signed an executive order to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the federal government, offered federal workers a buyout to resign to downsize the federal government, and instructed the Department of Defense and Homeland Security to prepare the U.S. military camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba to detain migrants, among other actions. 

While social media and global news coverage allow people to collectively agonize about news from the other side of the globe in real time, the political trends and movements themselves are nothing new. However, that doesn’t make the recent actions of the Trump administration any less jarring. 

William Jones, a history professor at the University of Minnesota, said the speed at which Trump issued executive orders is notable and unprecedented. 

“People need to pay attention to that because I think it’s sort of overwhelming to the point that it’s hard to respond to,” Jones said. “The most brazen of those is the suggestion that birthright citizenship doesn’t apply, which is, I think, a pretty clear violation of the 14th Amendment.”

Trump issued an executive order last week aimed at eliminating birthright citizenship, a constitutional right in the U.S. under the 14th Amendment. The order was temporarily blocked by a federal judge. 

“There’s a very long history of policies that are similar to what the Trump administration is promoting, the sort of ideological purges,” Jones said. “This is something that we saw in the 1950s, the McCarthy era. We don’t have to look to other countries for these examples.”

Many of the Trump administration’s actions and goals are disturbing, but they present a reality we must face. Discrimination and violence toward migrants and various minority groups are deeply rooted in our nation’s history. 

“Trump has pointed to the mass arrest and deportation of migrants during the 1950s under the Eisenhower administration as a model for his, and we should look at that,” Jones said. “Large numbers of American citizens were arrested and deported largely because they were Latinos. There was certain racial profiling.”

We can’t hide from this history. We must face it if we want to alter our path forward. 

Larry Jacobs, founder and director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University, said the actions of the Trump administration are illustrating just how much elections matter. 

“It’s one thing to be thinking about it, it’s another to see it happen and see the people who are affected,” Jacobs said. “The broad attack on diversity, it’s gonna strike a chord all over the country, including here at the University of Minnesota, where I think faculty and students and staff are really gonna be slapped upside the face when they come to realize what’s been proposed and what’s gonna happen.” 

Trump also faces a lot of opposition and barriers from the division within the Republican Party, Jacobs said. The Supreme Court, despite being a conservative-appointed court, has overturned Trump more than any modern president, making it less likely that Trump will be able to enact legislation that will withstand the other branches of government. 

“Donald Trump’s use of executive orders is a last resort because he’s so vulnerable,” Jacobs said. “He’s unable to pass a lot of legislation that he would like to.”

Beyond the administration’s specific actions or inability to get things done, Trump presents a unique contradiction by appealing to working-class voters but favoring some of the richest men in the world. 

“You can’t be both an ally of the working class and of the billionaires and the richest people in the world,” Jacobs said. “I think that’s gonna become a tension and it may well eat away at the legitimacy of Donald Trump.”

These first two weeks should be a wake-up call for students who don’t like what they’re seeing to get involved and use their voices as citizens, Jacobs said. 

“You have a voice, use it,” Jacobs said. “Donald Trump is vulnerable. His actions are not from a position of power.” 

Elon Musk also captured attention last week by performing a straight-arm salute, which closely mimicked a Nazi salute during a speech celebrating Trump’s victory. 

While Musk’s salute and expressed support of Germany’s far-right party is alarming, Trump’s administration draws a stronger parallel to authoritarian regimes, according to Jones. Trump and those around him have shown admiration for the current regime in Hungary but have also pointed to past U.S. administrations for guidance. 

“In some cases, I think it’s useful to look to fascism,” Jones said, “But I think there’s a lot more to be learned from looking at our own history and looking at the history of the models that the administration is actually citing as its templates.”

Jones said the U.S. has an extensive history of discrimination and violence toward migrants, racial profiling and homophobia that is important to learn from when trying to make sense of our current reality. 

“None of this is foreign to our own history,” Jones said. 

While this is part of our history and who we are as a nation, how we respond is also a part of who we are. We have also seen generations fight back against discrimination and violence and we can do so again when we don’t like what we’re becoming. 

“We should also look to the really rich history of pushing back against that type of behavior and of people organizing and asserting their rights in ways that have worked before,” Jones said. “I think we need to look to the history to understand how it will work again today.”

Regardless of your political beliefs, this is not a time to let chaos deter you from staying informed and engaged in politics. 

“I hope that people who are feeling scared and vulnerable will understand that they’re not alone in feeling that and that they will reach out to friends and people around them who are in similar situations and figure out ways to support each other and to try to work toward a future in which they don’t feel that way,” Jones said.

We all know President-elect Donald Trump loves the spotlight, and between his outlandish claims and political success, he gets plenty from the media. But this attention has also helped fuel his fire and perpetuate political polarization.

How can journalists report on his second term without making it all about him? 

In many respects, there is no right answer to this question. But as a journalism student myself, I believe it is important to consider nonetheless. 

In 2024, 31% of Americans reported having a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media to report news fully, accurately and fairly, while 36% have no trust in the media, according to Gallup.  

Putting more focus on the everyday people affected by Trump’s actions and listening to what they have to say are important steps in addressing this distrust. Increasing the emphasis on explanatory and solution-based journalism can also give people more hope to do something about the issues they read about. 

In theory, this is explanatory journalism’s time to shine. Complicated political events need to be broken down and put in context for people to have a deeper understanding of them. The only problem is explanatory journalism is difficult to consume on social media, where many people get their news. 

With political hostility seemingly here to stay and people’s continued shift to getting news from social media, journalism faces a mountain of challenges. 

As I discovered in my introductory reporting class earlier this year, journalism is about 1,000 times more difficult than I could have imagined, and covering the unconventional political personality of Trump only exacerbates this difficulty. 

Benjamin Toff, an associate professor at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota and director of the Minnesota Journalism Center, said Trump is a difficult subject for journalists to cover.

Much of what Trump says and does is outside the normal scope of a political leader of a constitutional democracy, Toff said. Because of this, journalists run the risk of seeming to take a political side by highlighting these behaviors or being accused of treating him as a normal political figure when he is far from one. 

Toff said false information presents another challenge. Fact-checking Trump’s false statements is important but excessively reporting on false information can amplify his claims and give them more power than they had on their own. 

“The public may be more likely to remember the inaccurate claims about Haitian immigrants eating pets in Ohio than all the journalism that went into disproving that,” Toff said. “There isn’t a good solution, but I think it’s part of the challenge that, I think, journalists have faced in trying to cover the campaign.” 

Many people simply do not tune into the news enough to consume credible journalism that explains why certain political statements are false, according to Toff. Remaining impartial in political journalism also makes it difficult to avoid equally criticizing both sides when the sides do not merit equal criticism. 

“I think that has been part of the challenge with coverage of the first Trump administration and his most recent campaign,” Toff said. “There’s a kind of performative scrutiny effort to show that you are being fair and balanced by being aggressively critical of things that are maybe not the same.”

Trump and many Republican officials say and do a lot of inflammatory things that are important to report on. However, overly focusing on elected officials also creates a disconnect between politics and regular people. 

“There tends to be a lot of emphasis on things that public officials say…and not enough attention on what regular people think,” Toff said. “One of the things that that leads to is sometimes blindspots about what the public is thinking when it comes to what’s happening in our politics.” 

People’s news consumption habits are also not as focused on in-depth investigative political journalism, according to Toff. This work cannot make the impact it needs to for many people because they simply are not consuming it. 

“They feel that they can’t escape news about Donald Trump, but the level of depth that people are actually getting is really quite limited,” Toff said. “In many cases I think there was really good, strong, in-depth investigative journalism happening as there was during the first Trump administration.” 

News avoiders often feel they have no power to change the issues they read about, according to Toff. Putting greater emphasis on solution-based journalism presents an opportunity to help people feel more empowered to address the issues that are important to them, especially at the local level.  

George Bagrov, a graduate student at the Hubbard School, said explanatory journalism that places current events in a historical context is important for helping people understand why things happen and what they mean for society. Encouraging critical thinking and media literacy is essential for a more informed news audience.

“Providing some context, political terms,” Bagrov said. “A lot of people read stuff or they watch the news and they just don’t really understand what’s happening.” 

There is a lot to focus on besides Trump, even within the Republican party, and reporting on the work both parties are doing is very important, according to Bagrov. 

When it comes to U.S. elections, news coverage can feel less like a serious presentation of information and more like a creatively written drama, especially on TV. 

“It just felt like a big reality TV show, everybody is just so excited to watch the debates, and then everybody is excited to see what happens, who’s gonna win,” Bagrov said. “There are plot twists…it’s so entertaining to watch.” 

The sensational headlines covering some of Trump’s statements often attract an audience but make the coverage of the election feel like entertainment, according to Bagrov. It is important to not let this sensationalism overshadow the work elected officials are getting done. 

Trump has long threatened journalists and likely will again in his second term. There is no time like the present to rely on and put increasing effort into credible explanatory and investigative reporting that holds Trump accountable. Further, it is important to be increasingly wary of false information. 

This does not have to be Trump’s show. 

People will feel the effects of his administration. Focusing on what regular people are thinking and experiencing can help put the narrative in the hands of the people, not the president. 

Trump may be a former reality TV star, but the future of the U.S. does not need to be a reality TV show. It can at least be a four-star documentary.

If you were casting the roles of America’s next great reality TV show, President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet and staff picks would guarantee multiple seasons of drama and intrigue. When you consider Trump is a former reality TV star, his dream team makes perfect sense. 

But when that reality TV show cast leads the U.S. government, the prospects of a juicy storyline become less appealing and more terrifying. 

Since the election, Trump has been assembling his cabinet and staff for his second term, including the notable nominations of Pete Hegseth as defense secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health and human services secretary, Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence and Elon Musk, who was tasked with increasing government efficiency. 

Absent from this list is Trump’s original pick for attorney general former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) who withdrew his bid for the position due to his ongoing sexual misconduct allegations. The House Ethics Committee had been investigating claims of Gaetz’s sexual misconduct, including sex with a minor in 2017. 

Hegseth, Kennedy and Gabbard, three of Trump’s most controversial nominees, are likely to face difficult confirmation processes. 

Hegseth is facing allegations of sexual misconduct, and Kennedy has spread false and misleading information about vaccines. Meanwhile, representatives have criticized Gabbard for meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2017 and making pro-Russian comments, raising concerns about her qualifications to lead U.S. intelligence efforts.

Hegseth, a former member of the Army National Guard, was also reported to be a potential threat to President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021 because of a tattoo he has that is associated with extremist groups. 

Trump nominated Chris Wright, CEO of the fracking company Liberty Energy, to be his energy secretary. One should be able to see the conflict of interest presented with this pick from a mile away. 

These picks should not surprise anyone who has followed Trump’s actions over the past nine years. The question now is whether the Senate will use its role of providing advice and consent to investigate these controversial nominations and block confirmations if they find these people unfit for their assigned positions. 

Timothy Collins, a political science lecturer at the University of Minnesota, said the pushback exhibited by some representatives so far is encouraging for the health of American institutions and checks and balances. The level of pushback on Trump’s more controversial nominations depends on how many Republican senators care about upholding their integrity and power. 

“It’s nice that some of them have asserted their power to say ‘No, we need to actually have hearings,’ or ‘No, we need to see the House Ethics committee report on Matt Gaetz,’” Collins said. “It’s whether the Senate is really jealous of the power they have.” 

Sarah Beck, a political science PhD student at the University, said Republican representatives may want to avoid confirming some of Trump’s controversial nominees, notably those with sexual misconduct allegations. 

“You don’t like to start off a president’s term with a bunch of really public hearings about sexual harassment,” Beck said. “Some Republican lawmakers may be wary of some of those and might be hoping that some of those candidates will also drop out the way that Matt Gaetz did.” 

Beck said the concerns many people have regarding Trump’s new team are understandable, particularly regarding nominations such as Kennedy’s appointment. 

“If R.F.K. is head of Health and Human Services, he’s said a lot of things that he wants to do that are really concerning from a public health standpoint, and there are a lot of public health experts who have come out and said these are all really bad ideas,” Beck said.  “There’s some concern that these nominees don’t necessarily have a lot of experience or typical credentials could really do a lot, and not necessarily in a positive way.” 

Trump’s tariff proposals would significantly increase the prices of basic goods, such as gas, that would primarily affect people in the bottom 90% of incomes, according to Collins.  

“If the goal is to really jumpstart American manufacturing and make sure that we make things in America, that’s good, that’s a good thing because that can better our economy,” Collins said. “But I don’t know that this is the right way to go about that and I don’t know that the president-elect is surrounding himself with the people who would know how to do that.” 

Beck said the slim majority Republicans have in Congress will make it more difficult for them to pass legislation, but it remains to be seen how much power or pushback GOP representatives will give to Trump in his second term. Following confirmations, only time will tell whether Trump will fire people early on as he did in his first term. 

“It’s also possible if he feels like he has a bunch of people who are pretty loyal to the Republican party and also to him as president, we might see less turnover (of staff),” Beck said.

There is also a looming question of how much support Trump will even need from his cabinet and Congress to deliver on his campaign agenda. 

The Supreme Court decision in Trump v. United States on July 1 gave the president immunity for anything constituting an official act, giving the president increased freedom to act independently without fear of consequences.

“The perils of a Trump presidency without guardrails were made legal with the Trump immunity case from last summer,” Collins said. “The Supreme Court said if a president says that something is an official act, they can do anything they want, and what constitutes an official act is probably whatever a president says, so there’s really nothing stopping a president from doing almost anything.” 

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in her dissent of the decision, “In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law.” 

All of this may seem daunting, but I hope it does not discourage you from participating in civic engagement. If anything, this could act as further motivation to get involved and make your voice heard. 

Minnesota representatives have notable records of being responsive to constituents, according to Collins. Reaching out to them is one of the best ways people can make their voices heard. 

The next four years will be chaotic and difficult for many of us and Trump’s team will likely not help. 

If these nominations bother you, it is your responsibility to make your representatives understand you are counting on them to protect the interests of their constituents and prevent more unqualified individuals from running the government.

Had Vice President Kamala Harris won the presidential election, she would have entered office 105 years after women won the right to vote. Alas, the journey from the ballot box to the oval office continues. 

Twice now, a major political party has put forth a female nominee for president, and twice America has instead elected a former TV star and sexual predator. President-elect Donald Trump has an extensive history of sexual misconduct and disrespecting women and now has a GOP-controlled Congress that will likely attempt to implement abortion restrictions. 

Still, there is reason for hope.

Just because Harris lost this election does not mean the nation was not ready for a female president. We should not take it this way. 

Kathryn Pearson, a political science associate professor at the University of Minnesota, said any Democratic candidate was likely to lose in 2024 due to the electorate’s desire for change. Pearson said voters’ dissatisfaction with the economy, inflation and the Biden administration made Harris’s prospects substantially more difficult.

“If you look at incumbent parties worldwide who have been in office in the aftermath of Covid and with this inflation, they have all been defeated,” Pearson said. “If you look at political science models of elections, a Democratic candidate, whatever their gender, whatever their race, was up against a really difficult electoral situation.” 

Pearson disagreed with the narrative that the election proved the U.S. was not ready to elect a female president. Harris ran a strong campaign that raised a record amount of money and under different circumstances, could have won the election, according to Pearson. 

“My concern, though, is that even though I don’t think any Democrat could have won, could have prevailed in this scenario, that there will be a narrative that we can’t elect a woman, a woman of color in particular, as president,” Pearson said. “I don’t think that’s true.”

There was hope that Generation Z voters would overwhelmingly support Harris, and while young female voters did, young male voters favored Trump.

Pearson said young men of all demographic groups, but particularly white men without college degrees, favored Trump more in 2024 than in 2020. Economic concerns will be important for Democrats to address as they attempt to gain support of young male voters in the future, according to Pearson. 

It is also hard to tell how Gen Z will change. 

Gen Z has grown up in a world filled with threats of climate change, a global pandemic, gun violence and hostile politics, to name a few. These events can shape drastically different political opinions from person to person. 

Grace Hertzog, a political science PhD student at the University, said predicting how Gen Z will trend politically can be difficult because young people are still developing their viewpoints and political ideologies.  

“We’re in our formidable years where a lot of our opinions and personalities are changing,” Hertzog said. “Someone who voted for Trump now might vote for Harris if she runs in 2028 because so much has changed in those four years.”

Hertzog said the negative rhetoric around Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election may have impacted young voters’ perceptions of a female president. However, current explanations of why Harris lost are largely opinion- based as experts are still analyzing the outcome of the 2024 election, according to Hertzog. 

“I’m curious as to how much of what Gen Z voters saw with the 2016 campaign with Clinton versus Trump stayed with them,” Hertzog said. “And if something about that rhetoric of a female president stuck with them.” 

The Democratic party must take this election as an opportunity to assess their strategies for reaching voters, but their takeaway should not be that nominating a woman is a bad idea. 

“Democrats are going to have some soul-searching moments about how to broaden the party’s coalition and reach voters without college degrees, which used to be a part of the Democrat’s coalition,” Pearson said. “I don’t see any reason why a woman couldn’t lead that effort in the future.”

Pearson said while abortion was expected to play an important role in the election and was important for voters supporting Democratic candidates, it was not as important for swing voters. If the Republican-controlled Congress attempts to establish a national abortion ban, we may see a resurgence of support for abortion rights similar to that following the Dobbs decision in 2022, according to Pearson. 

“Republicans will introduce federal bans, but I think that Republican leaders would know that that is not a winning issue for Republicans electorally,” Pearson said “Some Republican legislators don’t care about the electoral repercussions, but others do.”

Republicans will have to decide whether to represent their constituents or their party, Hertzog said. Democrats won district elections in states that went for Trump. This shows that the electorate is complex and not entirely predictable by presidential votes. Not everyone wants the extreme policies Trump prompts to appeal to his base. 

“I think it’s really easy to get wrapped up in the fear that’s posted on social media about what a Republican trifecta looks like,” Hertzog said. “It’s important to remember that members of Congress are really concerned with getting reelected.” 

For many of us, this election was particularly painful. What might it say about America that a competent, qualified woman who has dedicated her life to public service lost to a convicted felon and sexual predator? 

It may be that voters were just tired of the Biden administration and Harris was too closely tied up in President Joe Biden’s low approval rating to appeal to those who wanted change. Still, the significance of this election for women’s rights suggested more people would vote differently. 

“It’s disheartening to look at the U.S. and then look around the world and we’re one of the few democracies that haven’t had a female leader,” Hertzog said. 

Hertzog said while it might be easy to feel discouraged now, she has confidence that people will feel fired up again and continue moving forward. 

As Harris said in her concession speech, “Sometimes the fight takes a while. That doesn’t mean we won’t win.” 

We will have a madame president. We’re one step closer.

For many of us, myself included, the past week was a difficult one. Beyond the initial disappointment and uncertainty of election night, I wondered: Where do we go from here?

As tempting as it may be to hide from the news and resent half of the country who elected a convicted felon and sexual predator to a second presidential term, that will not move us forward.

President-elect Donald Trump gained power by drawing on our distrust of those who disagree with us or live differently than we do.

In order to take away his power to divide us, we must learn to talk to each other again. In order to protect our democracy, we must learn to work with each other again.

Abby Wichlacz, president of the Undergraduate Political Science Association (UPSA) at the University of Minnesota, said working together is an important part of moving forward and people must learn to put negative emotions aside.

“Nobody’s going to listen to each other if they’re all angry and mad all the time,” Wichlacz said. “Creating a productive dialogue is really important.”

A primary goal of UPSA is to bring people together, regardless of political orientation, to have conversations about what is going on in the world and how change can be made, according to Wichlacz.

UPSA held an election debrief event Thursday featuring Kathryn Pearson, a political science associate professor at the University, to create a space for students to process and learn about what happened.

“A lot of people, whether they’re upset or excited about what happened, I think a lot of them are feeling this momentum, this energy,” Wichlacz said. “I really hope they put it somewhere productive like organizing or working for a campaign, doing something with their politics instead of just showing up to vote and that’s it.”

Politics is a contentious space and people have strong feelings about the issues that were at stake in this election. Given our polarization, it can be difficult to understand how we arrive at different perspectives and vote for candidates on opposite sides of the political spectrum.

Emma Weilage, co-communications director at UPSA, said we need to do more to understand each other and where our political perspectives come from. For our democracy to be supported, it is important for people to have representatives who they feel will fight for them, according to Weilage.

“I think it’s just having hope that there’s people in office that will fight for me no matter what,” Weilage said. “Whatever side you’re on there’s somebody that represents you, hopefully, in office, and that gives me hope.”

In order to elect these representatives, it is imperative that people vote, organize, campaign and get involved in any way possible. 

Michael Edwards, co-communications director at UPSA, said Vice President Kamala Harris’s respect for the results was a good sign for democracy. 

“Harris committed to a peaceful transition of power,” Edwards said. “I hope we also have a peaceful transition of power in four years.”

Trump received more than 73,692,066 votes with an estimated 92% percent counted, compared to the 2020 election when he lost with 74,224,319 votes. 

While the democratic process functioned successfully in this election, the man America elected does not respect this democratic process. 

Trump and his supporters spent the last four years spreading false claims about election fraud and gearing up to challenge the 2024 results, but when he won, none of them said a word. Fraud would only be present if Trump lost. 

So, how can we protect our democracy going forward? 

Local engagement is critical, helping ensure fair elections and electing local representatives who will govern in the people’s best interests, and people must take on leadership roles in local communities whenever possible. Voting in national elections is important, but this alone is not enough. 

Democracy does not die overnight, but it will be chipped away if we let it. We now have an even greater responsibility to be active members in determining our country’s future.

Former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that democracy functioned as it should in this election, even if the results were not what many hoped for.

“Citizens across this country, our courts, members of the press and those serving in our federal, state and local governments must now be the guardrails of democracy,” Cheney wrote.

Trump has never been one to walk a normal path to public office, but his ability to gain loyalty and submission from voters and politicians continues to be impressive.

Trump used his felony convictions, ongoing criminal investigations, and trademark lies and conspiracy theories to build a movement transcending facts and reason. He used what would be weaknesses to others as the strengths that shaped the identity of the MAGA movement.

While Trump’s win raises concerns about how he will attempt to reshape the government, democracy is not doomed.

Democracy’s tomorrow depends on the decisions we make today and every day.

The path forward is uncertain, but we must be certain of our commitment to upholding our nation’s values. Values of democracy, press freedom and the ability to live one’s truth can outlast dark times if only we continue to fight for them.

We must look inside ourselves and find new ways to approach the obstacles we face.

Sometimes forests must burn in order to grow anew. We are at a crossroads, and for the sake of our country and the world, I hope we learn to listen to each other.

There are a lot of issues at stake in the 2024 presidential election, but to simplify it, let’s focus on abortion.

Abortion is a very personal issue and most voters have strong opinions on the matter, which is precisely why the decision whether to have an abortion must also be a personal one. Reproductive rights should not be political and the government should have no place in the decision to have an abortion or seek other care.

Abortion access is about the fundamental right to bodily autonomy, and in the 2024 election, this right is on the ballot.

Following the 2022 Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson, overturning Roe v. Wade and sending the fate of abortion access to the states, women have died or suffered preventable pregnancy complications. Doctors fear they will be arrested for simply doing their jobs and the chaos and uncertainty have left many feeling scared and alone.

This presidential election offers the choice between Vice President Kamala Harris, a woman who vows to restore and protect reproductive rights, and former President Donald Trump who appointed the Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade.

Abortion was ranked the No. 1 issue in the presidential election for women younger than 30 in a recent KFF survey, surpassing inflation since Harris replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate. Abortion ranked No. 3 overall for women who participated in the survey.

Paul Goren, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota, said abortion is a very important issue for the majority of voters in the U.S. and people tend to have very strong opinions about it. Goren said these voters could be completely for or against abortion access, or somewhere in the middle.

“It’s not as if the nation is split into two unbridgeable pro-life, pro-choice camps,” Goren said. “A solid chunk of the public is ambivalent about abortion or favors it under some conditions, but not others.”

Goren said he would put abortion among immigration and the economy as the three big issues that are important for the small number of voters who are still undecided.

According to Goren, abortion could be the deciding factor for people who care most about it and are just looking to choose the candidate they see as the lesser of two evils, which would likely favor Harris. Goren added that immigration and the economy are less likely to help the Harris-Walz campaign win over undecided voters.

Dr. Christy Boraas, director of the Division of Complex Family Planning at the University, said all elections are crucial to protecting abortion care, especially presidential elections.

Boraas said electing senators who will protect people’s right to make decisions about their bodies is also important because those representatives control Supreme Court appointments.

“The people who want abortion to go away forever have been playing the long game,” Boraas said. “That not only is electing people to office, but those people then being able to appoint judges.”

Boraas is also an associate medical director at Planned Parenthood North Central States, which includes Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska. Boraas said her work in the Twin Cities didn’t change following the Dobbs decision, but there was a significant increase in patients traveling for care because they could no longer receive treatment in their home states.

Boraas said she does not believe Trump’s recent attempts to soften his rhetoric on abortion.

The Trump-Vance campaign’s stances on reproductive and childcare issues are painfully hypocritical.

At numerous campaign events, Trump said he supports in vitro fertilization, going so far as to call himself the “father of IVF” during a Fox News town hall in Georgia. Meanwhile, the Dobbs decision he helped facilitate by appointing conservative justices to the Supreme Court has been widely unpopular among the public and has put IVF on shaky ground.

According to Goren, abortion is a challenging issue for Trump because the majority of U.S. voters are pro-choice, but Trump still needs to appeal to his pro-life conservative base. Trump either dodges the issue of abortion by saying it is up to the states or talks about something else altogether to avoid taking a clear stance on reproductive rights.

Regardless of his attempts to backtrack, a second Trump presidency would further endanger the future of reproductive care and the ability for people to make decisions about their own bodies.

In the vice presidential debate between Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, when discussing a national paid leave program Vance said women should be able to choose how to navigate returning to work, whether returning promptly or taking more time at home.

“We should have a family care model that makes choice possible,” Vance said.

This concept of women having choices does not, however, extend to Vance or Trump’s viewpoints of actually having a child and being able to access abortion. Trump and Vance do not care about protecting or improving women’s healthcare and reproductive rights if it does not serve their own interests.

Conservatives have been playing the long game to overturn Roe v. Wade and it would be irresponsible not to put a stop to their backtracking with this election and every one after.

“People who want abortion to go away will not stop until we have a federal personhood ‘egg plus sperm equals a person’ law,” Boraas said. “And what that means for reproductive care generally is pretty tragic.”

Boraas said the consequences of abortion bans aren’t new to medical professionals, but the nation is getting to see how abortion bans affect people’s lives. These bans are causing increased infant mortality in addition to worse pregnancy complications, according to Boraas.

Allie Meyer, a first-year student, said this election is important because she feels her rights as a woman are on the ballot. Meyer said she would not trust or feel safe with Trump making federal decisions and is concerned about who would be able to appoint future Supreme Court justices.

To Meyer, abortion is an important issue for people to vote on, even if they aren’t extremely engaged in politics or decided in their policy opinions.

“If you’re on the fence, not voting is the same as voting against it,” Meyer said.

When abortion rights initiatives have been put on the ballot in red, blue and purple states, citizens have voted to protect or expand abortion rights, according to Goren.

This is an issue most of us can agree on, but I want to make it clear that whether you would personally choose to have an abortion or not, what is important is that the choice is a personal one. It is not the government’s place to make decisions for people about their own bodies.

“I’ve yet to meet anyone who was like, ‘You know, I really just wish the government would make this decision for me,’” Boraas said.

During Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s 2018 confirmation hearings, then Sen. Harris famously highlighted the discrepancy between how the law treats female and male bodies.

“Can you think of any laws that give the government the power to make decisions about the male body?” Harris asked.

Kavanaugh confirmed he could not.

This election is essential for abortion rights, but it is bigger than that. The choice between Harris and Trump is the choice between women having their rights protected or taken away whenever possible.

Remember the vice presidential debate? 

Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz faced off in a debate that was, at times, borderline civil — a welcome contrast to the hostility of the presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, in which Trump falsely claimed immigrants were eating pets and Democrats supported killing infants.

Vance went as far as to show respect for his opponent and the moderators — a far cry from the hostility and name-calling both Trump and Vance use on the campaign trail. This illustrated a theme from Vance throughout the debate where he appeared more reasonable than his ideas.

This civility, while encouraging for the future of political discourse, walked a thin line between refreshing and dangerous.

As a society, we need to find more common ground in politics and learn to work together, but we’re not there yet. Don’t let the political bromance of the VP debate shield you from what the GOP ticket would mean for the country.

Howard Lavine, a political psychology professor at the University of Minnesota, said Walz and Vance appeared to be two people who could agree with each other but didn’t like each other’s running mate. When discussing Vance’s performance, Lavine said Vance’s skills give him an advantage in debate.

“He is very capable of talking about things in a relatable way,” Lavine said. “He didn’t tell the truth about a lot of things. A lot of things that a lot of people won’t know are not true.”

Vance made irrational ideas sound rational to viewers who weren’t listening with a critical ear.

Emily Vraga, a mass communications and political psychology professor, said politicians who lie and spread misinformation in the U.S. do not suffer significant consequences and do not lose much appeal among voters.

“Polarization in the U.S. is really strong,” Vraga said. “That leads us to believe our side and disbelieve anyone who’s trying to say our side isn’t right.”

While Vance delivered some misinformation in a believable manner, we also saw the staple outlandish statements the Trump campaign is known for, including Vance’s assertions that Trump will bring back common sense and put the people first — both of which he does the opposite of whenever he walks into a room.

Vance also falsely asserted that Trump peacefully gave up power in 2020 and refused to acknowledge the results of the election when Walz asked him if Trump lost.

“Tim, I’m focused on the future,” Vance said.

If you take one thing into this election, let it be that Trump and Vance are dangerous for American democracy, no matter Trump’s outlandish statements or Vance’s mask of rationality.

Michael Edwards, co-communications director for the Undergraduate Political Science Association at the University, said Vance’s debate performance was different from what he’s seen from him in the campaign so far. Edwards said Trump’s age could be a significant factor in the difference between his and Vance’s debate performances.

When comparing Trump’s and Vance’s debate performances, both men reflected very different perspectives on the state of this country.

“We have the greatest country, the most beautiful country,” Vance said in his closing statement.

Compare this to Trump’s description of the U.S. in the presidential debate between him and Harris.

“We’re a failing nation,” Trump said twice during the debate. “We’re a nation that’s in serious decline.”

These two statements paint very different pictures of the GOP ticket — only one of whom is running for president. Vance could present himself as a respectful, optimistic patriot, but it doesn’t change the fact that Trump will take this fear-mongering negativity and use it as his basis to govern, should he be elected.

Lavine said while we can hope our political discourse will begin to reflect the respect and civility of the VP debate in the future, that is not likely to happen with Trump still engaged in politics. He added that Trump uses the status threat felt by many of his supporters to fuel division and fear of social and demographic changes.

“Trump is tapping into a significant level of resentment in the public,” Lavine said.

When discussing whether Vance’s performance could sway undecided voters, Vraga and Lavine both said voters who are still undecided are likely to be tuned out of politics and probably didn’t watch the VP debate at all.

Ashaar Ali, a second-year strategic communications student, said the VP debate seemed more composed and respectful than the presidential debate between Harris and Trump, but she doesn’t think this will change voters’ minds. Ali added the lack of fact-checking in the debate bothered her because misinformation is already such a significant issue.

Vraga said the partisan nature of fact-checking in this misinformation-filled environment makes it difficult to reach people with fact-checked information.

“Democrats spread fact-checks about Republicans and Republicans spread fact-checks about Democrats,” Vraga said. “If your side lies, and even if there is a fact check issued, the odds are you won’t see it, and if you see it, you’re likely to be very skeptical of it.”

Vraga said people should make an effort to seek out perspectives that challenge their own and that we as a society have the power to change systems that perpetuate misinformation.

As voting begins, the VP debate is probably the furthest thing from your mind. It gave us a glimpse into what politics post-Trump could be but also a reminder that the GOP ticket does not respect fair elections or a peaceful transfer of power.

The Harris-Walz campaign is the only rational party in this presidential election and the only one that will work to protect democracy. Trump and Vance lie about many issues, but they reflect their true colors when they refuse to accept the results of fair elections. 

Did you take civics in middle school? If you weren’t required to take government in high school and have not sought out a similar class in college, you might be relying on your sixth grade education to form your understanding of the political process. 

Students learn the basic structures of government, such as the separation of powers, but required education doesn’t go far beyond that. Many students who don’t focus their studies in government and social science don’t gain an understanding of what their representatives are supposed to do and how they can get involved to elect representatives who support their interests. 

News literacy skills and learning to responsibly consume political messages also get lost in the void between primary education and post-grad life, leaving some students susceptible to misinformation that has become prevalent on social media. 

The University of Minnesota should implement a required course for all students that teaches basic civic engagement and news literacy skills, empowering them to be responsible, active citizens. 

Higher education must equip students with these fundamental skills and resources, including how to navigate voting, analyze political messages and identify misinformation and bias in the media.

Sixteen percent of Generation Z who did not register to vote in the 2022 midterm election said they did not know how to or had difficulty completing the application. Of those who did not cast a ballot, 42% reported being too busy or forgot to vote. 

This shows some Gen Z voters lack the resources to effectively begin engaging in the political process compared to earlier generations who are more frequently targeted by campaigns. 

The University had the highest student voter turnout of any four-year institution in the country in 2020 at 80% — in part thanks to initiatives such as Row the Vote. Still, many students don’t get the knowledge they need to be responsible, active citizens in post-graduate life.

Alexa Drescher, a first-year graduate student at the University, said the last government class she took was in sixth grade, and feels she didn’t get sufficient education to do her own research and navigate civic engagement. Drescher said a University-wide required course is important, especially for informing students about the roles of state and federal representatives.

“What does my state representative do?” Drescher said “What does the president do? Who has the power to do what?” 

Drescher said she only recently understood the limited roles of the vice president when observing the Republican Party’s criticisms of Vice President Kamala Harris for both the actions and inactions of the Biden administration — which she has limited power to control.

When citizens lack understanding of how the government operates and who has the power to make significant policy changes, they become vulnerable to misleading claims like those about Harris. College education must help students eliminate this confusion by implementing a required class for everyone. 

Timothy Johnson, a political science and law professor, said civics education is essential for all students to learn to critically evaluate politics and understand the governmental process. 

“From K to 12, as well as in higher education, we simply need to do a better job as educators of teaching students civics,” Johnson said. “It’s just better for how we are as citizens if you understand how government and the process works.”

Johnson said he mostly works with students who are genuinely interested in politics and government in his upper-level courses, but some who come into his introductory course lack critical knowledge of how the government works. Johnson added that students who understand how the government operates are more likely to trust the government and view it as legitimate. 

Nina Maxwell, a first-year student, said she would support a required civic engagement and news literacy course similar to the First-Year Experience courses required in colleges across the University, even if students already learned the content. 

“Even if you know, it’s always good to have a reminder,” Maxwell said.

In our digital world, news literacy is increasingly relevant, and being able to identify misinformation and bias is essential to being a responsible citizen. 

The News Literacy Project, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization, works nationwide to increase news literacy for K-12 students by providing educational resources that prepare them to be informed members of society. 

According to one of their five news literacy standards, “Students express and exercise civic responsibility by seeking, sharing and producing credible information as effective participants in a democracy.”

Students across the country do not meet this standard by their high school graduation. This makes it even more important for higher education to teach all students basic skills and expand on them to help students become critical thinkers and decision makers. 

Johnson said he wants his students to be able to take the knowledge they learn in class and use it to be active citizens and responsible consumers of information. 

“My job as a teacher, as a social scientist, as a political scientist is to help my students learn how to think, but don’t teach them what to think,” Johnson said. “I don’t concern myself with what they actually believe, as long as they can back it up with good evidence and that the sources they are using that help them suss out those beliefs are good sources.” 

With the spread of misinformation on social media and biased content online, the ability to identify credible sources and use reliable information to form opinions is a cornerstone of effective civic engagement.

Ellias Bjorback, a second-year post-secondary enrollment student, said there needs to be more focus on teaching students how to identify bias in messages online. Prior to taking a government class at the University, Bjorback did not know much about how the government and legislative process works. 

College students invest tens of thousands of dollars in their education, and many will become our future leaders. Higher education institutions have a responsibility to help them become informed and engaged citizens. 

Johnson said he is hopeful students in future classes will enter college with a better understanding of civics because of legislation passed in the 2023 Minnesota legislative session requiring all students to fulfill a citizenship and government course requirement in 11th or 12th grade.

Still, not all students have these requirements in high school and students at the University represent a small percentage of students nationwide. Even fewer will take government courses during their time at the University and those in unrelated majors may not see the need to. 

By requiring civics education and news literacy for all students, the University can give students an advantage in becoming thoughtful, engaged citizens and serve as a model for institutions across the country that are educating the next generation of voters and leaders.

As a member of Generation Z, the first presidential election I followed was the 2016 election when I was 13 years old. Filled with hope, I accompanied my parents to the polls, thinking we were about to elect the first female president, only for reality to punch me in the face the next morning. 

Over the next four years, I watched a dark cloud of violence and hatred descend over the nation’s political future with which I had not long been acquainted. 

As I navigated high school, I felt increasingly discouraged by the political division spreading across the country, only occasionally finding the will to laugh at the absurdity while watching Saturday Night Live. I realized I needed to use my voice to help create a future where people work together instead of against each other. 

Since 2016, Gen Z has come of age in an era marked by political division, gun violence, racial violence, climate change and a global pandemic. The news over the past eight years has delivered one discouraging story after another. 

In the 2024 presidential election, Gen Z voters have a choice between two paths — one covered by the same dark cloud and the other with sunlight peeking through. 40.8 million members of Gen Z will be eligible to vote in 2024, including 8.3 million new eligible voters since the 2022 midterm elections. Additionally, nearly half of eligible Gen Z voters are people of color. 

Gen Z voters have an opportunity to make their voices heard in the upcoming election and show which future they will create for the U.S. and the world. We can leave behind violence and hate and focus on progress and positivity. 

Larry Jacobs, founder and director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, said Gen Z will likely make a difference in the 2024 election.  

“The Gen Z voters and citizens are the difference makers,” Jacobs said. “The country is essentially knotted into two large groups of partisans, and Gen Z is coming in with a dismal view of both parties and wanting to see change in the way we do our politics and the tenure of our politics.”

Jacobs said this is a hopeful generation who can step in and provide leadership for America.

When asked about the violent and hateful rhetoric prevalent in American politics and its impact on young people, Jacobs said Gen Z faces conflicting messages of hope and hate. 

“I think it’s one of the reasons Kamala Harris introduced her campaign as one about hope as a way to try to really reach out and connect with younger voters,” Jacobs said.

Using hope and joy to reach young voters, as the Kamala Harris campaign is doing, acknowledges the turbulent political environment Gen Z voters have come of age in since the 2016 election.  

Carmen McLaren, a second-year student at the University, is among the Gen Z voters who see the 2024 election as a turning point with two very different paths. McLaren said she feels cautiously optimistic about the upcoming election but remembers the challenges of processing the 2016 election as a child. 

“We were quite young to be able to comprehend all of it,” McLaren said. “But I was able to comprehend it and be stressed about it.” 

McLaren said observing the political violence and division in the U.S. since the 2016 election can become overwhelming, and it is important for Gen Z to take a step back. 

“At some point, you just can’t really hold all of that in you,” McLaren said. “You do have to be kind of stoic about it in a way and not feel such intense empathy toward everything that’s going on.” 

Many of the would-be shocking events, such as multiple assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump and his baseless accusations about migrants that inspire violence in others, have become part of the political nature we expect in the U.S., according to a New York Times news analysis. 

Riley Hetland, director of civic engagement for the Undergraduate Student Government (USG), works with USG’s non-partisan Row the Vote campaign to register students to vote and get students to the polls. Hetland said the politically divided nature of the 2024 election is motivating students to get involved and vote. 

“I’m seeing a lot more attention and a lot more engagement honestly because of how divided everyone is,” Hetland said. 

Hetland said it is important to her that young people make their voices heard, regardless of their political beliefs.

“I’ve always felt that I could make a change, despite being young,” Hetland said. “I think it’s really important that youth do know and young voters do know that they can make meaningful change.” 

This is a critical moment for Gen Z to find our collective voice as decision-makers and affirm the future we want for this country and our place in the world. We may have grown up with politicians abusing hateful rhetoric and inciting violence, but we don’t have to lose trust in our government. 

It is up to us to take action and fix it. 

Jacobs said that, in his career studying American history, this moment stands out as crucial. 

“There are moments that represent tipping points,” Jacobs said. “This is a tipping point, and the tipping point is going to be over whether America is engaged in the world.” 

Jacobs said getting involved with others who share hope and optimism for the future can make people realize they can make a difference and regain their lost hope. If you feel discouraged by what is going on, the best thing you can do is get involved. 

This isn’t the first time youth voters have decided they must be the change they want to see, and it cannot be the last. Gen Z can choose hope over hate. 

“Get involved, Don’t sit on the sidelines,” Jacobs said. “Grab a pale of water and run toward the fire.”

Eight years ago, I accompanied my parents to the polls in hopes of making history. Now, it is our turn, and I hope you will join me. 

Let’s run toward the fire.