For a majority of undergraduate RIT students, the 2024 election will be the first presidential election that they can participate in. Our campus hosts a variety of differing opinions and viewpoints, which come to light during this election season. In order to better understand the various politically active voices on campus, we reached out to e-board members of both Democrat and Republican organizations here at RIT, and asked them for their thoughts and opinions on the upcoming election.

Andrew Simonson

Fourth Year Computer Science Major

E-Board Member of the College Republicans

The views reflected in this question-and-answer do not necessarily reflect the views of College Republicans at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Opinions expressed here are personal to the individual interviewed. For further inquiries, please contact collegerepublicans@rit.edu.

Q: What are your goals as an organization on campus?

A:  The goals of the College Republicans has changed over the years. Right now, it is mostly focused around maintaining the discussion about political topics on campus. I’ve noticed a lot increasingly over the years, it’s been harder and harder to have those conversations. So not so much focus specifically on the Republican point of view. We do accept members from any political persuasion.

Q: How do you believe that our political parties have changed in the past five years? 

A:  So of course, they’ve changed significantly around 2016, where the Republican Party started shifting towards a more populist view and further away from being the party of business, if you will. On the Democrat side, I’d say maybe a little bit longer than five years ago. But just as they were opposing the Trump era, they’ve taken on a very big tent of the party and expanded it to encompass the candidates themselves rather than the issues. If we’re talking more about the Democratic establishment, they’ve really entrenched themselves into the inner workings of the party. We hear a lot about certain candidates being kind of pushed out of the Democratic nomination. Bernie Sanders, of course, Henry [Andrew] Yang, and now Joe Biden kind of being persuaded in a less than gentle way to drop out. So him having gathered all the votes for the nomination and then giving those votes to somebody who did not receive them. 

Reporter added context:

There is no proof that Kamala Harris was individually given nomination votes. Instead, she was included on the ticket with Joe Biden, which grants her full access to campaign funds. Party delegates formally nominated Harris at the Democratic National Convention.

Q: Say that your party wins the upcoming election, what comes next?

A:  Well, personally, something that might be a little bit more valuable to me than most Republicans is we’ve really taken issue with lawfare going against all of the cases on who’s on the ballot and the number of impeachments that have happened in Trump’s first term. So I think a big focus will be trying to figure out where that’s coming from within the government because we have witnessed a lot of federal agencies in the executive kind of playing sides in politics. So we want to make sure that that does not happen again. Trying to make sure that we have a completely fair government rather than having people playing sides to one specific, like in the executive branch … making sure that they are under control of the elected. The people who are elected in the executive, of course, being the president rather than those agencies having tremendous power over the president. 

Q: What do you want the country to know about the next four years if your candidate were to win?

A: Well, it’s stepping away from whatever policy Trump implements because of course, that’s more up in the air than it should be. Especially during election time, there’s always so much talk about mental health and, but de-stressing, I guess. Especially, we know, during the 2016 election, there was just a lot of unnecessary suffering when people realized that Trump had won. And so I would want the people of our campus to know that this is not the end of the world and we’ve already had this candidate as president before, and it has not been a complete utter disaster. And of course, that applies for Biden as well. I mean, we are not currently engulfed in flames, nobody has been executed. We will survive regardless of what happens in this election. 

Q: What are your opinions on the two-party system that we have in the United States?

A:  I think the two-party system is partially responsible for the state of the election as it is. There’s so much talk about just voting against the other guy that it’s pretty clear that if we had more parties, then we would be able to choose a candidate that we genuinely feel is going in the right direction rather than just going in the wrong direction, slightly slower. And of course, people are always concerned about vote splitting, that sort of thing. But I feel that there’s been plenty of discussion about how we avoid that with ranked choice voting. So if we had just implemented a voting system like ranked choice voting, for instance, then the rest would fix itself because we have these third parties already, which is why people are afraid to vote for them.

Q: How would you describe the character of your candidate? 

A: So this question does feel a bit like a trap because I think pretty much anybody would recognize that the character of Donald Trump is not the most professional. Of course, there is an appeal to that to a lot of voters because there’s just so much frustration about how the government is run now that we do need a bull in a china shop to reshuffle the cards. So expanding beyond character, of course I am not super happy with the flexibility that Trump has in some of his positions. For instance, especially like the first election, he was much more business oriented. He presented himself as the businessman that he was and he was not going to cut all these regulations, stop spending it so much. But it has shifted quite significantly which shows me that, even though it hasn’t shifted as much as the Democrats’ position, it’s still not quite grounded in ideological principles.

Q: What are your thoughts on the other candidate?

A: I very much feel that Trump has been much more consistent than the Democrats and in particular Kamala Harris. It has been very clear that Kamala has had dramatically different positions from her time as a public official in California, especially on marijuana there, and then going into the 2020 election, it was very, very dramatically progressive and a lot of policies that people did not like. Now going to this election, she’s pretending to be more like Biden, who presented himself as the opposite of that in the 2020 election — so the fact that it was less of an ideological shift for her and more of just completely switching sides. I don’t think that the establishment Democrats are going to be swayed from this inconsistency because it’s working out in their favor at this point. But I definitely feel like, as we saw with a whole bunch of party supporters voting for Trump in 2016, the sheer ideological inconsistency proves to a lot of principled Democrats, especially more progressive ones, that you can’t trust Kamala Harris. 

Q: Do you have any advice for those wanting to understand our government and get involved in our party system? 

A:  I definitely know what I want to talk about here, but it’s always a little bit interesting to talk about. But to convey one of the most important things when starting to understand our government is to not take in so much of the news and say it again. Just because, even in just that short period of time, a lot of the fear mongering has dissipated and the facts have come to light because in the short term, it is very easy to create scary stories on rumors and the facts have to come to catch up. So especially when you’re just starting out, you want to make sure that you don’t fall down the rabbit hole of … a ridiculous lens that you get stuck on your face. Following these news stories that just generate so much hate. 

Q: What’s important for voters to keep in mind looking past the presidential election?

A: Our system has checks and balances for a reason. And so when people that we don’t want get into power, we instinctively try to change the system to make sure that we have the power instead. So just thinking a bit more long term, when we’re talking about making sure that Trump doesn’t do anything absolutely ridiculous or Kamala Harris doesn’t institute 100% tax. So for the Democrats, just since the power and … time, we use them as an example. They have done a lot in lawfare developing how you can stop a candidate through legal means and that is developing a huge power that Republicans when they get the … presidency back will be able to use on them. So sooner or later, a bad person is going to get a hold of that power. People talk about echo chambers and we all know what that means and we all wanna make sure that we are able to connect with or discuss opposing ideas … You put yourself in that echo chamber. I have to say this year in this election, in particular, I felt that it has been very hard to voice the mission of College Republicans because RIT doesn’t want to promote it. No intermediary is willing to put their members at risk of being offended for lack of a better term. I absolutely hate that term because I know it’s a buzzword. Even if you are in that cycle right now, I would want people to know that you can talk to the other side. We are here, and we are among you and you can see that we are not the villains that people make us have to be. This is not a shadow of the elite.

Jakob Langtry 

Fourth Software Engineering Major 

E-Board Member of the College Democrats 

The views reflected in this question-and-answer do not necessarily reflect the views of College Democrats at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Opinions expressed here are personal to the individual interviewed. For further inquiries, please contact collegedemocrats@rit.edu. 

Q: What are your goals as an organization on campus? 

A: You’ll probably get some disagreement on this issue [between] members of the e-board, because it is kind of an interesting issue. Do we want to be a safe space for people to talk about their views, a place for people to meet up and just know that everyone agrees with them? But there’s also probably a sect of the club that would like us to be a politically active club who debates the republicans, who is all over campus trying to advocate for change … We have like 15 members. So I think that my preferred direction for the club, unless we were to grow in size and sway on the campus exponentially, is to just continue serving as a safe place for people to be.

Q: How do you believe that our political parties have changed in the past five years?

A: To be honest, I don’t think the Democratic Party has really changed much in the past five years. In a lot of places, they are running the same people who lost their seats in the 2022 midterms again, hoping that voters will just magically hate Republicans more than they did in 2022 and flip the seats back.

Q: Assume your party wins the election, what do you think would come next? 

A: I’m uncertain about Harris’ initial move as president. It could be a campaign promise to symbolically reassure the voters who supported her in the election that she has their interests at heart. However, I’m not sure which voters she’ll prioritize first. Will it be the people she promised energy independence to? Or will it be pushing the Republican border bill that Donald Trump had shot down? Personally, I hope it’s something related to reinstating Roe v. Wade protections. But we can only speculate since there haven’t been many instances where Kamala has provided us with clear policy recommendations.

Q: What do you want the country to know about the next four years if your candidate were to win?

A: I don’t think Kamala would be, personally, an extraordinarily good president. And I also think that currently, we are in an economic downturn that’s … I don’t believe the president has much power in avoiding global economic downturns, and I think that we’re on the brink of one. So I think that there will be a global economic downturn sort of no matter what. I just really think that the benefit of a Kamala presidency is maybe in four years we won’t have to be choosing between Trump and Kamala, we can choose between Kamala and someone else. I think that she will be a unifying voice in many ways, though. 

Q: What are your thoughts on the two-party system? 

A: [Sighs] Theoretically, it sucks, but practically, most systems end up becoming a two-party system in the end. I mean, because let’s say you have a 10-party system, then one party is going to find an issue where they agree with another party and they’re going to team up on all the other parties and just, slowly over time, it’ll end up with one group of people against another group of people. So I think that it’s just an unfortunate reality.

Q: What are your thoughts on your candidate for the presidency 

A: So I think that Kamala is … very much a Democrat. I think that a lot of Democratic policies have shifted in the past 10 years to be somewhat more Republican in their nature. They do this ‘run to the center’ strategy, and it’s not one that I’m the biggest fan of. I just think that Kamala, her positions on social issues are so important that I would forgive almost any economic policy of hers in order to just ensure that my friends and family have the right to exist or make decisions about their body. 

Q: Do you mind expanding on the qualms you would have with her economic policies? 

A: Well, I think specifically that immigration is one of the most positive things a country can have, and I think that that was a world view that was held by 90 percent of Americans 15 years ago. And somehow, Donald Trump and just fear and hatred general throughout the world has spurred a massive shift on that. To the point that the ‘most progressive president we’ve ever had,’ or will ever have, which is what they’re calling Kamala, is still staunchly pro-border wall and deportation and so many other things, when … immigrants are genuinely one of the only positive things that has made this country so unique over its history. So I think that she has a very ‘2012 Mitt Romney’ position on immigration, and I personally have a qualm with that. 

Q: What are your thoughts on the other candidate? 

A: Well, every single negative policy that I hold Kamala responsible for, he has — I believe — a worse version of that policy planned, and 10 other bad policies with it. I dislike the fact that I still kind of feel like we’re choosing the lesser between two evils. But I don’t know, I think that that’s always how it’s kind of been what U.S. politics has been. I don’t think there’s ever been an election where we’re choosing between someone who will do everything for the consumer, everything for the down-beaten, for the people who need it. [Democrats have] always just been picking the one that will do the most not-bad stuff. I think, even as far back as FDR, we’ve never really had a completely uncontroversial candidate. But I think that Trump is probably the most controversial candidate we’ve ever had. Maybe not, if we go back to the Civil War. Like in modern history.  

Q: What’s your advice for those wanting to understand our government more and maybe want to get more involved in our party system? 

A: The great thing about politics is that the youngest politicians are older than the oldest celebrities. Politics is not a field you have to get into immediately. You can really live your entire 20s and even somewhat your entire 30s without even thinking about politics, and then get involved in your 40s and be one of the youngest people there … It’s really about starting on the ground level, and it’s something you have to slowly build up. I also think that the College Democrats, we have a pretty good list of contacts, and they come to our meetings and they give out business cards sometimes. I do think that politics is a forgiving field to enter if you are a person who cares about entering it. 

Q: And what about those who may not want to be directly involved with a politician and just want to be more informed voters? 

A: Informed voters, that’s a really difficult thing because I spend a good portion of my time thinking about this stuff and if you asked me, ‘Are you an informed voter?’ I would still say no because I have no way of knowing if everything I believe has just been given to me by some propagandist. I don’t know, you’d probably have to find a more self-assured person to find that problem. I tend to find that the people who are most confident in their beliefs are the ones that have done the least amount of research into it. So maybe stay away from the incredibly confident people, the ones you see on major news channels. 

Q: So what would you say an alternative to that would be for people who want to be more curious or more informed? 

A:  I don’t know, I think [they should] stay away from the pundits, stay away from the people [sources] who talk about politics as if it’s their opinion. And that’s on both sides: stay away from Anderson Cooper, stay away from Ben Shapiro, stay away from Wolf Blitzer and stay away from Tucker Carlson. Just read the news article. Reading is difficult, I can barely do it myself, but the news article will contain what actually happened and very little spin. I think that so many people get sucked into the pundits and that’s really the big issue. 

Q: What do you think is important for voters to keep in mind looking past the presidency? 

A: Wow, I don’t know. I think that this election is — you know they always say, ‘this one’s the most important one,’ and I don’t necessarily believe that this is the most important one. I think it will be a very interesting election to watch, and I’m rooting for the people of America … and the people at RIT. A lot of people I’ve met at RIT are not voters, or they’re not going to vote, and I think that there’s a lot of good reasons they give to not vote. Like, ‘no politician is really advocating for the changes I want to see.’ Like we talked about this earlier, ‘I feel like we’ve been voting for the lesser of two evils, and I’m just not interested.’ I think that is unfortunately the reality of a lot of decisions we’ll make in life, nothing’s ever going to be as ideal as you want it to be. So if you are not going to vote for Kamala because of this one issue that she is not exactly on your side on, then you’re just — it’s not like Donald Trump is on your side on that issue. I think that non-voter-participation is a very youthful and dumb thing to do. Just because you believe there should be some ideal world where someone represents your views a little bit better, it’s just not the world we live in. 

Q: If you want to share, when and where are the College Democrats meetings? 

A: They are Wednesdays at 8 in the Clark A. Conference Room. What I always tell people is that it’s up the stairs by Ben and Jerry’s. SAU 2520. Feel free to show up any time, you don’t have to come every time.