With election season coming to a close and feelings around the president-elect, Sacramento State’s students are buzzing about how politics will affect them and those around them.
The political rhetoric that headed this year’s election season was characterized by hate speech, political violence and misinformation. Following the results of the 2024 general election, many students have chosen to speak up over the abundance of extremism, from insurrection fears to assassination attempts.
Sac State is ranked 2023’s second most diverse campus in the West, according to the Wall Street Journal. As such, Hornets with a variety of backgrounds and opinions are feeling the effects of a more polarized political climate.
Lisa Stade, a senior majoring in history, said that their biggest concern is widespread violence and civil war. They said their studies specialize in Nazism and World War II and they worry that history could be repeating itself.
“One of my concerns is civil war. We don’t need battlegrounds on our campus,” Stade said. “It’s not good. I think that all [of] society has failed.”
Though unlikely, the idea of American civil war in the modern era has permeated the minds of Americans since the events of Jan. 6 2021, where insurrectionists stormed the Capitol to protest the confirmation of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States.
Stade said this fear has affected the way they express themselves and their religion. They said that as a practicing witch, the fear mongering from Christian Republicans is of great concern.
“A lot of Trump supporters are fundamentalist Christians and want to see people like me gone,” Stade said. “[To] people that are religious minorities this is a warning sign of what this guy can do.”
Christian Berry is not a student at Sac State, but his wife is. He said that, though he voted Democrat his whole life, he voted for Trump in 2024 for his family.
Berry said that he does not care about what people think about his opinions, even if they have changed the way that people see him. He said that, no matter what, people should go out and vote if they want to see change.
“I want my daughter to know that she has every right to go out and vote,” Berry said. “Voting is not free; it was fought for. Voting is a big step for doing it the right way.”
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Alexis Weremecszko, a fifth-year food nutrition major, said that it was terrified following the two assassination attempts on president-elect Donald Trump whilst campaigning and feared that political violence would continue.
“We are dehumanizing people when there’s no reason to. It’s literally just to create an enemy for these people to rally against,” Weremecszko said. “Marginalized groups are being used as pawns for these people to come take power and further their own goals in life.”
With political polarization in the U.S. on the rise, students like Weremecszko say they experience more and more conflict with loved ones over politics. It said that members of its family voted for Trump and it no longer feels safe around them.
“They’re not going to stand up for my rights, so why should I continue to speak with them?” Weremecszko said.
Weremecszko said that it voted for itself and the people around it at risk.
“To hope that there’s a future for marginalized groups in the United States, a safe future,” Weremecszko said. “A less stressful future where we can focus on thriving rather than surviving.”
