My personal view:
Behind the chaos of the 2024 Presidential election, the real culprit was the journalism industry. Politics were at the heart of America during the first week of November, dividing and uniting people at a constant pace. We have been at war with each other’s opinions, insisting we are more correct than the opposing person. But, after this election it seems everyone was wrong. Weeks in advance, news outlets were stating the race would be a close one for both parties. Donald Trump, a name known well across the country and even the entire world, was in a strikingly huge lead against Kamala, significantly surpassing the required 270 electoral college votes to win by claiming every single swing state. But in the end, I don’t blame my anger on the citizens, I blame it on the journalism networks. I wouldn’t be this upset if I had known it was actually a possibility Trump would be re-elected, but instead me and many others were faced with overwhelming shock when it happened. This is because major news sources promoted Kamala winning by a landslide, such as The Economic Times. But this was in fact the opposite. Journalism has been the source behind major events including exposing the Watergate scandal and Pentagon Papers. It’s difficult in this day and age to know what’s real and what’s fake. Considering this was the presidential election, I didn’t think journalism would be hiding anything. Like Elon Musk buying out Twitter and using it to his political advantage, these news sources must have also been waiting for the Democratic party’s weakest point so they could create history. Some sources say they didn’t and it was all just a matter of coincidence, but I think it was more than that. They wanted us to be left in shock so Trump could make history again and be talked about. Aside from Trump unfortunately winning the race, I am ashamed that the journalism industry could not have prepared us more for what was to come. The lack of information spread the day before the election was like wildfire, including the leading Google search “Who is in the election” in swing states, “Is Donald Trump a Republican,” and “What is a tariff.”
A recent anonymous, optional poll that was on our website gave further insight into the Palisade community political views. The poll was titled “How are you feeling after the Presidential Election?” The results showed that out of 101 votes, 36% of them felt good, and 64% felt bad.
Conservative views from students:
Here at Palisade, many students, although not of age, are happy to voice their support for Republican nominee Donald Trump. An anonymous source had this to say about their support for Trump: “He doesn’t disgrace the country and say things like, ‘I hate all of you.’ But also, he has the right values and the passion to run for President. His values can make the country a symbol of good. He’s real and doesn’t have to use proctors to talk, he actually uses his brain. In the next four years, I hope he gets the border under control again and gas prices fall. ”
Liberal views from students:
While many students here are openly conservative, Palisade’s students’ political views range on a large spectrum. An anonymous student shared their opinion on the results of the election: “The election did not go the way I wanted it to,” the student says, “I think that Donald Trump was and is going to continue being the worst thing for America as he does not care about fundamental rights for anybody if you are not a white, heterosexual male. I believe these four years are going to be the downfall of the United States. He is really going to have an impact on the future of the United States and I believe that everyone who voted for him is puppets to his game and can be very easily manipulated. Everybody definitely believes everything he says, no matter how bad it may be but I just think that Kamala Harris really wanted to fight for the freedoms of the people and genuinely cared about trying to take the United States further. With Trump winning, we are going to become even more divided than we are and he will go down in history as the worst President we’ve ever had.”
