Sitting in math class minutes after the bell rang, my teacher had just run out to grab copies of some worksheets. I became increasingly aware that my peers and I had a new found free range of possibilities with her absence. I saw how friends clustered together and exchanged whispered gossips, I saw the dirty looks being passed between exes, and the general elevated ego in the air to misbehave solely because no one had been present to stop it.
These sort of shallow interactions are not only present among high school teenagers, though. The upcoming presidential election is hanging over the heads of Americans, and American politics are particularly in a spotlight of attention. This spotlight reveals the polar political parties in the United States.
Civilians in either political party may resort to protests or verbal exchanges online as forms of interaction. These interactions among individuals can escalate quickly and through aggression.
The Black Lives Matter movement for example was a protest against police brutality that sparked after the murder of George Floyd.
The All Lives Matter movement was directly created to counter the Black Lives Matter movement. Social exchanges of this sort are frequently personal and showcase just how involved opposing groups become with one another.
I say opposing not for dramatization or generalizing, but to describe how deeply rooted in feelings of hatred certain factions of the Democratic and Republican parties can be. Only recently on July 13, 2024 former President Donald Trump underwent an attempted assassination, an almost tragic example of the split in our nation.
Social stations have relevance in these social issues. Reckless and petty behavior might not be entirely surprising among high schoolers or groups of civilians but such behavior is also evidently found directly within the U.S political system. As these levels of caste progress so does that group’s impact.
U.S. politicians are the voices of the people and hold immense responsibility for tasks like policy making processes, foreign affairs, a national defense system, order, and many other duties to the function of our country.
Arguably these leaders with tremendous control should carry themselves with sophistication, and emit respect, should they not?
But time and time again people in power have shown that they are no different from us, or from an unsupervised classroom of children that runs freely.
On May 16, 2024, a house committee meeting resulted in a dispute between two state representatives, Jasmine Crokett and Marjorie Taylor Greene. The two representatives’ dispute consisted of remarks on the other’s physical appearance, not about the government business at hand.
A PBS article transcribes the interaction and the exact comments said were as follows, ¨I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you´re–¨, followed by ¨If someone on this committee then said starts talking about somebody’s bleached blonde, bad built, butch body, that would not be engaging in personalities.¨
Just recently last Sunday, Oct. 27, and a week before the presidential election, there was a particularly nasty comment made at a Trump rally in Madison Square Garden.
The Guardian News delves in a comment made by comedian Tony Hinchcliff at the rally, he referred to Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory as ¨a floating island of garbage.¨
The comment, along with others that had underlying racial stereotypes, quickly sparked controversy over the internet. And have since caused significant backlash against the Trump/Vance campaign.
These instances of ill humored comments made in a political atmosphere, bear a striking similarity to feuding girls in class and the off-putting wants to be class clown that are present even in some of my classes.
Comments like these may seem miniscule compared to larger scaled political conflicts, but they hold weight. They reflect back onto the people of the United states, disrespect for members of the opposite political party has become all too normal.
In fact, current president Joe Biden responded to the comments made by Tony Hinchcliff at Trump/Vance rally. In an ABC News article, there is a video of President Biden saying ¨the only garbage I see floating around out there is his supporters.¨
The comment led to an even more drawn out ordeal, with confusion around whether Biden was referring to those supporting Trump or those who support Hinchcliff.
In response, former president Donald Trump drove a garbage truck to refute Biden’s comment, saying ¨For Joe Biden to make that statement, it’s really a disgrace,¨ according to NewsWeek.
The chain link of events seems rather absurd because it takes attention away from what occurred in the first place, Tony Hinchcliff´s hateful comment.
This ridiculous interaction almost feels familiar, like two competing students trying to one-up the other for the teacher´s favor, or in this case the public’s opinion. After all, what really is U.S. politics without mutual bad-mouthing an opponent to come out on top.
Minor conflicts in school classes across America between teenagers for petty reasons is one thing. But It is another thing entirely to see the same offensive pettiness displayed by our government.
Is it human nature to have rivalry with those we don’t get along with? Or is it simply immaturity?
Clearly people in any age group and social class all over America can become especially divided in politics, which may in part be due to the social aspect of it all. I would like to preface by saying that my claim is not that every person in politics fits into behavior of discerning immaturity, but that an overwhelming amount do. And civilians can easily play into the charade of it all.
Political leaders and high school students have both shown an affinity to the inability to respectfully coexist with contending individuals. The actions and words that the U.S. general population sees from politicians, people in leader positions, causes a resulting reinforcement of immature and disrespectful behavior. This is because impertinent behavior´s frequency in U.S politics has been mistaken for normalcy.