Young Trump supporters find themselves alienated

Nicole Stone/News Director

 

The vice chair of the College of Republicans takes precautions to protect herself from violence based on her political alignment.

For Cristina Perez, her support for presidential candidate Donald Trump has been something she’s tried to keep to herself.

“I am a Trump supporter, but I do a lot of other clubs that I don’t want it to be necessarily known,” Perez said to Student Media.

Political bumper stickers appear every election cycle; Perez owns a Trump sticker but said she won’t place it on her bumper.

“I don’t want people to incite violence on me just because I’m a Trump supporter,” Perez said.

Instead, she puts it in her dashboard so that her car won’t get vandalized.

“I feel it’s easier and safer,” Perez said.

Kevin Evans, a professor with a doctorate in political science, attributes the self-censorship young Trump supporters adopt as part of a legitimate response to polarization.

“Students who are Trump supporters on a college campus probably feel that pressure to a great extent and may feel alienated,” Evans said to Student Media. “But this is something that can happen anytime you take any political stance – particularly in today’s polarized world.”

Evans said some voters may support a candidate based on a single stance they may represent.

“I personally know a few people who are supporting Donald Trump because they’re single-issue voters. Literally all they care about is the abortion issue … but literally nothing else and they think he’s sort of a vile person, but that’s the thing they agree on and know that he’ll support,” Evans said.

For many students, abortion is a pressing issue, but their concerns range across all aspects of social justice and into other realms, like economics.

“I, 100 percent, support Donald Trump,” said Adrian Pombo, a freshman and economics major.

He explained that he is very open about his views, regardless of what other students may think and is an avid supporter of Trump who has aligned himself with the pro-life movement.

“Abortion is killing life and nobody has the right to kill life,” Pombo said to Student Media.

For Perez, however, safety and immigration concern her most.

“I care about safety in America. This is a free world, but at the same time we need to make sure our people are safe,” Perez said. “I don’t agree with a Syrian refugee coming into the country because they’re a big safety issue and that’s been proven by WikiLeaks and other things.”

Perez believes Trump wants to implement an immigration policy that will not “get taken advantage of.”

Another aspect young Trump supporters like about the Republican candidate is his bluntness.

“I think Donald Trump will be a great president for the United States. His business skills will benefit the United States greatly and furthermore than Hillary Clinton’s. I feel that people bash Donald Trump out of pure ignorance because he’s upfront about things. People don’t like being told how it’s supposed to be told. They like sugar-coating things,” Pombo explained.

While Perez feels Trump’s composure isn’t the greatest, she believes people are deterred from Trump because of his notorious temper.

“A lot of people would say that he just attacks people. I think it’s more important that he actually cares,” she said. “He’ll know your name and your story. That’s more important than anything else.”

According to Perez, Clinton is an “expert politician” and untrustworthy.

“She has the facts presented right in front of her, that it’s unsafe to let them [Syrian refugees] in and she still does it. So I can’t trust her … She’s gotten caught up as an expert politician,” Perez said.

“What is more important: trust or composure?” Perez asked.

Astrid Arrarás, who holds a doctorate in Latin American politics, democratization and political development from Princeton University, said the University is not a very politicized campus in comparison to other universities at which she has taught.

The senior lecturer and associate director of Undergraduate Studies also brought up the point that Trump’s stances on some issues may alienate some groups as much as his own young supporters.

“Trump is doing very well in Miami and Florida. It’s just that some of his positions are alienating some groups such as women, Latinos and African Americans for example, but I have Latinos and African Americans in my classes who are voting for Trump,” Arrarás said. “Maybe in some circles, voting for Trump is something to be embarrassed about or criticised, and that’s why they stay quiet.”

Nonetheless, she says that she has classes where there are more Republican students and others with more Democrats but it’s important to note that among her Republican students, their vote for Trump may be an anti-Hillary vote.

“They’re voting for the party, most of them. And they’re voting for the best candidate of two candidates that are not the best,” Arrarás said.

For the most part, the College of Republicans have not seen a schism in their political alignments this election, said Perez.

“I think we’re all accepting the whole Trump thing,” Perez said to Student Media.

Arrarás mentioned that the dynamic of this election is going to be very interesting for political analysts because everything they know about political science and American politics hasn’t worked this election.

“It’s fascinating that someone like Trump has survived as a politician,” Arrarás said.

Evans believes a big contributor to Trump’s rise as the Republican candidate was the party’s inability to coordinate early in the process and focus their resources toward a single candidate.

“The Republican Party had a hard time because of the coalition they had, managing that coalition and putting a strong foot forward with a clear preference for a candidate. As a function of that, endorsements, resources and media attention remained divided and never honed in on one person,” Evans said.

According to Evans, this inconsistency allowed Trump to bubble to the top.

“Our age group is very liberal. Our age group just wants everybody to be happy and have all these things that make America great, but i just don’t think that that’s the way to get there: to automatically force it on everybody,” Perez said. “I think we have to come up with ways to do it slowly and ways to get it done where everybody can agree on it. I’m not a Bernie supporter, but I understand the goal there.”

 

 

Image by Gage Skidmore, retrieved from Flickr: