The 2020 Election (aka The 2020 Civil War)

I was only 12 during the 2016 election so while I have some memory of it, it really wasn’t on my mind at the time. That’s definitely not the case with the 2020 election. In school we spent a lot of time learning about the Civil War. Without going through all the the parts of the war, families, friends, and neighbors fought together and against each other for about 4 years if i remember correctly and that war is still being fought today and so many different levels.

As a high school student, I have tried to do my fair share of volunteer work, some of which has been in politics. At some level, I’m trying to figure out which side of the fence I’m on so I’ll just call myself a frustrated, moderate ‘something’ for now.

Why do I say that? Because there were so many bad actors in the 2020 election. Politicians, candidates, voters, rioters, and the list goes on and on and on.

As this relates to equating the 2020 election to the Civil War, during the 2020 election, families, friends, and neighbors fought together and against each other. Not with guns on battlefields but with words on social media. The Civil War was fought for good reasons. I’m not sure elections are at this point.

In my personal experience in the Civil War of 2020, I witnessed my peers, most of which were years away from voting, taking sides, fighting battles and alienating friends along the way. With memes on Snapchat. The election ‘we didn’t vote in’ is still polarizing and many of the friendship lost haven’t been found.

Where did we learn this? Mass Media. Social Media. Politicians. Parents. Note that the answers to my question are periods, not question marks.

Where are our role models?