American politics has been the highlight
of the past year and has provided a platform
for classroom examples and discussions
within Government classes across the country.
It is on the rare occasion that students are
able to venture outside of the classroom and
be in the same room as people whose names
they have seen on the news. The 18th Annual
American Democracy Conference was one
of these rare occasions where WS’s AP US
Government, AP Comparative Government,
and Duel Enrollment classes got to experience
politics first hand.
The Conference started out with Kellyanne
Conway, the woman behind the Trump
campaign, speaking. Conway, who is the
first female to manage a winning presidential
campaign, spoke highly of the president –
elect and reflected on the campaign. As with
each part of the convention, audience members
were given the chance to ask questions.
One question that Conway received was from
a young woman in the audience who asked
how she “rationalized” standing behind a
man who had disrespected women and who
women had said sexual assaulted them. Conway’s
response included accusing the girl of
attempting to create headlines.
“For you to use sexual assaults to try to
make news here, I think, is unfortunate. It
also doesn’t matter because Donald Trump
promised to be the President of all Americans,”
said Conway.
After Conway’s appearance came a panel
of press members who reflected on and discussed
the election. Maine’s Republican
Senator, Susan Collins, took the stage after
lunch to talk about unity.
“We desperately need to rebuild a sense
of community in this country,” said Collins.
A brief PowerPoint was given by Alan
Abramowitz, a professor for Emory University
and contributor for Sabato’s Crystal
Ball. He was followed by Khizr Khan, who
was known for his speech at the Democratic
National Convention. Khan, whose son had
died while serving in the U.S. military, called
on his audience to take their country’s future
into their own hands. He delivered his
final words on stage to a standing ovation
and round of applause from his audience.
Throughout the day, it became clear how
most of the audience felt by listening to both
the questions asked and when they clapped.
“I think it’s really interesting [because] in
school we tend to not show our political side
but by looking at how people react and what
they clap to at the [conference] it shows what
party they affiliate themselves with,” said senior
Hyun Ha Hwang.
The conference ended with another panel
who discussed the future and the president –
elect. At the end of this panel, senior Drew
Edwards presented the panel with the question
“is Donald Trump a fascist?” Panel
member Joe Borelli, who backed Trump in
the election and is part of the council for the
51st District of New York, responded.
“Absolutely, hide your books,” said
Borelli. “I would recommend you shutter
yourself in some closet and be very weary,
I mean I’m not just going to even answer the
question.”
Edwards then took to twitter with a You-
Tube link to Borelli’s response and a plea
to spread the link. Borelli responded to Edwards
with a link to Urban Dictionary’s definition
of snowflake. The definition at the top
of Urban Dictionary’s webpage for the term
is “an overly sensitive person” who cannot
handle viewpoints that do not match their
own.
“I felt that the councilman was completely
out of line with what he said. I would also
like to add that he doubled down on his statements
on twitter and this is a clear example
of how vile the Republican Party has gotten
since the fascist wing [‘Trump, his white
supremacist cabinet, and others like him’]
[have] taken over,” said Edwards.
After over eight hours in the nation’s
capital, students boarded the blue line metro
headed back home to Franconia. The students
had stepped on the metro that morning
as high school students from the suburb
of Springfield, but they left with a taste of
American Politics.
“My favorite part was I think [how the
speakers] were saying how Trump has to
unite America and support everybody,” said senior Mariam Muhamed.