In everyday life there is no escaping politics, and with that comes all the other issues that do not really involve politics but somehow get drug into them. Causing the fights and the issues that one sees today. Thus resulting in the hate of politics and how it  sets people up to hate each other. Or even think less of someone because of different views. So how does this influence our relationships? Even with friends, can this pressing issue cause people to end a friendship or even a relationship? Census is mostly drawn between a hard yes or a hard no, but where’s the inbetween?

When Mrs.Buchholz, GHS teacher, was asked if politics has a large influence on relationships she answered with “ I think politics influences relationships if you are both very vocal and passionate about your political beliefs. If you are the type that cares about politics very deeply, and are firm in your beliefs where you stand I think it can cause issues in relationships, not so much about politics but on the issues that politics surrounds.” Proving that yes, it causes issues but really only certain situations.

When she was then asked if there could be any type of positive outcome from having any type of relation with someone of a different view Mrs.Buchholz countered with “ I think a good outcome is that if you consider yourself to be open minded you will have a more well rounded knowledge of the issues and be able to understand both sides. This does not mean you need to change your beliefs, but at least you understand where the other side is coming from and can be empathetic towards this.” Which then comes back to this idea that we need to expand our horizons of understanding and change how we view other people for having an opinion that isn’t ours. Everyone has a right to have their own thoughts and have something to feel on issues. Is that not that our first right given to us? She also added on this subject of hearing out both sides. “So long as the debate is constructive and does not enter the zone of anger, name calling, etc. It is when people become very entrenched in their views that this could be an issue because they have the inability to see the other side.”

But what about younger people? Who typically don’t care about politics and are mostly just informed from one sided their parents tell them? What she had to say about this was “I think teens can become very passionate about issues they may not know all of the information about, and it could cause issues because they can have an “I am right, you are wrong” mentality.” Which is beneficial for no one and doesn’t help anyone get anywhere, and Just makes people angry.

All in all as a whole everyone just needs to learn to have a cool calm collected conversation about it. Everyone should take the time to learn that there are two sides to every single thing and to truly understand something. After this, people can have an educated opinion on political topics. People must hear out the other side and remember that we do not all have to have the same political views.  Last, Mrs.Buchholz said with a huge smile on here face “I just think we need to teach people how to engage in proper civic discourse and be able to discuss responsibly.”