On June 2, a portion of the PHS student body will gain the ability to exercise the most indispensable right of U.S. citizens — the right to vote. This comes with great responsibility. We will possess a voice to mold our futures. The outcome of the upcoming elections will dictate the road that the United States will take over the next 4 years. There have been various vigorous debates about the future of our country from the deleterious impacts of climate change to the mounting student debt crisis that our generation faces. A debate has also emerged on the integrity of our democratic institutions. However, most importantly a debate on the integrity of our democratic institutions has emerged. We have seen, in broad daylight, foreign nations enter our elections, at the request of a candidate, and now the ball is in our court to decide the fate of our democracy.

Our democracy has never been perfect, but in today’s world partisanship and party loyalty have replaced the bipartisan dialogue that our country used to hold so dear. It has become a power-struggle, divided more than ever along party lines, in which different spheres of political influence compete with one another for a victory that benefits a singular party, rather than the United States as a whole. American politics have morphed into a competition between red and blue. Rather than allowing individuals to forge their own political opinions, spheres of political influence dominate and decide how their inhabitants will vote. We see this in the “red South” and “blue Northeast.” We even see this in Princeton, a town whose liberal nature seeps down and concentrates the voting habits of fresh voters at PHS.

We do not need to look far to see evidence of this happening in the world around us. As high schoolers across America are about to gain the right to vote, we have had the unique opportunity of watching live the highly partisan and divisive impeachment of Trump for the election interference crimes he committed with Ukraine and supposed obstruction of Congress. Trump’s aides have confessed that they tried to leverage military aid to Ukraine for dirt on a political rival. People such as Sondland, Ambassador to the European Union, and Bolton, former National Security Advisor, both confessed to these crimes. However, Republicans chose to ignore this and even refused to call witnesses in a formal trial, breaking tradition with all former Impeachment trials. Instead of listening to the evidence presented, Republicans choose to introduce a new constitutional doctrine that is blatantly false and antithetical to everything our founders fought for. They argued under this doctrine that the President could take any action necessary to ensure his re-election if his re-election was in the interest of national security. Essentially, Trump’s defense boiled down to I like being president and therefore can do whatever I want to make sure I stay in power.

As first-time voters, we should be concerned by this language and we should be even more concerned by the effect this hyper-partisan environment will have on our decisions as voters. Young voters like us are coming of age in a time when our history and constitutional norms have gone out the window and discord and conflict have become normalized. We have gone from a nation that revered its democratic institutions to a nation that stands silently while Trump openly violates the law. These actions are becoming normal and if we do not take meaningful action right now, young voters will think that these actions are okay and will not be fazed if candidates choose to go down Trump’s road in the future. Although one side has decided to traffic in lies and conspiracies, we as first-time voters must decisively choose to reject Trump and Republican party’s actions so that we can return America to her democratic ideals and away from the autocratic regime we are now quickly approaching.

The United States has many problems that need to be addressed, and that is normal. As the world changes, new problems emerge and we must rise to the task. However, our generation is facing a challenge that our country has never seen before: a wholesale attack on democratic ideals and if we don’t vote to change now, we risk losing our democracy.