Things are getting political around here again. 

Sure, there’s a pandemic afoot that’s shut down the tempo of the world, but that (probably) doesn’t change what’s going to happen in the United States this November.

Insults are slewn back and forth between podiums, tweets are catapulted like mortars and stickers are angrily plastered on the bumpers of minivans across the United States.

That’s right, you guessed it. It’s the year of the 2020 presidential election in the U.S.

Truthfully, when politically oriented topics are at the forefront of most conversations in the United States (and other countries for that matter), there are often a lot of harsh feelings. 

And it isn’t hard to see why this tension surfaces either. In 2012, Santa Barbara’s American Presidency Project found that there were 235,248,000 registered voters in the U.S., each of which harboring their own personal viewpoints on the economy, immigration, war, religion and social issues. 

As we’ve seen, it’s clearly hard for America to agree on anything. But maybe if the sample size was smaller, coming to a consensus would be easier. 

If America can’t agree, maybe Colorado Mesa University (CMU) can. Students honed in on their thoughts on the upcoming 2020 election and America’s current state.

“We need to elect a president–I don’t know who that guy is–someone who’s just very open with the facts and the facts about what’s going on in the world […] and does what a president is supposed to do which represents the state of America in a very honest way,” CMU student Joshua Thomas said. 

“I also think he needs to be very tolerant when it comes to people not getting along […] especially in America with different religions and different cultures […] and the thing with LGBTQ when […] straight people who just don’t get it.”

While some students like Joshua had a vision of what sort of president the United States needs, other students weighed in on the current president that the U.S. has–Mr. Donald Trump.

“I don’t like him […] because he’s rude, racist […] I don’t say this in a positive way, but maybe he’ll get assasinated,” Ally Saindon said.

Saindon was amongst many who disapproved of Trump.

“I really don’t want him to [get re-elected], but I feel like Trump’s going to win again–just because this country is [vulgar],” Ellie Lee, a student at CMU, said. 

Other students acknowledged that Trump may have some desirable skills, but to them, the negative still outweighed the positive.

“Personally I think Trump is a good businessman but I don’t think he should be reelected for, y’know, all the reasons […] he’s breaking connections with every country I think and so we could possibly go into another war. He’s scamming us all out here,” Amber Strong said.

While many university students gladly expressed their dismay towards Donald Trump, Grand Junction is generally considered red, meaning that there are more Republican voters than Democratic.

According to BestPlaces.net, 64.1% of the people who voted in Mesa County voted Republican, and Mesa County has voted Republican in in the last five presidential elections.

“I would like to see Trump get elected again first of all because my personal belief is that no president can get anything done in just four years  they need a lot more time than that and I think he’s done a lot for our country economically , he’s pro-life […] I think it’s going to be really close […] especially because our generation is getting older and are able to vote,” Hannah Atwood said.

However, it was seemingly more common for students to frown upon the Trump administration’s reign, particularly amongst political science students.

“I generally support more democratic and social ideas […] I think there would be initial resistance to [those ideas], especially from the right, but as they saw the benefits of that –like not being under crippling debt from hospital bills– I think they’d be like ‘oh, wait a second, this might not be bad,” Andy Grimes, a political science major said.

“[America is] divided. Both sides are moving away from one another, so [it is] not great. Stock Market is doing good but workers aren’t doing good. There’s still problems with income inequality. Maybe not great, because it’s really divided. I hope there can be unity, but I don’t think there will be. I think there is a higher chance that a democrat will win the popular election but I don’t know if he’ll win the electoral college,” Grimes said.

However, in the end, no matter what students say now, there’s no telling what will happen until this November.

Just remember, go out and vote.