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Has the pandemic affected your political views in any way? If so, how?

The pandemic has affected my political views a lot. Before the pandemic started, I was seventeen. I turned eighteen a few months after lockdown had started and on top of that, the presidential election occurred around five months after that, still in the midst of the pandemic. Turning eighteen and having the presidential election occur in the same year and during the pandemic caused a lot of big changes to my political views. I grew up in a family that didn’t talk about or express their political views very often. I guessed that my parents were republican/voted republican because they were Christian and a lot of their views that they subtly expressed or talked about lined up with what I thought was repiblican. Looking back, I do think this was pretty accurate. I personally just followed in my parents footsteps until I gained some motivation to do my own research and gain my own beliefs or views. To be honest, I really didn’t look into politics much at all until after the pandemic started. I knew that I was turning eighteen soon and that it was election year, so I started paying more attention to politics and getting into more conversations with my friends and family. I don’t think I would have been motivated to be as involved in politics had it not been for the pandemic. I am really grateful that I had motivation to get involved and start caring about politics, even if it was because of an awful pandemic. At the same time, it’s kind of disappointing that my reason for getting involved was over a health and disease issue. I don’t think that a disease should ever be as political as COVID-19 has gotten. I know there are various political aspects, but I feel like COVID-19 has become purely a political topic to many Americans. I also learned a bit more about my parents views and how they have changed, which really helped me form some of my own views as well. My parents and I agree with a lot of things regarding politics now, after they have changed quite a bit. I think for them, the pandemic has become a big motivator to reassess their political views. I have heard of a lot of people experiencing these kinds of changes and I think it’s awesome to see people finding their true views because of the pandemic. If the pandemic had not happened at the time that it did, with me turning eighteen and being able to vote, I don’t think I would have voted because I wouldn’t have gotten as involved in politics. It wasn’t something I wanted to get involved in before because of the stigma surrounding it. I had seen many friendships end because of varying views and beliefs and I wanted to stay as far away from that as possible. Now, I know how to be involved in discussion without breaking a friendship (at least on my part). I’m glad I can be involved in politics because it really does make a difference in how I see the world and how I can impact the world.