Jaden's Blog

  When Excitement Scares Us: Politics, Identity, and the Right to Disagree Politics is kinda wild sometimes. It’s not just about laws or who’s in office, but also about feelings, identity, and the stories people tell about themselves. That really hit me when I watched the MSNBC clip “‘Everyone is excited about her and that scares me’: Female Trump voters on Harris.” The whole vibe of the video felt like people wrestling with change, and honestly I could relate to some of that unease. One thing that stuck in my head: someone saying they were scared of all the excitement around Harris. Like, excitement is usually seen as positive in politics, right? But here it felt threatening. That made me think about how much politics is about perception, not just facts on paper. Politics as Storytelling Yeah, politics is about passing laws and managing budgets, but it’s also about stories . Candidates create narratives about who “we” are, and voters decide if they see...

  Why Your Voice Really Matters in Making Public Policy Ever feel like the people in charge are making decisions that totally affect your life, but you didn’t get even a little say? Yeah…same. And it’s kinda frustrating when you think about it. Schools, roads, healthcare—stuff that hits home every single day. Yet we often just shrug and let the politicians handle it all. They’re supposed to represent us, sure, but let’s be real—they don’t always. Here’s the deal: in the U.S. we’ve got what’s called a representative democracy. Basically, we vote and then trust people we elect to make decisions for us. Sounds fine on paper, right? But in practice, most people stop paying attention after election day. Meanwhile, those decisions? They keep rolling in, whether or not they fit our actual lives. The Constitution gives us rights—vote, speak up, protest, petition. All that good stuff. But if we’re not using them, what’s the point? Honestly, a lot of us sit out because it feels complica...