By: Marissa Barauskas, Cale Koester & Kevin Schuele
Image retrieved from NBC News
American Politics and the issues that arise in our country not only involve our nation, but other countries around the world. At McKendree University, many students come from many different countries and backgrounds and view different issues in different lights. Even though international students cannot vote in elections, their voices and opinions on the issues that our nation faces are important and can affect their home countries as well. We interviewed a few of McKendree’s international students to gather some insight into how they feel about the upcoming elections.
The first person we interviewed was Riko Nakanishi from Hiroshima, Japan. We asked her a few questions about how she felt about the upcoming elections.
When it comes to political issues relevant to the election, Riko discussed how she “cares about women’s rights and hopes that the election will have an outcome in favor of women’s rights. In Japan, there are vastly different morals. Women are seen as having to be a part of the home, and many women cannot participate in companies and businesses like men do, and women are not granted as many opportunities.” Therefore, Riko believes it is important for America to have these rights in place for women because her home country does not allow women access to those rights. Riko also believes that climate change is an important topic in the upcoming elections. She believes “the federal government in America should push more eco-friendly options when it comes to plastic use,” and she believes “countries need to work together as a whole in order to solve this issue of climate change.” Essentially, one country cannot fix this worldwide issue alone.
Moreover, we asked Riko if she felt represented in the issues she cares about within the McKendree Campus community even though she cannot vote. Riko replied, “Yes, McKendree makes it easy for me to discuss my opinion on these topics, and I feel like I have a voice in the election, even though I cannot necessarily vote.”
We also interviewed Kyle Wilson from the Bahamas. When asked about whether or not he was surprised to see how many people were involved in an election, he stated, “Although I am not surprised to see many Americans involved in such an important election, it does shock me how different the views are on certain topics such as environmental reform and taxation.” While discussing this topic he mentioned that in quite a few advertisements, he’s seen a lot of attacks politically to try and sway one group or another. He noticed that political parties hold almost nothing back when trying to appeal to certain audiences. “From watching one particular advertisement about the governor’s race in Illinois, it showed a vicious attack on a woman in the city of Chicago. Then one of the candidates, Darren Bailey, explained that he was going to stop this as governor, and the other candidate, JB Pritzker, has done nothing for it.” He was incredibly surprised by how personal some of these advertisements got against these candidates. Kyle was very understanding that political opponents will do anything to win a campaign, but he does, wish there were at least some boundaries when attacking political opponents.
Finally, we interviewed Breno Tebet, a student from Brazil. He said that he was concerned about the economy and rising gas prices and hopes to see these subjects brought up and discussed. He also said that, as an immigrant, he does not feel like his voice is equally represented in elections because he cannot vote. He said, “Not being able to vote doesn’t allow me to express my views.” The economy has been an issue for some time now and is a subject of concern for many. It would be nice to finally have a definitive plan laid out.
Photo collected from Marist Poll: 2022 Midterm Elections
Political issues that arise in our country affect everyone around us, and it is important to hear what our international students have to say about these current issues facing the United States today. The decisions made by people in office affect the world around us, so if you can vote in the midterm elections coming up, do it!
