In the second episode of the WGLT/Vidette podcast Democracy's Future, sophomore history education major Chloe Yost from Manhattan, Illinois, says she believes extreme polarization in U.S. politics is putting democracy at risk.
“It’s definitely getting there. We saw it in 2020,” Yost said of the last presidential election in which she was too young to vote. “Why do we have to have this idea that because you like this candidate all the sudden you are this type of person? Why can’t the two of you sit down and have a conversation?”
Yost is a member of campus ministries and ISU’s Emerging Leaders program. And as a person of color, she says her conservative beliefs often take people by surprise.
On abortion, Yost said she does not believe in a women’s right to choose, even in cases of rape.
“An abortion does not unrape her,” she said, adding the rape victim should have access to services from a pregnancy resource center.
Yost conceded she’s not satisfied with any of the candidates running for president, now that Vivek Ramaswamy dropped out of the Republican primary.
“I wish all the candidates were different,” Yost said.
Yost says she plans on being a high school history teacher after graduating.
Orland Park native Steven Lazaroff, a Ph.D. student in the English department at ISU, is active in the ISU Graduate Workers Union.
He describes himself a communist, a socialist and an abolitionist, whichever label fits the discussion. But it wasn’t always that way.
During his time as an undergrad at Miami University in Ohio, where he was a member of the College Republicans and voted for George W. Bush for president.
"It hurts my mouth to say it," Lazaroff quipped. "People’s ideas change.”
Lazaroff said his political transformation started over a proposed statewide ban against same-sex marriage, which Ohio voters approved in 2004. At first, he supported the ban.
“I wasn’t a bigot, but I definitely had bigoted beliefs, mainly just because I was uncomfortable and didn’t know how to deal with it,” Lazaroff said. “I then became uncomfortable with my own discomfort.”
Lazaroff said he later eschewed his conservative beliefs on fiscal policy after a friend directed him to the writings of Noah Chomsky, the famed linguist who railed against what he called “savage capitalism.”
Lazaroff said the next crucial moment in his transformation was the Occupy Wall Street movement, the 2011 populist uprising against income inequality following a series of bank bailouts.
“(That’s) when I was able to put my politics into action and to live those politics and get a real sense of democracy,” Lazaroff said.
Lazaroff said he wants to continue to learn, write and teach others as a professor in the future.
Next time on Democracy's Future: You'll hear from the political parties on the ISU campus, and how they are thinking about and preparing for the 2024 election.
Please give us your feedback on this series and let us know if there are certain issues you'd like us to explore. Email us at news@wglt.org.
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