Mika Hurst, who voted against President Donald Trump and wants to see him impeached, said she wasn’t fully aware of the details of the Trump impeachment inquiry.
“I know he got booed at the MMA sporting event,” said the first-year English studies graduate student, who gets most of her information from Twitter, “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” and “hearsay.”
While Hurst said her support for impeaching the president stems from her opposition of his personality, policies and Twitter use, she said she wasn’t “super knowledgeable” about the ongoing inquiry.
Students are typically less informed on politics, said Chad Kinsella, assistant professor of political science, public administration and American politics, in an email response.
Kinsella, who was a college student during the impeachment of former-President Bill Clinton in 1998, said “only those who are very in tune to politics really cared.”
“At that time, most people were more interested in the Lewinski scandal,” he said. “[Students] have a lot going on and other interests outside of politics … outside of the few that are really interested.”
Lack of knowledge about the details of the ongoing impeachment hearings, Kinsella said, is not something limited to college students, but the general public as well.
“People have an opinion about the president and have a general sense that impeachment is bad for a president and are for or against based on their own partisanship and feelings toward the president,” he said. “But as to what it all means, I think you will find most of the general public is very unclear about what impeachment is, what they are even investigating or that a House impeachment really does not mean much unless the Senate convicts.”
While he thinks most students don’t oppose the Democratic-majority House pursuing the Trump impeachment inquiry, Dominic Bordenaro, president of Ball State College Democrats, said he doesn’t think it’s one of the top issues they are worried about.
“That’s OK,” Bordenaro said. “The House has to deal with what the House has to deal with, and that’s great. College kids need to focus on college issues.”
He said students shouldn’t downplay the importance of the impeachment inquiry, but they should also be discussing issues like college affordability and health insurance accessibility.
As someone who wishes to teach government to students, Chase Braden, secretary of Ball State College Republicans, said it’s important for everyone to be aware about what’s going on in their governments — like the impeachment inquiry.
Braden said he thinks a lot of people just aren’t interested in the inner workings of all levels of government, adding “people just don’t really care if it doesn’t affect them.”
“If you want to talk about politics and you want to be able to vote, you should be informed,” he said. “If you don’t like what’s going on, you have the ability to change it.”
Contact Rohith Rao with comments at rprao@bsu.edu or on Twitter @RaoReports.
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