Get involved, before it’s too late

Learning about politics is no longer a suggestion—it is now a necessity

Politics/Opinion Editor

In the wake of the 2025 inauguration, President Trump has made a wave of governmental changes, including withdrawing from the WHO and implementing Elon Musk’s Department of Governmental Efficiency. The effects of these changes, while not immediate, will be drastic and far-reaching. Us students simply cannot afford to ignore such disastrous effects of policy change.

We at AHS are the next generation of voters. We will choose who leads our country come 2026 and 2028, and we are also responsible for raising future generations of voters. In effect, we will determine what happens to this country. If we fail to perform our duty of preserving democracy, nobody can tell what will happen to our country, to our state, to our city, to our school, and to ourselves.

Take airlines, for example. On January 29th, an Army helicopter collided mid-air with a passenger airliner, resulting in 67 deaths. Here’s what Trump did days prior to the collision: on January 21st, he fired the head of the TSA and the Coast Guard. On January 22nd, he disbanded the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, which has existed since 1988 and implements aviation security measures. He also froze employee hiring and fired 100 FAA security officers. Now, correlation does not imply causation, and Trump’s actions probably did not directly cause the crash. But how soon will Trump’s actions allow for another crash?

Even worse than his actions prior to the crash were his actions immediately after. Instead of expressing his condolences for the victims, Trump promptly blamed DEI programs and Democratic politicians for the crash. In short, Trump used the catastrophe to antagonize racial groups and his political enemies. If it wasn’t clear Trump is a threat to democracy before, it is now: he is actively using similar tactics Hitler and Stalin used.

It was obvious that Trump was aligned with a similar authoritarian ideology far before the crash. On the day of his inauguration, Elon Musk performed a Nazi salute twice, to the loud whooping of the crowd. Let us think back to the last time the Nazi salute was prominent—Nazi Germany, a regime that massacred 11 million innocent people and started a war that led to the deaths of 60 million soldiers and civilians. To see America—the leader of the free world—be the next country echoing Nazi sentiments is highly alarming, to say the least. This is where students come in: students have, from school, a much fresher memory of the Third Reich than any other voter, and can make the connection between the current American and past Nazi governments faster than others. It may not be soon that we see jackbooted soldiers marching down Washington DC wielding MAGA banners. However, being able to recognize American troops wielding political banners as something akin to a Nazi rally is one of the main reasons why school exists. Stay in school, kids: this is what history class is for.

The duty of preserving democracy starts now: educate yourself about the going-ons of the White House. Learn about how democracies work, and how dictatorships work. Don’t take information at face value—question it and do your own research. A democracy only survives if its people—and its students—are educated and well-informed. Since our birth, we have enjoyed the rights and privileges the Constitution grants us, and we have taken it for granted. Freedom of speech, religion, press and so on are precious, and they are rights people in many other countries do not enjoy.

The Constitution has protected us for 236 years. Now, it is up to our generation to protect the Constitution, and in turn, protect our own freedoms. If we don’t make our own decisions about what world we want to live in now, someone else will make them—and they won’t have our best interests in mind.