Why I’m Quitting Political Radicalism

By Abigail Zajac, 22, Missouri

I came of political age in a world of mass death and natural destruction. My first ballot was cast wearing a mask and standing six feet apart from everyone, yet in all of the danger, having a little sticker was like a badge of honor— I took a selfie moments after receiving my little coveted adhesive badge. At the time, it felt like the only thing I could do to make a change, to keep my friends and neighbors safe.

I wanted to tell anyone and everyone who I voted for and why I made the right choice. I wanted to spread what I felt was common sense regarding which people should be in power to protect common decency. Retrospectively, it looked a lot like I was spoiling for a fight. Letting the sense of rageI felt each time I saw a yard sign or bumper sticker that said something I disagreed with fuel my fire of righteous anger.

Four years later, and I still felt that same fear, like my very survival as a newly minted adult was dependent upon the outcome of one night, but this time I wasn’t ready to fight. My torch of anger was further extinguished when I saw the fallout of the election on my college campus. It only took a few words filled with rage and hate, graffitied in bathroom stalls in my student union to quiet a whole campus.

As a writer, I have always and will always believe that words hold power, but it wasn’t until now that I had witnessed it. I was faced with the truth—that an election had incited radical political action in my community, and that the written propaganda activists spread had hurt us. The damage done was beyond my control, but my thoughts and actions weren’t.

I began to reflect on my own radicalism, while my beliefs were quite opposite of what the activists had said, their intensity felt comparable. I asked myself when was the last time I went into a political conversation without the urge to push my agenda, and I could not find an answer.

Both political parties push an ideal of unity. As citizens, we all yearn for the far-off day where our country is no longer a house divided, but a home. However, both parties’ solutions to create this home involve pushing out the other. No concessions. No compromises.  Just pure political and legislative reformation to encourage the radical values of the party.

As of 2021, over a third of Americans identify as moderates, according to a Gallup Poll. Why then, are we as citizens giving our vote to people pushing radical ideologies? I believe it is because we feel we do not have a choice. The idea of a third-party candidate in office is about as real as a unicorn to most of us.

Watching my campus fracture from political radicalism made me realize that I cannot, in good conscience, continue carrying a sense of righteous anger. I need to approach our political climate  like I did before I got my badge of honor, before I made up my mind and decided I knew best. As simple as it sounds, what I believe is best for our country is different from the people living next to me, my friends, my family, and my partner. I decided that I was unwilling to spend the next months filled with fear, anger, and distrust in the very people around me.

The truth is that I do not know what is best for the future of America. After all, my prefrontal cortex isn’t even fully developed. One individual or set of values shouldn’t run our country. Our government was designed to encourage political discourse and ideological freedom. There are three branches to balance each other so that decisions aren’t made by a singular governing body, and I am proud to be a citizen of a government designed to enable such diversity.

I came to several conclusions in wake of experiencing social radicalism in my own community that led me to abandon the mindset I had created for myself. I cannot encourage a diversity of opinions if I believe that only mine is right. A person does not feel heard when you go into a conversation with an agenda in mind, and a unified country cannot grow from a place of bipartisan social radicalism.

I decided that I will not feed into the fear I politically came of age in, and I will not carry a sense of anger or blame toward either party. I will not identify, group, or stereotype any person based on their political beliefs, and I will not push my political beliefs onto another person. You could call this political passivism, constructivism, or even moderation, but I see it as a deviation from the radical messaging being pushed by America’s political climate.

There is no other, no wrong, no evil beyond that hate that grows in the divide between us. When we let fear, anger, and hatred fill us we lose sight of the people next to us who are the most important. Most of us have no direct impact on the action of the federal government, but we have direct impact on the places we live and the people we see everyday. I am choosing to return to seeing them as people with opinions shaped by events that I may never fully understand, but I am willing to try.

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This piece is a summation of me processing my feelings about the events that have been occurring within my community in wake of the 2024 Presidential election.

@AbigailZajac

Photo by Suzy Brooks