Impeachment burnout: Students struggle to care
President Donald Trump was the third president to be impeached by the House of Representatives, and was later acquitted in the Senate.
Chapman students were settling into the fall 2019 semester when Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced the fourth impeachment inquiry in American history. That was Sep. 24, but it took until December for the House to pass two articles of impeachment. President Donald Trump was acquitted by the Senate Feb. 5, just as spring semester started up.
By then, students had other things to worry about. After months of impeachment talk, interterm plans were mixed in with this political event. Some students found it difficult to feel energized during the impeachment process.
“It goes in these waves – there would be a hearing that was interesting and important, and that would feel like, wow, something’s going to happen,” said Max Lopez, a junior political science major and President of Chapman Democrats.
During this time, Lopez didn’t notice an uptick in political energy on campus. There was no increase in membership for his club.
Chapman has a wide range of political engagement. There are students who eat and breathe politics, and there are students that prefer to steer clear of those conversations. But for a lot of students, the impeachment trials didn’t move them up or down the engagement spectrum.
Discussions surrounding impeachment haven’t been a central focus, either. Nathan Wallace, a lecturer in the political science department, teaches two sections of Introduction to American Politics this semester. While he’s been impressed by his students’ discussions, he’s noticed a different attention grabber.
“I don’t think that impeachment spurred attention and involvement by students to any great degree. I think what students are often thinking about is what’s going to happen in the presidential election,” he said. Maddy Petulla, a junior creative producing major, said she doesn’t know enough about politics to feel comfortable talking about it.
“I do not seek information, I just take in what others tell me. All I heard about impeachment was that it’s not likely going to happen, so I decided to not ask any more questions about it,” she said.
Regardless of the political drama that went into the impeachment trials, the media’s approach to the event was also exhausting for some to deal with.
“There’s constant coverage of politics at all times – it seems like everything’s a big deal – so it’s hard to discern what is and isn’t worth focusing on. It definitely leads to some burnout,” said Jackson Cripe, a senior public relations and advertising major.
Grace Glenn, a junior communication studies major, said her political engagement is somewhere in the middle of this spectrum. For Glenn, the partisanship of this process has been the problem.
“Are we really trying to uphold the constitution, or is this all a game? I wish we had more power of what goes on and how things go. There’s such a divide between the political parties, and I wish it wasn’t that way,” she said.
Trump is the third president to undergo impeachment. Many people weren’t surprised by his acquittal, but only weeks into 2020, there’s been plenty of other political drama to talk about. At the top of many students’ priority list is the one thing they can actually do: vote in this year’s election