‘Sometimes I wish history could just be kept to the books, not happening around us.’

Adam Guinee, 22, is a senior film major at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Guinee voted for Kamala Harris in the 2024 election and says United States political history informed his decision.

Shannon Knowski: Can you tell me your overall feelings about the current administration and current political climate?

Adam Guinee: My opinions on both are very negative. The political climate speaks for itself. We’re incredibly divided now, possibly more than we’ve been since the Civil War. No leader’s approval rating has surpassed 50% in years.  As for the Trump administration, I think he has the potential to be, this has the potential to be the worst presidential administration in history. I base that primarily off of two things.  One, corruption. I don’t think any president has been caught up in as many corruption scandals as we’ve had. Of course, we’ve had scandals like Watergate and the Teapot Dome. Those weren’t nearly as massive in terms of their scale, and they were ultimately uncovered and dealt with properly, so they show that the system works the way it’s supposed to. Whereas Trump was convicted, I think it was for 32 or 34 cases of fraud in New York, and the courts just decided not to sentence him because that would insult the office of the presidency. The other thing that scares me the most about President Trump is his foreign policy. I think our support of Ukraine is essential to maintaining global stability and that Russia poses a bigger threat to global stability now than they have at any time in the past. I think pivoting our support away from Ukraine, away from NATO, away from our allies, and towards Russia is quite possibly the worst decision that we could make right now. In an interview, President Nixon, right after the fall of the Soviet Union, predicted the situation that we find ourselves in with Russia, saying that if democracy failed in Russia, they would revert not to communism, which had already failed, but to what he called a new despotism, a new kind of dictatorship. That again, Russia would be exporting ideas that are diametrically opposed to freedom, liberty, self-determination. I think that’s exactly where we find ourselves, the only difference is that now the United States might be exporting those as well. That we might be opposing freedom in other countries.

Knowski: Is there an executive order action that is having the most impact on you or the people around you?

Guinee: I admit that I’m pretty well protected. I’m a middle upper class, straight white man. The one that does concern me, and I think should concern every American, is tariffs. We’ve known for a long time that tariffs make goods more expensive. Every time the government has passed a tariff that’s what happened. While I am very financially secure in my life, I’m still subject to, you know, the forces, the powers at play when it comes to the economy. I’ve still been hurt by inflation just like everyone else. I’d also like to mention him gutting the National Parks budget and recently approving something like 200 million hectares of government forest for logging.  I truly believe the one thing that America does better than the entire rest of the world is our National Parks. They are absolute treasures to this entire country and they’re essential to maintaining our image, our ecosystem, and our identity. To threaten them like that is despicable.

Knowski: Are you taking any political action at this time?

Guinee: I wouldn’t say so, no. I canvassed for voters in the weeks leading up to the election. But I have to admit, since the election, I’ve grown a little disillusioned with politics. It’s hard to feel like you really have an impact.  I suppose I’m still voting. That’s about it.

Knowski: With the current political divide and polarization, do you foresee that continuing to grow or shrinking anytime soon?

Guinee: Unless things sort of change dramatically, I see it continuing to grow. By and large, I think the issues that voters really care about just aren’t going to be fixed anytime soon. I was talking to my parents recently and I mentioned the first presidential election that I remember, and I remember what issues were discussed was 2012. I remember issues like gun control, the national budget, environmental protection, and health care being debated. Obama and Romney each proposing their own solutions. And then none of those situations improving in the subsequent, how long has it been, 13 years? I do think, and this is sort of a scary thought and not something that I’m comfortable with, one of the things that most consistently brings people together is mutual suffering. According to polls, the last time the country felt united was after 9/11. That’s because 9/11 affected the entire country equally. Obviously, it was worse if you personally lost a loved one in those attacks, but to everyone outside of New York City who was watching on TV, they all saw and felt the same thing.

Knowski: Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with how Democrats, or anyone in opposition to the Trump administration, is leading change and dealing with the outcomes of the election?

Guinee: I wouldn’t say I’m satisfied with anything the Democratic administration is doing, but I don’t put that on the Democrats. They lost control of the executive office and the House and Senate, so in a sense, their hands are tied. Despite having a Republican majority in both chambers of Congress, Trump is relying excessively on executive orders. There’s not a lot that Democrats can do.

Knowski: Do you hear any rebellion or uprising from any group?

Guinee: Absolutely. I think in the aftermath of January 6 and the fact that, more or less, every party involved got away with it because they’ve all been pardoned by President Trump, that’s shown that it’s acceptable to use violence to achieve political goals. I especially think this when it comes to the Republican side. If they can’t get what they want, then they’re again going to decide that the use of violence is okay. I’m also very concerned about the government using political violence to achieve their goals. Trump praised China’s actions at Tiananmen Square, so I’m worried that he’ll attempt to do the same thing if there’s ever a massive protest against him in Washington.

Knowski: Is there anything else that you feel needs to be addressed or want to address?

Guinee: I’d like to talk about one of my biggest concerns about the next election, 2028. As most people are taught in high school history, the major parties have changed their ideologies quite a few times. Usually what happens is an event happens that makes a certain ideology super unpopular. The opposing party wins a massive election next cycle and then the party that just lost changes their ideology to be more in line with what the people want. The best example of this would be the sort of Carter to Clinton cycle. Jimmy Carter was arguably the last progressive Democrat president we’ve ever had, aside from maybe Obama and Biden. He becomes president and there’s chaos overseas and the economy tanks at home. This makes the traditional progressive democratic ideology look really bad. Ronald Reagan won in a landslide in 1980. The economy does improve itself and he wins at an even greater landslide in ’84. Then George HW Bush won by a pretty big margin in ’88 as well. Then we experience another economic downturn. People get tired of Reaganomics, and they want change, but they also don’t want to elect another Jimmy Carter. Instead, the Democrats nominate Bill Clinton who is still a Democrat but a much more conservative Democrat. He raises taxes on the wealthy, but he also cuts government spending, balances the budget, reforms welfare, cuts a lot of welfare programs but also tries to expand health care, etc. Especially after the mid-90s when Republicans take control of the House. He becomes much more conservative then. What I’m worried is going to happen is that given how big of a loss this last election was since the Democrats lost every swing state, what I’m worried is going to happen is the Democratic party is going to decide that progressivism is dead. The American people don’t want a progressive politician in office. They don’t care about immigrants or the rights of the LGBTQ community or the rights of women. They are going to try to court a very conservative politician who isn’t in Trump’s camp to oppose him or the next nominee in the 2028 election. The next Democratic nominee might have the same ideology as Mitt Romney. The other possibility though is that if the next four years are an unmitigated disaster in the same way the last four years of the Bush administration were, progressivism might get a new life because people then decide ultra-conservatism is terrible. But yes, it is terrifying and I’m very, very scared for our future. We’re living through unprecedented times. Sometimes I wish history could just be kept to the books. Not happening around us.