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What Studying Politics Means
I’m a political studies major, here’s what we learn about
I chose to major in political studies at the beginning of 2017. You don’t have to know a lot about politics to understand why this would be a challenging time to have to tell people you study politics. Even though I was a Canadian attending a Canadian university, I always got this question, “You study politics, what do you think about Donald Trump?” People don’t want you to say anything about the electoral college, cultural (or white) backlash, or the significant use of character attacks in Trump’s speeches leading up to the election. Unfortunately, when I get asked about Trump, these are the things I think about because they’re the things I learned about. “What’s happening with Brexit?” is another popular question. The topics of Venezuela, Hong Kong, and NAFTA come and go. I realized most people don’t actually want to hear the background or theory — which is a lot of what studying politics entails.
The pinnacle of responses to saying that you study politics is this, though, “I’d vote for you,” or, “When are you running for government?” I’d laugh and respond with never. In the beginning, I always thought it was a joke. Then, they’d say, “Well, then, what will you do with your degree?” I’d realize they’d actually think I was studying to become a politician.
