Letters from HS Students - Polarization

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]If this is what school feels like, how bad is it in the real world? This is a letter written to me by a high school student at American High School in Fremont, where she talks about her struggles discussing politics with her friends.

[00:00:12]She says, "I find it difficult to be friends with kids who do not share my political opinions because they're so quick to judge." And I hear you. When I told my own kids I was thinking about running, they weren't excited. They were worried. Politics scares them.

[00:00:26]If our own children are afraid of public life, or even just sharing their opinions with their own friends, something's deeply broken.

[00:00:33]And they've grown up watching politics become so aggressive, where nobody crosses the aisle to compromise. And if you're not all the way on one side, you're the enemy.

[00:00:43]That's the world the current politicians have handed them.

[00:00:47]We cannot work together if we cannot talk to one another. And we need leaders who bring people together, not politicians who divide in order to survive.