Students report a general sense of relief that Trump is leaving office in recent TKS survey

This year’s election brought intense emotions and loads of anxiety for many across campus, but now that the result is in, the overall feeling of unrest still remains prominent. As a way to gauge the Knox community’s response to former Vice President Joe Biden winning the 2020 presidential election, TKS sent out a survey to the public following the pre-election survey. We received nine responses.

Although there seems to be a massive sense of relief following the announcement of Biden being the president-elect, some Knox students seem apprehensive.

“I haven’t really processed my feeling entirely yet as far as the presidential election goes. I’m glad Biden won, I really really am, but he was by No means my ideal candidate, so there’s still a lot of discomfort there. I’m just so scared, but in a different way than before,” a participant said.

Almost all the responses we received mentioned a greater sense of relief to Trump leaving office rather than Biden entering office. Most students who responded mentioned feeling a new type of unrest, but claiming that it is ultimately better than having Trump for another four years.

“I am a lot more hopeful than I was after the 2016 election, but I am still concerned because all of our problems will not go away just because we have a president who is a democrat even though people keep acting like they will. I feel like people are going to get too complacent and forget that just because we have somebody who isn’t blatantly conservative in office that they also do a lot of bad things and don’t do a lot to fix our systemic problems,” a participant said.

While there was general relief about the election results, more of it came from excitement to be rid of the Trump presidency. Students such as this one maintain concerns over decisions made during the Obama administration.

“I’m glad Donald Trump will no longer be the POTUS. I’m not excited that Biden is up next, particularly because I worry that the same people who said “we’ll push him left once he’s elected, don’t criticize him yet!” are going to settle into a comfortable neutrality again. I, for one, am never excited to welcome a war criminal to office.”

Adding on, students worry over Biden’s choice of vice president when police brutality has been so scrutinized over the last few years. Biden is not exactly the radical change that many are hoping for and some cautiously optimistic for upcoming decisions as president.

“I wish I could say I’m relieved, but in reality, neither of these candidates cares about my rights as a queer black student at all. Joe Biden is a moderate who chose a cop as his running mate during a time when the spotlight on police violence is brighter than ever. He’s out of touch, he’s not anywhere near the left, and he has a lot of work to do before he can gain my trust.” A student said.

While many reported feeling indifferent towards the result of the election, some are looking to the future as a step in the right direction regardless of their personal views on the candidate.

“It definitely could have gone worse but I hope some real progress is made by the upcoming administration,” said one participant.