In the months preceding the 2020 election the small town of Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania- also known as “The Bubble” by most of the residents due to the exclusive “Keeping Up With The Joneses” nature- was split like the Red Sea.
A deep ideological divide was visibly obvious as every car was marked with political affiliation stickers and the community Facebook page was a constant stream of aggressive and opinionated posts.
Fox Chapel was a hotspot for civic engagement and political participation, excluding- of course- any type of productive discourse, legitimate campaign work, or any general motion for change besides just loudly and publicly asserting political opinions.
This common problem of surface level social media activism- if it can even be called activism- can be symbolized by a particularly bold political statement made in October of 2020.
A group of Fox Chapel high schoolers banded together to buy Donald Trump’s campaign signs in bulk, and then proceeded to drive around the neighborhood and physically surround every Joe Biden sign with twenty Trump signs.
While everything was quickly removed and thrown out, there was so much left unsaid after all the signs had been plucked from the grass.
How did this ideology form so strongly within these high school kids? How did it manifest itself into this non-confrontational yet attention seeking act of protest?
These questions caused me to look outside of “The Bubble” and into the general political climate of the United States. In my speech I plan on examining the emergence of a new era of civic engagement sparked by the 202o election- this era defined by a devolution of political correctness and upended customs of governmental behavior on national and local levels, all while including social media as an instigator of this destruction.
I really enjoyed this elevator pitch!! I thought that the questions it raised at the end that you mentioned were very interesting. Also, I enjoyed how you use the lens of looking at the group of kids who did this specifically, as well as the general state of politics in our nation. The aspect of civic engagement and where this act of surrounding one sign with contrasting views falls in relation to civic engagement.
I love this idea for an elevator pitch! I think that the “ideological divide” you describe is something important to ponder, and I like that you are bringing light to this. I think it is interesting that this occurred in your hometown, so you are not just reporting on a big problem or artifact that everyone knows about, but rather you are using first-hand experience. This idea has a lot of potential for topics like civic engagement and Kairos.