What a week. Seriously. I don’t fully know how to describe what has happened in the past 7-10 days. The unfortunate loss of the national championship was not without great effort. Everyone proved their mettle, even if the score didn’t go our way. It was a game (and a season) worth watching, especially as someone who had never watched Notre Dame football until this year.
The other event on Monday was also history. President Trump once again became president of the United States. He is the second to serve non-consecutive terms (after Grover Cleveland) and the first Republican to win the popular vote since 2004. In his inaugural address, he called for a new “golden age of America,” a far cry from the “American Carnage” speech eight years ago. He is America’s oldest president, taking that crown from President Biden.
Politics is a dicey subject, and I wish to cover it in some meaningful depth. Being coy about my beliefs will do nothing to create the window of transparency this column is supposed to be. So here it goes. I am a registered member of the Democratic Party. Shocker, I know. Some people assume it quickly. Others are a little surprised. I voted for members of both parties in the last election, even though I come from the reddest part of deep blue Maryland. However, my Jimmy Carter-esque brand of Democrat shines through, even when I don’t want to “get political.”
I mention this because my beliefs have never been tested more than on this campus. I’m surrounded by intellectual diversity, including many whose opinions are well-sourced and in disagreement with my own. As a devout Catholic and liberal, my beliefs fit outside the binary, which makes political debates more interesting at America’s foremost Catholic university. The election was certainly a tense time on campus. Many were happy, while others, like myself, were less satisfied with the result. It meant that my vision for a freer, more inclusive America was going to go away for a while, perhaps giving time to solve the flaws that brought us this dude-bro techno-libertarian hypocrisy-ridden paradise in the first place.
Being Catholic and liberal also made me an enthusiastic supporter of Joe Biden for several years until recent revelations about his well-known age derailed one of the greatest careers of public service in this country’s history. It was under these circumstances (and after Vice President Harris’s defeat at the polls) that he had to make one more speech to the nation.
His prescient warning of a new “American oligarchy” prophesied my fear of a tech-run corporate hegemony. An elitist American Empire may grant us short-term benefits but robs us of the democracy and liberties that make us American. My viewing of “Severance” is not the only reason behind my thoughts, but admiration of Teddy Roosevelt makes me an ardent believer that trusts must be busted if they do not benefit everyday people.
The former president’s final warning was much simpler: keep the flame. The American experiment of democracy is worth protecting, as are the many civil and political rights that could be eroded for citizens and noncitizens alike under a second Trump Administration. Someone has to reach out, perhaps dangerously, to tend to the flame. Even when no one wants to. Especially when no one wants to. We should all desire the honor of tending the flame, not only because it means something but because honoring America’s hallowed traditions is a medicine for the disease of political apathy. Democracy does not mean that everyone has to agree. It means we get to voice our opinions and that those opinions are all equal to one another. We all have the same right and privilege to keep that flame.
It returns me to the liberal vision for an inclusive America, which has been co-opted by an extensive focus on identity politics and gathering votes instead of doing good. It’s a vision that’s been tested on this campus, but one I believe in more than ever before. It’s caring for your neighbor. It’s the freedom from want and fear and those of expression and religion. It’s healthcare as a human right and common sense laws that give all people a right to live well. It’s accepting and respecting differences because God didn’t put us here to be ordinary. It’s treating others (nations and people) as you wish to be treated. It’s the hope for a brighter tomorrow. It’s keeping the flame.
That is all the politics you will hear from me for a while now. I respect those with different views from me as long as they treat others with respect. I have friends on both the right and left and many who dot the undefined middle of the political spectrum. My deepest opinions remain mine, and they will not be released in this format for a while yet (if ever). This is just the broad strokes of how I view the world, right now, in 2025. This worldview is open to change and interpretation, as all things should be.
Duncan Stangel is a first-year global affairs major at Notre Dame. Currently residing in Alumni Hall (the center of the universe), he hails from the small town of Cumberland, MD. When he's not saving kittens from trees, you can find him stumbling to Debart with a caffeine source in hand. Contact at dstangel@nd.edu.
