Falcon Feelings Post-Election: Florian Kroker-McKormack

Riverdale Review: Did you vote in the 2024 presidential election?

Florian Kroker-McCormack: I didn’t. I’m not eligible to vote yet at sixteen.

RR: What are your initial thoughts/takeaways following the election results?

FKM: My main takeaway was essentially, look, Trump is a convicted felon and he incited a riot on our capital. I was hoping Kamala would win not because I agree with her policies but for the sole purpose of not letting Trump back in the White House...Kamala should not have been the nominee because 84% of people wanted change in the government and Kamala as Vice President of the United States did not bring change. So what they needed to do was have an actual primary and bring someone in new who represents change in order to beat Trump... It was very, very clear that people were unhappy with the current administration and wanted something new. 

RR: Do you think Riverdale should address politics and its implications in the classroom more than we already do? 

FKM:  Well, I think yes, it’s important to talk about politics, but it’s also, as an academic institution, very important to keep a neutral stance. And I think Riverdale doesn’t do the best job at keeping a very neutral stance on things. I think, specifically, bringing in Jose [Antonio Vargas]...very rarely does Riverdale bring in someone…conservative or something like that. So I think that it is important for schools to address this, especially in an election year. But I think, yeah, Riverdale could do a better job of bringing in a variation or just more [people with a more] neutral political stance.

RR: In one word, how would you describe how you’re feeling about the next four years with the newly elected government for 2025?

FKM: My feeling essentially is that while I am, I guess, concerned, I do think unity is sort of one word. We have to stay unified as a nation, no matter what happens, because that is what has gotten us through since 1776. We have to stay together, we are all Americans, and that’s what’s going to prevent our country from going in a direction that we don’t want it to.