“I am proud to be an American, yet disappointed in the American people,” said junior Aaron Schroeder.

“I was satisfied; I liked how it turned out.” added junior Julia Barnett.

With the election came a very late night, and a plethora of extreme emotions. The high school was both angry and excited the morning after.

“I was ecstatic when I found out Fransen won.” said sophomore political activist Nathan Richman.

Sophomore Eric Hallstrom simply said he was “upset.”

“[Romney] was so close to winning.” said junior Jack Kewitsch. He also offered political analysis. “You see farmers voting
Republican, you see cities voting Democrat, you see cities with a larger population, and you see the farmers providing for the country.” He then caps it off with the center of his ideologies: “The Government needs to get out of our lives!” He thinks the current system of representation doesn’t accurately reflect the population and their beliefs.

Others disagree.  “It was so scary when the ‘yes’ vote for the marriage amendment  was at 49.4%” said sophomore Harry Rothberg. He isn’t challenging the system itself, just hoping for his opinion to triumph in the end.

The economy was an important issue to EHS students this election. Senior Joe Rodgers said “I’m disappointed. Obama had his chance to fix the economy. If it was going to happen it would have happened. Romney was much more qualified to fix the economy.” Junior J.T. Nevers disagreed. “It’s going to take longer than four years to get rid of the 20 trillion dollar debt because it took more than four years to get into the debt.” The economy is obviously of concern for a lot of people. Directly affecting their lives, this issue means a lot to the modern American. Junior Sam Casper gave a more moderate opinion “I stayed up until about midnight. I thought Romney was a better businessman but not necessarily a good president.”

Another big topic of the election was the constitutional amendments. “It really restored my faith in the new generation of voters,” said sophomore Sophia Wright, “I think we are on the path to becoming a more tolerant and better educated society.” She was referencing the marriage amendment not passing. Rodgers said “I have no idea why the amendments were shot down.”

Rothberg said “I think the people who supported the marriage amendment will look really stupid in 50 years.” Incredibly close results, and emotionally and personally involved outcomes, make these topics important for Edina High School students. Junior Andrew Brandt Simply stated “Happy that both amendments passed!”

The election isn’t just about individual candidates and amendments, but the future of the government as a whole. Sophomore Anja Beth Swoap, said “I think we will continue to progress to break up some gridlock.” The important thing is that we start to make progress. The only problem is, no one will be happy unless their own ideology is instituted. As Nathan Richman stated “I think that because of the [marriage amendment] getting turned down, a law might be passed allowing gay marriage.” We see the idea that as new politicians get elected, we can start to expect change.”

The coming years will be important in the future of the country. How will the economy end up? Will we once again begin to grow as a world power? Regardless of the future of America, the elections always have been, and always will be extremely emotional and controversial.