An Opinion on the Presidential Election
On Tuesday, November 8th, American citizens will go out and vote for the candidate they believe will do the best job at leading our country. Or at least, that’s usually how elections are supposed to work. In reality, this 2016 Presidential Election is actually quite frightening. The last president to have been elected outside one of America’s main political parties was back in the 1800’s. That’s not to say it won’t happen again, but most people live with the mindset that if a candidate isn’t part of the two major parties, they won’t get elected. In reality, this is possible, yet it is still rather unlikely (given society’s recent trends).
So who are our two major candidates? Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, and Hillary Clinton, the Democrat nominee.
After listening to each candidate's speeches and views during the presidential debates, you might be leaning toward one candidate over the other. They differ quite a bit on the majority of their views, and the amount of people who side with each candidate seems to be fairly equal. I’ll give them both credit; each candidate has mentioned one or two things I’ve agreed with, and suggested policies I’d actually like to see introduced. So then why is the choice so difficult?
Well, the answer is fairly straightforward: While both of the two major candidates appear to have the capabilities of being our next president, they’ve both done quite terrible things which, in my opinion, render them both unsuitable for presidency. Between Clinton’s missing emails and the Benghazi scandal, she’s hardly a trustworthy person. Despite whatever ideal policies Clinton’s mentioned, the scandals she’s been involved with portray her as crooked and untrustworthy. As much as I would love to see the election of our first female president, I can’t honestly say I want her to be our first choice. She paints a terrible picture for women everywhere. Trump, on the other hand, is just as bad. After watching the presidential debates it is clear to me just how immature he is. He consistently ignored the moderator and interrupted his opponent quite frequently. The footage released from 2005 where Trump mentioned being able to force himself on women also promotes rape culture. He has dismissed this, along with other statements he’s made, as “locker room banter.” Trump is highly disrespectful of women and it appears as though his plans for presidency will destroy all of the changes made throughout the progressive movement. 80 years of much-needed change will essentially go to waste if Trump follows through with the majority of his plans and policies. Neither of our two major candidates are spectacular choices for American citizens, and I think we deserve better.
According to a poll by UMass Lowell and Odyssey, a portion of Millennials also heavily resent our two primary presidential candidates. The poll surveyed 1,247 people, aged 18 to 35. The poll asked millennials to choose their preference between Clinton as president, Trump as president, a random lottery to choose the president from all U.S. citizens, Barack Obama appointing himself to a life term as president, or a giant meteor striking Earth and extinguishing all human life. It sounds silly, but nearly 1 in 4 of those surveyed actually said they would prefer the meteor strike! If there’s any way of expressing our resentment toward our Democratic and Republican nominees, I would say that this is it.
