Of course, if you have not been exposed to the hideous battle between presidential candidates over the past year then you are living under a rock. Even if you are from another country there is still cause to be concerned and invested in this election (although you won’t be able to influence it). These two candidates are said to be two of the most hated presidential candidates, which says a lot because we have had many presidential candidates with views that a lot of people disagreed with. Although this is the 5ht presidential election that has happened in my lifetime (I was 2 years old in the first one and 6 years old in the one after that, so please excuse me if the details are a little fuzzy), I realize that this election has been vastly different from the ones before and I believe that no matter who wins, the race alone will influence how people view the presidency from now on.
From the beginning of this race, it seemed to be influential. The Republican side started out with Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, John Kasich, and Marco Rubio to name a few, and eventually Donald Trump was named the Republican nominee. The Democratic side started out with Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, Lincoln Chafee, and Martin O’Malley, and eventually Hillary Clinton was named the Democratic nominee.
I want to just look at the two main presidential candidates separately to show their different beliefs and what they plan to do if they become president.
Hillary Clinton was born in Chicago, Illinois and went to Wellesley College and eventually earned her J.D. from Yale Law School. She married Bill Clinton in 1975 and became the First Lady when he was elected president in 1993. She served as the 67th Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013 and has since become the first female Senator from New York. She has investigated the health issues faced by the 9/11 first responders and even voted in favor of the War in Afghanistan and the Iraq Resolution. She ran for president in 2008 but lost the Democratic nomination to President Barack Obama. During her time as Secretary of State, she advocated the U.S. intervention in Libya. In 2016 she began running for president and eventually earned the Democratic nomination. There is a lot more information you can find about her online that will explain the different charities and issues she associates herself with. She strongly advocates for women’s rights, LGBT+ rights, equal pay, a fair tax system, racial justice and disability rights to name a few. There is a list of all of the issues she is passionate about on her website in the link at the end of this paragraph. She has been called out for having too many positions on too many issues but that seems like a good thing. She is passionate about many different things and knows what she believes in. She has been called out for not supporting the LGBT+ community years ago and changing her mind but that is the same for many American’s. Years ago people did not know as much as they do know and this is just what happens when someone learns to accept people and others should really learn from her and stop harming and discriminating against others for their sexuality or any other factor about them. Hillary is a strong supporter of women’s rights and says that “too often, these are called women’s issues. Well, I am a proud lifelong fighter for women’s issues, because I firmly believe what’s good for women is good for America” ( https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/womens-right...). Although the word ‘feminism’ has gotten a bad rap with some people, she knows that it really means equality among men AND women. Hillary is widely and famously supported by many people in Hollywood, on Broadway, and a lot of people involved in the arts in general. A few of her supporters include Lin-Manuel Miranda, Sarah Silverman, Meryl Streep, Barbra Streisand, Leonardo DiCaprio, Steven Spielberg, Chris Colfer, Debra Messing, Nyle DiMarco, Bruce Springsteen, Laura Benanti, Justin Timberlake, Jessica Biel, and many others. There are also a lot of minority groups and women who seem to favor Hillary Clinton.
https://www.hillaryclinton.com/
Donald Trump was born in New York City and went to The University of Pennsylvania and eventually received his bachelor’s degree in economics. Over the course of his career he has built skyscrapers, hotels, golf courses, casinos, including the Trump Palace apartment complex in Manhattan. From 2004 to 2015 he hosted the reality television show The Apprentice and he also owned the Miss USA pageant from 1996 to 2015. The issue that Trump seems to care the most about is immigration. He believes that the U.S. should build a wall on our border to Mexico and “select immigrants based on their likelihood of success in the U.S. and their ability to be financially self-sufficient” ( https://www.donaldjtrump.com/policies/immigration/). He is passionate about making sure that everyone pays their fair share of taxes but not so much that it destroys jobs. His foreign policy plan is to defeat ISIS through aggressive strength to make the nation more peaceful. He wants to make it easier for people to go to school for less than what they are paying now by having people pay more taxes for school choice. Donald Trump is pro-life and has publicly asked for pro-life leaders’ support in his campaign for the presidency. Trump has obviously been in the news a lot which is good and bad. He has made many offensive and false statements but some people like that he is not the traditional candidate and that he speaks just like everyone else instead of acting like a professional candidate who has been in government offices already and knows how to speak to a crowd. Trump has also gained popularity among celebrities, although there is definitely a specific crowd he obtains. Some of his famous supporters are Kid Rock, Kirstie Alley, Mike Tyson, Scott Baio, Stacey Dash, Gene Simmons, Loretta Lynn, Jesse James and Stephen Baldwin. He also has a large population of older white men, especially from the south but also from part of the North East.
https://www.donaldjtrump.com/policies/
There are also other people running for president like Jill Stein from the Green Party and Gary Johnson from the Libertarian Party. These people have been getting a lot more attention than people outside of the two major political parties usually do because people do not want to choose a president because they are ‘the lesser of two evils’. Although I understand this, it may not help at all because there is so little chance that anyone running for president in a ‘smaller party’ does not have a big chance to win, as seen in every other presidential election. One thing that could happen when you vote for someone like Jill Stein or Gary Johnson is more people will understand that there is always another option when voting for a president.
There are never just two people. You could write someone in! Although I’m sure that would not do very much either, you can! You can write in Elmo or Mickey Mouse, it’s democracy you can basically do whatever you want in that respect. In fact, a Georgia election supervisor once said “Mickey always gets votes. If he doesn’t get votes in our election, it’s a bad election." This makes sense because, honestly, if everyone either writes Clinton or Trump it will be a very boring election, or very suspenseful because of their relatively close proximity in the polls at the moment. Of course, if you just cannot vote for Clinton or Trump a third party nominee is better to vote for than not voting at all. Anything is better than not voting at all.
At the end of the day, every single person out there has different views than everyone else. My friends and I constantly talk about our opposing viewpoint’s; the key word being talking. It is completely possible to have a conversation with someone about what you believe in without freaking out or yelling or feeling like they personally attacked you. For example, I consider myself pro-choice when it comes to the topic of abortion because I believe that the women should have control of her body and what happens to it. I believe that if a woman in a victim of rape, incest, or have any medical reason why her pregnancy would result in her death then she should have the CHOICE to have an abortion. Although I believe that, I know that I personally could never get an abortion. I do not think I could do that to myself or to the life growing inside of me. Because I believe in all of these things I completely understand why someone else would be pro-life. I can completely see the religious and personal reasons why people are pro-life and I do not judge them or think that they should think like me. I think other people just need to be able to understand others and realize why they believe what they do. Maybe people can be influenced by other’s opinions and change their own but even if you do not change your opinion, you should AT LEAST be able to understand and especially respect someone else’s opinions and beliefs.
No matter who you believe should be president; Trump, Clinton, Johnson, Stein, or someone else, if you do not vote, you will not be able to say that you tried to help your country. You will not be able to say that you are at least happy that you tried and used your voice. You are lucky enough to be able to vote, so do it. There is literally no excuse not to vote. I cannot think of one reason not to go out and take a few minutes out of your day to vote for the President of the United States. This is the first election I am able to vote in and I will most definitely be at the polls on Tuesday, November 8 to vote for the personal that I want to be the next President. I hope you will be too.
For more information, check out the following links:
https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-pros-and-cons-of-voting-for-third-party-candidates-in-U-S-elections
