As a twenty-year-old in 2016, I find myself, along with many of my peers, quickly approaching the first presidential election we are able to vote in. We’ve finally gained the right of passage to choose who our next president of the United States will be. For the first time, we have a chance to have our political views heard and even make them count. Now for some, this decision is one that appears to be a no-brainer, while others find themselves presented with two individuals who tend to have polar opposite views on many controversial topics and are told to decide which would be the better ruler of the free world. And with the two major party candidates for the 2016 presidential election now decided, I find myself in the position of not knowing what I will do come November.

Donald Trump, a successful businessman who’s never had any involvement in politics prior to running in this election, now stands for the Republican party as their nominee. Hilary Clinton, a former first lady turned senator, the Democratic nominee. For those of us who have no clear answer as to who to vote for we now are presented with our two main options. So now it’s time to do your homework. What do they stand for? Do your values and stances match up with theirs? Who do you see as being the next best leader? But regardless if you see Trump as a great businessman and Hilary as a sneaky emailer, or Hilary as the best option for the United States’ first female president and Trump as a mean old man who wants to build a wall, you may find one, and possibly only one, thing that these two have in common, their attacks. No, I am not referring to their plans for the future of our military or their next step towards dealing with ISIS, but rather attacks against each other. As much as the two have spent their time campaigning for president by presenting their ideas and how they will go about running the United States of America, they have also spent what seems like more than half of their campaign attacking and bashing the candidates of the opposing party. And all for what good? Yes, you could argue that it’s to prove that one point is better than the other side that is being presented. But to what extent does this need to go on? So no I am not here to say how am I expected to pick a politician when they can’t hold hands and play nice, but I am here to ask why do you feel the need to continue to dig deeper into your attacks? For me, I’d rather choose a candidate who spent more time worrying about the issues at hand in our country and how they are going to go about changing them, and less time planning how to get under the skin of a fellow candidate. But unfortunately, that doesn’t seem as it will be an option for me in this upcoming election and who knows if it ever will. So for me, casting my first vote in a presidential election won’t be an easy choice, because neither candidate appears to be able to stick to the basics, why they’d make the next best president.