It is no secret that the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees for the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, are less than ideal candidates. In many cases voting in this year's election will come down to which candidate you hate less as your final voting criteria. The two candidates are both disliked for many reasons, but Trump has one thing that Hillary doesn’t: a trendy campaign.
Popularized by Instagram accounts such as Old Row, Trump has become less of a political figure and more of frat-boy idol. Trump has adopted a mindset that many fraternity men have come to idolize. His arrogance and sense of entitlement are something that these college age boys can relate to on a personal level. I do not mean to offend every boy in a fraternity, as I am fully aware that most are decent people, but when these boys blindly promote Trump for the gratification of getting their picture on Old Row, that is when I have a problem with them.
The Old Row Instagram account, Twitter account and clothing line are all gaining popularity in this election. There are such posts on the Instagram account as “#BabesforTrump” where scantily-clad women write "Trump 2016" across their half-naked bodies. In addition, college students scribble “Build that wall!” written in sand on beaches, and there is even a popular trend called "#Chalkening" where students at universities attempt to pledge their allegiance to Trump by writing in chalk in various places across campus. Old Row and other similar social media accounts are changing the way young adults view and interact with this political campaign. Now, viewed as a race for popularity, universities across the south are advertising to vote for Trump and have become so caught up with being displayed on Old Row, they forget what they are doing -- swaying votes in a presidential election.
Trump is popular with frat boys because they aspire to be like him- a wealthy, privileged man who seems to not care who he offends and suffers no consqeunces for his outlandish and offensive rhetoric. They believe following Trump is “cool” because of their distorted perception of him from a popular Instagram account, not because of his policies or what he stands for, which is just ludicrous. Because of Old Row and many other social media influences, young, college age students, have made it “trendy” to vote for Trump.
Trump is uneducated on how to run a country, that’s no secret. He has claimed more than a few times that he has no background experience in the political field and is going to take a businessman's approach to running our country (he's not even a great business man at that). Much like Trump is going to try to fill the president's shoes with no prior experience in domestic and foreign policy, his young voters are going to do the same when it comes to voting -- vote with no prior education on the policies of the candidates.
I don’t know if everyone is aware of this, but, it's not cool to not know what you are doing. Much like you wouldn’t want a brain surgeon operating on you if he has no prior experience, why would you want someone who doesn’t know what they are doing to run our country? Ignorance and Trump go hand and hand, and I think we can all agree that neither are cool.
Vote for Trump if you want, but please have some logic behind your choice. Do not be one of the thousands who blindly follow him because of who he is, what you think he represents, or the fact that you think he will bring you popularity or fame. Do your research and vote for who you believe will run the country best.
