As a political science major, I spend my days diving into various textbooks full of information regarding political theories, policies and our international political economy. My classes are full of discussions of past successes, past failures and how, in turn, we learned from them. As I delve deeper and deeper into the context, I have only one thought:
We should be scared.
Our current political situation is an interesting one, to say the least. Each candidate has their pros and cons, but the over coverage of these two in the media has blown the election out of proportion. With all the negative attention given to the candidates, we citizens are having trouble focusing on the specific policies and positive promises presented to us. This election is becoming a bit of a popularity race. Instead of focusing on the future of our government and the possible effects/consequences of the policies presented to us by each candidate, citizens are more focused on voting for one candidate solely so the other one won't win. What's even worse? A lot of these votes are being done out of fear.
The USA Today Holiday recently wrote an article entitled, "Fear, not excitement, drives supporters." According to the article, "...80 percent of Trump supporters and 62 percent of Clinton supporters say if the other candidate wins in November, they would feel 'scared,' the most negative of four possible choices."
So basically, a high percentage of Americans will be "scared" no matter the outcome of this presidential election. What is that going to do for our nation? Our economy? Our morale?
We Americans should be scared, but not for the reasons most think. We shouldn't be scared because one crooked candidate might win over the other crooked candidate, but we should be scared as to what the reaction will be from the side that loses. We should be scared that our fellow Americans have a sense of "fear" towards what life will be like if their opposing candidate wins. We should be scared that Americans have become significantly more divided throughout this whole process, not focusing on the unity and community that the United States is supposed to be known for.
We should be scared that our fellow Americans are more focused on their personal future, rather than the future of our country.
In any presidential election, both candidates will have their flaws. However, both candidates will have their positive aspects as well. The policies presented the ideas of change and the amount of experience each candidate has proven useful in the success of this country.
We should be scared of the negativity found in the hearts of Americans and the possibility of division after the election. We should not be scared of the candidates themselves, but instead of our fellow Americans.
