I’ve never been big into politics. I’ve always been the type to leave the table and hide in my room at family get-togethers when any of my family members would get into heated debates on seemingly boring political issues. Oh my god, who cares?! Can we pleaaaase talk about something else? I would think to myself as my family members were discussing whether or not the government should fund spacecraft projects. It’s not like any of these issues are going to directly affect me, so can you all kindly shut up? I would also think. Whenever possible, if politics came up in conversation, I would change the topic. I found political banter to be boring, obnoxious, and pretentious. Sometimes, I would even go so far as to tell my friends and family to shut up if they started talking about political issues to me. I just didn’t care. However, that all changed this year.
Because the presidential election is occurring in less than three weeks, everyone’s political opinions have been permeating through all of social media. Initially, the ignorance and annoyance I felt towards politics throughout my life kicked in as I stumbled upon peoples’ political posts. I just logged onto Facebook to look at some memes, not to see everyone’s stupid political opinions, I thought to myself as I saw yet another post on why Hillary is corrupt and why Trump is a maniac. However, this attitude I’ve had about politics being annoying and boring quickly changed as I began to actually read about the upcoming election on news websites and process what my mom was actually saying as she went on one of her many long political rants. These factors all partially contributed to making me actually care about politics and the election, but what really changed me was actually watching one of the presidential debates myself.
The presidential debate was inescapable, all over every social media platform imaginable. Instead of getting annoyed as I usually would, on October 19, 2016, the day of the last presidential debate, I thought to myself Why not just watch it? I’ll see what all the hype is about. So I did. I allocated an hour and a half of my time to something I’d thought would put me to sleep. And I was wrong.
What I saw during those 90 minutes kept my attention and made me actually care about who would become the face of our nation. Through my computer screen, I saw an insecure, pathetic middle school boy (he doesn’t deserve to be referred to as a man) degrading a brilliant, articulate woman. This middle school boy, unfortunately known to us all as Donald Trump, spent his time throughout the debate making degrading, condescending comments to Clinton rather than actually telling the public what he would do for the country. “Make American Great Again,” he would reiterate. How? How is Trump going to Make America Great Again? By repeating the same clichéd campaign slogan throughout the entire debate? By displaying bad sportsmanship throughout the entire debate by bashing his candidate and even going so far as to call Clinton a “nasty woman?” Calling Clinton a “nasty woman” on national television is not telling the public how he’s going to “Make America Great Again,” but it did tell the public what kind of human being he really is and, consequently, what kind of person will be the face of our nation if he wins the presidential election.
As a young woman, watching the way Trump spoke to Clinton on national television was disgusting. However, what truly nauseated me was realizing that the constant interruptions and insults he threw in his fellow candidate’s face reflected how he saw all women and how he would go about treating women in our country if he became our president. Yes, it’s evident that he doesn’t respect women from the infamous “I grabbed her by the p***y” tape. But the way Trump spoke to Clinton directly relates to his positions on reproductive rights, equal pay, and equal rights.
While watching the debate, something else struck me pretty hard. I realized that the little boy speaking is not a qualified politician. Donald Trump may be a billionaire. Donald Trump may be a successful businessboy (I still refuse to call him a man). But Donald Trump is not a qualified politician. Instead, he is a competitive con artist that wants to run our country like one of his little businesses for his own selfish reasons, not for the benefit of our country (don’t forget that his “successful” business ventures went bankrupt four times!). Although Trump’s true intentions of running for president were concealed by the mouthful of lies he shoved down the public’s throat during the debate, they’re very evident when looking at his daily, pre-political days (which was most of his life until he decided to potentially mess up our country). During one of his debate portions, he told the public that he wanted to make our country a better place for Latinos and African Americans. How sweet, but does he really mean that? Did he conveniently forget that he had the manager of his casino move African American workers to the back so he didn’t have to see them, as Mother Jones reported last year? Did he also forget to acknowledge that he uses Latinos as scapegoats for unemployment in our country? Donald Trump is a racist, and his xenophobic actions reflect on the fact that he plans on further strengthening the racial hierarchy that places whites at the top and minorities on the bottom, making the lives of Latinos and African Americans in our country more difficult than they already are.
As the debate came to a close, my belief that Trump was not a politician became clear as it came time for closing statements. Hillary closed first, urging all Americans to vote for her, regardless of what political party they identified with. Her closing statement was polished, well-articulated, and professional. Trump, however, closed in the most unprofessional, immature way possible. Instead of telling the country what he stood for and why they should vote for him, he just spent the time he could’ve used to make a well-crafted closing statement by bashing Clinton and urging America not to vote for her. A real politician would close with a statement that was professional, mature, and well-crafted. Even if the politicians hated each other, they would remain calm and mature while speaking. However, when closing, it was clear to me that he was not a politician. In my eyes, he was an angry, insecure boy putting down his competitor in a sad attempt to get people to vote for him and for him to feel better about himself.
While Trump’s closing statement was reflective of the fact he wasn’t a real politician, his last sentence is what really stuck with me. “We cannot take four more years of Barack Obama. And that’s what you get when you get her,” he said. As a person who did not care about politics for the longest time, I suddenly cared a lot when I heard that statement. He didn’t even bother to close the entire statement by saying why he would “Make America Great Again.” Instead, he closed the entire debate by simultaneously insulting our current president and his opposing presidential candidate. While the connection he makes between Obama and Hillary is accurate, Trump states it in a negative, degrading way. However, in reality, “four more years of Obama,” as Trump would say, is what we need in this situation.Although the candidate's for the 2016 presidential election are not the one's we dream of, for one is deemed as corrupt by the public and the other deemed a maniac, it is important to note that one of our candidates, Hillary Clinton, is a qualified politician. While she is not the perfect presidential candidate by any means, she is a qualified politician. In the midst of all of the scandal surrounding her name, sometimes it’s hard to remember that she is immensely qualified, but I want our country to remember a few things. I want our country to remember that she lived in the White House. I want our country to remember that she was the first lady not too long ago. I want our country to remember that she was the Secretary of State. I want our country to remember that she has had over a decade of political experience. And most importantly, I want our country to remember that she is the candidate that is the qualified politician, not Trump.
Regardless of what political party you identify with, whether it be the Democratic Party, Republican Party, or a miscellaneous Third Party, it is important that you, as a citizen of the United States, vote for a qualified politician, not a racist, sexist middle school boy. Ugh, but I don't care about politics. And both choices suck. Do I even want to bother voting? you may think to yourself. I understand. I expressed the same apathetic, eye-rolling thoughts regarding politics for the longest time. However, while watching the debate, I saw the potential future of our country through Donald Trump's repetitive "Make America Great Again" shtick and through the degrading phrases he spat in Clinton's face. And let me tell you, that potential future is looking like a f**king catastrophe. By ignoring the presidential campaign, you are letting our country be run by a very dangerous man. Ugh, but checks and balances will come in handy. He can't possibly have that much power over us, you may also think to yourself, but you're wrong. The president has more power than you can imagine. The president decides who is appointed to the Supreme Court. Therefore, the president controls who is making legislative decisions in our country. If Donald Trump is elected, he will appoint people to our Supreme Court that will make legislative decisions that could potentially reverse federal abortion rights and gay marriage rights. For all of these reasons, I would rather have “four more years” of Obama under Clinton than have an angry, orange, self-proclaimed businessboy as our president any day. And for the sake of your fundamental rights, I hope you feel the same way, too.
