As we all have seen, this presidential election has been like no other. For me, this is the first presidential election that I have voted in. I actually participated in the early voting process and going into the polls was hard.
During the primary election, I was pumped and excited about voting because of Bernie Sanders' campaign and I was confident that President Obama would be leaving the country in good hands. Because I would be able to vote in the election this year, I did a lot of research on various websites and paying close attention to the different news outlets. In my research, I found that though this country promotes democracy as one of its primary values, there is no real democracy. It was found that in many states the primary election votes were not counted. California, in particular, did not teach the poll workers which ballots to give to certain voters. Therefore, many people filled out absentee ballots and millions of votes were left uncounted because of the neglect of poll judges.
Furthermore, it was found days before the Democratic National Convention that the Democratic Committee were biased in the primary election and sent emails to make sure that Bernie Sanders didn't win. This upset me because when it comes to competition, I believe in being impartial. I became very disappointed with the democratic party that is supposedly founded on the idea of democracy.
Going on to the Republican National Convention, I was very disappointed with what I saw take place. My parents have said for several years that racism is still prevalent in the 21st century, and I saw the racism they were talking about at the convention. Though I never was a Hillary Clinton supporter, the entire "Lock her up" chant was uncalled for. Yes, Hillary did wrong when it came to her emails, but the attitude and actions that took place at the Republican Convention had nothing to do with the issues that America is facing.
The rhetoric that Donald Trump has had during his campaign is horrible, but it was much needed. Though many people may find this shocking for me to say, his rhetoric has shown the American people that many people continue to be racist, misogynistic, and stereotypical towards different groups of people. Therefore many people, particularly young people, have realized that there is much to be done to make this country more fair and just.
To me, this election has been a disappointment because the main issues have not been discussed much. It also appears that many American citizens don't understand how serious being the United States president is and that is why they see no problem with taking a risk with Donald Trump, who appears to not know much about governing a country. Many people are disappointed by the way this election has gone and they have chosen not to vote, but as I have said to many of them, they are rejecting the right to democracy. When it comes to this choosing not to vote, you are also giving away your right to complain about the results of the election as well as the job of that president. Therefore with only about 16 days left until election day, I say to everyone to go out and vote if you can because it is your job as a citizen of America and many people in other countries wish they had this right.
