There is a sad truth about the current political sphere here in the United States. It has become a reality show. Reality shows can be fun, sure, but not when the stakes are this high.
The current presidential election has become a sad mix-up of some of the most ridiculous reality shows on television. I guess as long as it doesn't turn into Discover Channel's Naked and Afraid, we've still got more room to devolve. On a more serious note, it would be worth every American's time to go watch the very first televised presidential debate, which aired in 1960, featuring John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Of course, President Nixon's stint as president didn't come to the best of all ends, but that is beside the point. Just take a few minutes to watch, and think about how this compares to the most recent debates.
After watching that debate, take a look at this clip of one of the more recent debates on the road to the 2016 presidential election.
Of course, it's not just on the Democrat side. As proof, take a look at this clip, and skip to 2:28 for some pure reality show gold.
After watching these three clips, what do you think? The 1960 debate was a calm, civilized conveyance of ideas between two professionals. The two candidates took on their questions with direct, solid answers. The only people at the debate were
Contrast that with the two clips from the current election cycle. You actually have to wonder whether or not these people are candidates to become essentially the most powerful person in the world or if they are Saturday Night Live actors doing their thing.
I didn't bold part of that last sentence for nothing. Let me say it again. One of these people is about to become the most powerful person in the world. Is that not just downright scary? Just to put this all into perspective -- there are roughly 320 million people in this country. Sure, not all of those are adults, not all of them were born in America, and not all of them are educated, but come on! How can we not find a single person that could be better than these candidates?
Objectively, out of the three major candidates left, we've got Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump.
The following explanations of our three candidates are not mine – they are the prevailing opinion of their opposition. Sanders is an idealistic socialist democrat that resembles Doc Brown from "Back to the Future" with which a small portion of the country sees eye-to-eye with, Clinton is an untrustworthy elitist with a history of scandals, and Trump is a creepy guy with a bad wig who lies about his net worth and has immensely more experience as a reality television star than he does as a politician.
These may be hyperbolic ideas of the candidates, but the fact that millions of Americans say these things about the people that are about to lead us is just sad. If these are the best people we can find to lead us out of the 320 million Unites States Citizens, then explain to me how Switzerland, with a population roughly 2.5 percent the size of ours, doesn't have to resort to electing a Swiss mountain goat to lead their country. The stakes are simply too high to be narrowing our search for the most powerful person in the world down to these few candidates.
