This year’s election will certainly be one that makes history. We have the first female candidate, and we have a business man. Both of these candidates think that they are the best for the job, that they have the experience that it takes to revive America. Certainly that all sounds great, but from most people that I have spoken to, very few are really sure about either candidate. Of course, everyone has their preferences, but very few people are diehard Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump supporters. This has changed the way this election will work.
On one side we have Trump. He is a businessman who has proven he isn’t able to keep his mouth shut. He has commented on race and gender and religion in ways that have caused many people to seriously hate him. I have heard many people say that they will vote for anyone who isn’t Trump. Now, you would think that they would be Clinton fans instead. I mean she definitely isn’t Trump, but most of these people aren’t really crazy about her either. They just hate Trump enough to vote for someone that they don’t love as a candidate.
On the other side, we have Clinton. She is someone with vast political experience, but also with vast political scandal surrounding her. She has her husband’s scandals along with her own plaguing her records. These incidents have caused many people to think that she is a liar, and because of that many of them hate her. People have said that they will vote for anyone who isn’t Clinton. Of course, you would think that this would make them fans of Trump, but that isn’t the case many times. They don’t love Trump, but they hate Clinton enough to not care.
Do you see a common theme here? Do you see the problem that this election is going to have? It doesn’t matter who will win, because either way this country will not be happy. We are voting against someone instead of for someone. How can you truly be happy with your decision, if you are only picking that person because you hate the other? Today’s society has become a “vote against” society, and it is causing our elections to become tense and ultimately miserable for voters. Am I saying that this problem hasn’t occurred at every election? No, but it has become way more prevalent in this election.
As the generation of young voters, we have been handed a political system that can be messy and ugly. It is easy to say that we don’t care about what happens in this elections, that we don’t like either candidate so we are just not going to vote at all. If we were to do that we would be making a huge mistake. Our generation will be the ones that will feel the effects from this election. We are going to have to live with the triumphs and mistakes that our next president makes. As a generation that cares about the world so much, why don’t we also care about our country? When you go to vote in November, try not to vote against someone, try to vote for a candidate. If you cannot do that, try to make the decision that you feel will make our country stronger, not just the one to keep someone out of office.
