The primary elections have been anything short than uneventful this year. From Trump's reality TV- like theatrics, to Sanders and Clinton going at it during debates, one can expect the unexpected from our Presidential Candidates.
The battle for the nomination of the Democratic Party was originally between Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and former governor of Maryland, Martin O’Malley. However, the former governor withdrew from the race this past February.
The Republican Party on the other hand, had a very colorful ballot with candidates such as Carly Fiorina, Rick Santorum, Jim Gilmore, Mike Huckabee, Chris Christie, Rand Paul, Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, John Kasich, Ted Cruz, and last but not least Donald Trump. Out of the 12 original candidates, the only ones that have not withdrawn their candidacy are Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and John Kasich, with Donald Trump currently leading the race.
With Donald Trump leading the Republican Party and Hillary Clinton currently being the front runner for the Democratic Party, one can already predict that the upcoming Presidential Election will be an interesting one.
But, where does this leave Bernie Sanders?
Donald Trump rallies are usually filled with violence, xenophobia, racist chants and homophobic rhetoric. Hillary Clinton on the other hand, has been bashed for not only kicking out #blacklivesmatter protesters and for receiving endorsements from big corporations, but also because she has been changing her view points on certain topics in order to please the masses. In other words, millennia’s think she is shady. And then we have Bernie Sanders, the working class man who is arduously working towards free college education, universal health care and a stable middle class. He can do no wrong, for he is the savior millennia’s have been waiting for.
But, is Sanders really any better than Trump or Clinton?
Donald Trump is a rich bigot who uses his money to control the media and spread his hateful message, which is supposed to “Make America Great Again.” And then we have Hillary Clinton who pretended to be my Abuela, attempted to ‘nae nae’ and claims she has “Hot Sauce in her bag.” #noswag
And then we have Sanders, whose campaign has been entirely made up of what we as a people want to hear. He has used the current social justice movements to mobilize people in his favor, and sadly it is working. During the month of March, he was able to raise 44 million dollars, breaking a record. This money came from donations made by regular people, which compared Clintons 29 million during the same month, according to some, says a lot about what the country and people want.
It is my opinion that we as a nation have a misguided idea of what it is we want in a president. We allow ourselves to be corroded into voting for people who are not running for office with the intention of helping people like ourselves. We let the media tell us we need to vote for someone based solely on how likeable they are. Political news coverage has become an absolute joke and this is completely reflective of the fact that our current election cycle is an absolute joke as well.
The one thing we can all be certain of during the next couple of months is that we will have infinite hours of entertainment from the past and upcoming debates from our presidential candidates, but we must also remember that nothing else is certain. There is no certain way for us to know who will be a better president between Sanders, Clinton, or Trump (definetly not Trump), but we can make our way to the voting sites and exercise this very important right not all of us have. Stay informed and do your research, do not let media to tell you who to vote for.
