It is getting closer to that time of year again. It isn’t a holiday or really a time of celebration; it is the presidential election. There are a lot of people in the United States that dread election season because it brings out the worst in people and even the candidates. Elections are often full of slander, hateful comments, and arguing. Now, this isn’t just from one party; it is actually coming from three parties, Democrats, Republicans, and Green. Not just parties but American voters are spreading hate just as well. It is time to reevaluate the way the United States handles elections.
In the 2016 election the most hate is coming from the Republican candidate, Donald Trump. His whole campaign is built off of hatred. Trump wants to build a wall to keep Mexicans out, prevent the immigration of Muslims, blames Blacks and Hispanics for the violence in the U.S.; he promotes violence at his rallies, and slanders his opponents. Why do people follow him? Many people fear what they do not know or do not understand. That fear can lead to hate and hate has a powerful voice. Donald Trump feeds off of this, telling his supporters what they want to hear. However, he does not have a real campaign platform. Often times, he stutters around his answers but never answering the real question. In other cases, he blames the reporter for the question, especially female reporters like Megyn Kelly. Donald Trump is constantly degrading everyone around him. His favorite way, if not on air, is through his Twitter page. He has degraded war heroes (especially ones who have been captured), Hillary Clinton, President Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Presidential debates, Mexico, and American diplomats. That is only a small list. The fact that so many different Republican organizations refuse to endorse or even acknowledge Donald Trump as their candidate should be alarming. Is this really someone we want as a potential U.S. President?
On the other hand, there is the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton. While she does not spew nearly as much hate as Trump, she is still a liar. This is the biggest problem voters have with her. After the email scandal this year, and the amount of flipping sides she has done, there are a lot of people who are hesitant to vote for her. Some of the not-so-great things Hillary has done include voting for the Iraq War, pushing for NATO to bomb Libya, the restoration of the overthrown Honduran president, supporting free trade through Colombia, and now voter fraud. However, there are more voters hating Hillary than Hillary spreading hate. People expect political leaders to be perfect and because of the mistakes she has made in the past, voters have realized that she is not perfect and resent her. The people do not look at her political platform or her speeches but at her past mistakes. In a way this is understandable, it shows the voters what she has done in a political position. On the other hand, this is not the first time there has been political corruption. Nixon had the Watergate scandal. Reagan sold arms to Iran. Bush Sr. promised no new taxes but taxes were raised in a new budget. His son, on the contrary, lied about the role Iraq had in 9/11 and eventually led to one of the costliest wars. Cheney revealed a covert Central Intelligence Agent. Now, this isn’t a persuasive article on why to vote for Hillary. It is facts about previous political scandals that many voters are forgetting and trying to understand why voters hate her so much compared to other corrupt politicians. Regardless, it does not excuse her from any of her actions.
A candidate that has been dragging both Hillary and Trump through the dirt is Green Party’s Jill Stein. Stein has a tendency to play the blame game on her Twitter page. To be honest, it is a tad bit tacky since none of them are in high school anymore. She is constantly belittling and attacking her competitors on her social media more than she is discussing her platform. This is why she has gotten so much support; she is feeding into the voters’ hatred of the other candidates. Two wrongs do not make a right, as well as peace, cannot come from hate. She has far fewer resources than her competitors, yet is using the vast majority to propagate hateful messages says so much about where we are in this current election.
At this point, we as a country need to eliminate the hate from the election. The voting people need to stop feeding off of this hate and demand a peaceful election. Politicians use the fuel of the people to build their publicity and popularity. This is not high school. Politicians should focus on their campaign and their campaign alone, not a juvenile popularity contest in which it is okay to say whatever they want at the expense of others. Anymore, politicians’ platform is not what they stand for but the fact they are not the other candidates. However, candidates need to be held responsible for the things they say rather than catering to the common denominator. We the people should no longer allow pandering to hate to be profitable.
