Well America, the two major political parties of this country have elected their candidates for President of the United States of America. As in any presidential race for the commander in chief of this country, the members of both parties are tearing each other’s candidates up. But in all these attacks, the question has to be asked whether the Democrats and Republicans are currently having more conflict within their parties than with each other.
The Republican National Committee has officially nominated Donald J Trump as the Republican Presidential Candidate. Picking Mr. Trump was not an easy task for the Republicans. They started their nomination with 17 candidates. That number of candidates was so troublesome that for the first few national debates, there had to be a separate debate for the lower polling candidates. The candidates represented a large variety of conservative political ideologies. They varied from those with political ideologies on the far right of the political spectrum to those with more libertarian beliefs to those who had no experience in the world of politics. After a long nomination process, voters whittled down the large candidate pool to Mr. Trump.
This decision caused for outcry within the party. Many respected Republicans have refused to support Mr. Trump because they feel that he does not represent what the party stands for. A recent example is Texas Senator Ted Cruz. At the Republican National Convention, Ted Cruz refused to explicitly support Mr. Trump in his 20 minute speech. For Trump, this support would have been a major lift for his campaign. Ted Cruz is one of the politicians who represents the far right of the Republicans. He is also a representative of the evangelicals of this country. His popularity with Republicans is represented by the fact that he was able to win 559 delegates which was roughly 25% percent of the Republican delegates. There are many other Republicans like Ted Cruz who just simply do not want Trump as their candidate for President of the United States.
This past week, at the Democratic National Convention, Hillary Rodham Clinton accepted the nomination as the Democratic Presidential Candidate. At first glance, the nomination process for the Democrats appears simpler. There were for 3 candidates to begin with. After the first few primaries, there were two main candidates. On one side, there was Hillary Clinton. Her name is familiar to all Americans as she has not only has held high positions in American politics such as Secretary of State and New York Senator but she is also the wife of former American President Bill Clinton. Her biggest threat was Bernie Sander. He is the Independent Senator from Vermont who is famous for declaring himself as a Democratic Socialist. The nomination process was close but Hilary won the required amount of delegates to clinch the Democratic Nomination.
For Hilary, the biggest concern should currently be how she is going to beat Mr. Trump but that does not seem like the case. Many of Bernie’s supporters are not happy with Hilary as they view her as another career politician who will fail to represent the farther left of the political spectrum. Furthermore, there are conspiracy theories floating around that the nomination process was rigged in her favor. The main issue is the superdelegates, which are the delegates who vote for a Democratic candidate without taking into account the vote of the people. She won a bigger percentage of the superdelegates than the percentage of delegates she won due to the popular vote. There was, even more, outcry with recent hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) emails. The emails demonstrated not only signs of the DNC favoring Hilary but also racist remarks such as referring to Mexican as “taco bowls.” The severity of the emails was so extreme that it forced for Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the DNC’s chair, to step down from her position. Hence, there are many Democrats who are stilling “Feeling the Bern.”
With all this internal conflict in mind, is it time for a change? No, I am not referring to Obama’s 2008 presidential slogan, I am instead referring to our two-party political system. Is the two-party system representing the beliefs of their supporters? Many people would say no as the number the number of independent as reached 43 percent according to a recent poll down by the Gallup Organization. An even bigger issue is the current reasoning of many on who they are choosing to vote for. The reasoning of picking one candidate, not because you support their political stance, but simply because you do not want the other candidate as president. How is this healthy for our nation? We need to elect a president who represents our beliefs and values. The person needs to reflect what we want for this country. Electing somebody who does not embody us just to keep the other person out is a crime against our American Democracy.
Our founding fathers warned of this. In his farewell speech, George Washington warned us of the “spirit of parties.” We cannot sit here and celebrate when our party wins when the candidates elected into office do not represent the American people.
America, this world is not black and white. In this country, there are more than just the Republican and Democratic candidates. There are candidates currently running for president whose names are neither Donald J Trump nor Hilary Clinton. If you feel like you are not represented by either of these candidates, then do your research on the other candidates. There are other parties such as the Green Party who just might represent what you stand for. There are also those candidates who have no party association and are running as independents like Gary Johnson. Even though they lack the popularity of our two main candidates, they are still viable candidates that we should give a certain extent of consideration when figuring out who we are going to vote for this November.
The odds for these other party candidates are small. The last time a third party was relevant was when Ted Roosevelt attempted for the third term as president running under the progressive party and won 88 electoral votes. The last successful change in major parties was when Abraham Lincoln won the presidency as a Republican. He led a change that ousted the established Democratic and Whig parties and was able to lead the country through a Civil War and out of slavery. Maybe that is what this country needs. Maybe it is time to break out of the two-party mold that this country has had for the last century and a half. Citizens of this great country, this upcoming election is a crucial point for this country. Do not vote for somebody just for a party victory or to keep somebody else out of the White House, inform yourself and vote for somebody who is going utilize the power as President of the United States of America to represent you and your values.
