The discourse within this election cycle, in my opinion, has been tragic. There is a fundamental lack of willingness to talk solutions, or even agree on the problems, and plenty of policies are based on villainizing one group or economic class. It has been a primary season full of attacks, lack of understanding, and blatant lies.
A large issue we are having is that political conversations are often based on fundamental mistruths. At the time of writing, Donald Trump’s profile on Politifact shows that 75% of his statements that they fact checked were rated “Mostly False” or worse, while 27% of Hillary Clinton’s and 29% of Bernie Sanders’s held the same rating. Though Trump is clearly worse than the rest, we cannot base 27% of our policy decisions, let along 76%, on mistruths. If we want to get more serious about creating a better America, we first need to try and understand where policy is derived from and establish a mutual basis of understanding.
I think it is pivotal to understand that very few people act irrationally. A Trump supporter truly is voting for a candidate who they believe will guide the country in the right direction, while a Bernie or Hillary supporter is doing the same. This can be hard to see when the opposite side believes something so fundamentally counter to your own principles, but it is necessary to acknowledge this so that we may all come to the table and discuss solutions. Once we all realize that we want the same thing – a strong, improved America – then we are able to have a conversation.
This is difficult to do, I admit, because of the rhetoric of this election cycle. Trump, especially, has done very little policy discussion and has resorted to ad-hominem attacks which only lead to ad-homenim responses. Additionally, the continuous attack of Clinton on issues which are largely settled, such as Benghazi and her emails, only stoke the fire of name-calling and vicious rhetoric.
At this point, it is time for Americans to put away their visceral reactions to the candidates and look for logical, fact-based reasons for supporting one over the other. But blanket calling Trump’s immigration policy “racist” isn’t going to change minds, and certainly isn’t going to aid the Midwestern factory worker who has lost his job to outsourcing or immigrant labor. There are plenty of legitimate criticisms of the efficacy of the plan, and those are what should be focused on if the American public is to be swayed towards the ideal plan.
I am by no means trying to tone-police or silence voices who have legitimate, strong grievances with the policies of each candidate. But it’s an issue with the policies that should be prioritized and should be debated, from which we individually choose the candidate who best represents our beliefs and bases their politics on what is actually happening. The current rhetoric of this election cycle has been inflammatory, divisive, and founded in mistruths. While no one can change this individually, if we all make attempts to reach across the aisle and understand other voters, maybe we can foster discussion which will change America for the better.
