For the last couple of months, many of those in the media have been wondering how someone like Donald Trump could gain such support and political success despite breaking all major “rules” of politics.
Ever since the birth of mass media, Americans political candidates have been held to a certain standard by the public, aside from the obvious legal standards set forth by the Constitution. We look for specific criteria in our country’s leaders, even if the criteria have nothing to do with whether or not he/she would make a good President or congressman.
These include having a stable family (the more stock footage-looking, the better), having a belief in God (preferably the Christian one), being mild-mannered, speaking eloquently and carefully when addressing controversial topics, being able to smile a lot (especially in front of babies or foreign visitors), and adhering the set of values we have deemed “American.” That means no socialism, no (outright) racism, love for our military, and lots and lots of “freedom” word usage.
This election, however, has given us at least two candidates who have deviated from the standards: Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.
Of course, few topics would ever put these two men in the same category. They’re as different as a billionaire real-estate tycoon and a Democratic Socialist could be. But what is interesting about both of them is their ability to not only exceed the expectations of the media, but destroy those expectations along with the principles that have created them.
When Donald Trump announced his bid for presidency, everyone thought it would merely be a large publicity stunt for his business. It was a joke for a long time, providing comedians with enough material to last until 2017. And of course, it still is a joke. After all, you have a former reality TV star yelling racist mantras at the American people. It’s not so funny when you see that he still has a strong lead in the polls and is currently the most likely, out of all the Republican candidates, to achieve the highest office in the nation.
When Bernie Sanders announced his bid, no one was considering anyone other than Hillary Clinton as the Democratic candidate. Since then, Sanders has drawn large crowds of youth to his rallies and has also gained much support from senior citizens. The idea of a candidate bypassing donations from major corporations and companies seemed at most idealistic and at least laughable. But Sanders has earned an astonishing $33 million from small-amount donors, just $4 million shy of what Clinton has raised.
What sets Sanders and Trump apart from their peers, whose credentials look incredibly ideal on paper, is their ability to make the American public believe what they are saying. While Americans are used to seeing well-dressed, well-rehearsed individuals read eloquent promises off of a teleprompter, what they want is someone they can trust. Sure, you can say that you care about the jobless and that you will do whatever it takes to restore the “American Dream,” but this has been heard too many times before and promises have been forgotten.
Voters like those who can go off the cuff. There is something real about the loud, unfiltered Trump who lambastes the idea of political correctness by saying anything he wants and about the anti-big money Sanders who actually proves that he cares about corruption in politics and only takes money from those he promises to support.
Maybe they won’t have what it takes to actually win the big election, but their major presence in this election cycles shows that there may be a major change in how Americans think and vote for years to come.
