We've all been told that politicians lie - and it's hard not to see why. Throughout American history, it's been seen again and again (think Richard Nixon and his infamous Watergate Scandal back in the '70s.) It's just a fact of life and part of our culture that we accept that our nation's leaders are prone to lying (and some more than others.) After all, elections are in some ways a bit of a popularity contest - whoever can appeal to the most people usually wins, but in order to make oneself appeal to a massive amount of people, sometimes the truth can get stretched quite a bit.

However, this year's election has seen some interesting turns and characters to say the least - and a lot of issues with dishonesty. While Hillary Clinton's email scandal has been on the public mind for quite some time, it;s hard not to overlook Donald Trump's tendency to contradict himself throughout his campaign. Hillary Clinton has also been accused of copying some of Bernie Sanders' ideas throughout their campaigns.

So what's the big deal? If politicians always lie, why is it important that it's been just a little worse this year?

The problem, to me, seems to be that the dishonesty of the candidates this year is making it harder and harder to decide who to stand by at voting time. We want to pick a politician that best represents our values and who we think will be the best leader of the country. But if the nominees can't even be consistent with their opinions, how do we really know who will best represent us?

Is Hillary Clinton really going to follow Bernie Sanders' plans for the country once in office, or is she just repeating some of his ideas to appeal to young voters? If, historically, Trump has expressed very liberal ideas, will he really support conservative ideals post-election?

It's common sense to know that no politician will ever represent our personal values one hundred percent. I think we, as a people, need to try and remember this, as we, the voters, are the ones in part fueling this desperate battle of popularity. In an effort to reach us voters, the nominees seem to simply being saying what they think we want to hear, which most likely means their ultimate behavior in the white house will be a surprise.

When the polls open in November, for this year at least, we will be going in somewhat blind. And if we are going to continue making informed choices on who we want to lead the country, we're going to have to open our minds to the value of honesty.