If you're following the crop of presidential candidates closely, you'll realize two things: 1. Donald Trump is at the top of the polls (and really wants you to know it), and 2. No one will even say Bernie Sanders' name. When Rachel Maddow went on The Tonight Show last week to talk to Jimmy Fallon about the candidates on both sides, they spent half their time together talking about Trump, and when they got around to the Democratic candidates, they skirted around Sanders' name rather clumsily and spoke as if Hillary Clinton was the only candidate running.

I only find that interesting, because this happened two weeks ago:

That was from August 12th. Might I add that Joe Biden is already at 9%, and he's not even sure if he's running yet. With the ongoing backlash from (the admittedly over-the-top) email scandal that Clinton is dealing with, it looks like Bernie Sanders is going to become a bigger contender. And with Trump already practically guaranteed the GOP nomination (much to the GOP's dismay), this has more potential than ever to be a Sanders/Trump stand-off come next November. So what does this mean for the average American voter?

First, a little background check:

If you find yourself scratching your head and asking, "Who the hell is Bernie Sanders?" I suggest you look him up. He's a highly qualified individual, having served as Vermont's only congressman from 1990 to 2006, when he was elected to the Senate. As his website states, "Bernie is now serving his second term in the U.S. Senate after winning re-election in 2012 with 71 percent of the vote." He started out as the mayor of Burlington, VT, after a stunning upset against the former six-term mayor. In 1984, Sanders established the award-winning Burlington Community Land Trust, "the first municipal housing land trust in the country for affordable housing."

Sanders is also probably the most independent candidate in the race; he passed language into President Obama's Affordable Care Act in 2009 that allows states to apply for waivers to implement pilot health care systems by 2017, worked with Congressman Rand Paul (another GOP hopeful) a year later to pass a measure as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform bill to audit the Federal Reserve, and then five months later, gave an eight-and-a-half-hour filibuster to delay the passing of a deal that would extend Bush-era tax breaks for the wealthiest families in America, a deal supported by both President Obama and Congressman Paul. He has also worked with John McCain and Representative Jeff Miller, both Republican, on a $16.5 billion veterans bill, signed into law by President Obama in August, 2014. What I'm saying is, Bernie Sanders doesn't play by party lines, a trait that is desperately needed in a president to keep the country moving forward.

Moving to the opposite end of the spectrum, we have Mr. Donald Trump. You may have heard of him.

Or, at the very least, you've heard of his hair.

Trump is decidedly less qualified, despite what the bio on his website says. "Donald J. Trump is the very definition of an American success story, continually setting the standards of excellence while expanding his interests in real estate, sports and entertainment." it starts, and if that sounds rather arrogant, and seems to have nothing of political value, that's because it is.

Some of his greatest accomplishments include, "[having] over 7 million followers on social media,... frequently [using] this platform to... educate the public on the failures of the Obama administration," "[being the] Emmy-nominated star and co-producer of the reality TV series, 'The Apprentice'," and having "You're Fired!" listed as the "third greatest television catchphrase of all time."

It also talks about his real estate success and devotion to conservative thinking, but that's about all you'll find in the way of the political aspects of The Donald. If you want to find out anything else about his political ideology, just look at every basic cable news station at any time of day. Trump is usually leading the discussion.

But that's not necessarily a good thing. Usually, those headlines don't paint a very pretty picture of Trump. If you Google "Donald Trump," some of the first news articles you find on him have titles like "Trump Kicks Hispanic Anchor Out of Press Conference, Tells Him to 'Go Back to Univision'," "Donald Trump keeps bullying Megan Kelly on Twitter, because Donald Trump," and "Meet The Members Of Donald Trump’s White Supremacist Fan Club." And there are plenty more articles online about scandal after scandal after scandal, and yet, Trump is still surging in the polls.

So how is it that a man with decades of results and experience, like Bernie Sanders, is basically being dismissed and ignored, while Donald freaking Trump is in first place? A man who marched with Martin Luther King Jr. in the March on Washington is currently behind a man who's inspired violence on a homeless Hispanic man? A man who has raised all of his campaign money from individual donors is trailing a man who's bankrupted his businesses four times? These men are polar opposites, they're nothing alike!

Okay, maybe they have one thing in common...

But this isn't about the hair. This is about who is going to lead our country. These are two very different people who, if elected, would handle issues very differently. In the end, it all comes down to who you can trust more. Who has the potential to handle foreign policy better, someone who supports a two-state solution in the Middle East, or someone who's referred to Mexicans as rapists on numerous occasions? Or with the economy: someone who would put higher taxes on America's wealthiest, or someone who would raise taxes on the middle-class? Would you rather have someone running our country who has a long history of working for the people, or someone who has the highest ratings on reality TV? The choice is really up to you.

These aren't necessarily the views of The Odyssey, but I am definitely voting for Bernie Sanders, and I suggest you do the same. Anyone who can make me agree with Fox News on anything is not someone who I want in office. Trump has some high-profile supporters, but based on Sanders' campaign donations, he has the American people on his side, and it doesn't look like he's slowing down anytime soon.