I had never given much thought to the way that American presidents are elected into office or whether the current method was the best. First of all, it doesn’t seem like my job. Second, I have plenty of other concerns to keep my mind occupied. It wasn’t until I began talking politics with some high school friends over ice cream at a local McDonald's that this issue entered my mind. First though, let me explain.
Whenever politics have been brought up lately, Trump seems first on people’s minds. As the kind of guy we either love or love to hate, Trump is surrounded by controversy and flooded with national attention by the media. As a front-runner for the Republican seat in the 2016 presidential election, he had appeared on the recent Fox News debate. Host, Megyn Kelly, had opened the debate by calling him out for rude remarks he had previously made about women, calling them fat pigs and disgusting slobs. He brushed it off, by claiming he had only said these things about Rosie O’Donnell. He may have gotten a laugh from some members of the audience, but most likely none of these people had considered the fact that O’Donnell is both a successful women and proud mother of five children.
Following the debate, Trump seemed more defensive about Kelly’s questions, remarking he had been treated unfairly and that she had blood coming out of her eyes, “or coming out of her wherever.” The comment he made was not only offensive and shocking, but is also likely predictive of his potential career as president. Would equal pay be a priority to him? Would he allow for a woman’s right to choose? Would affordable contraception be made widely available? I think we all know the answer to these questions, coming from a man who would demean a smart, well-established woman like Megyn Kelly and make a rude joke about menstruation to put her down. Is this middle school or a presidential race?
While I’m not claiming that most conservatives are like Trump or even that most conservatives like Trump, it is a huge problem that he is the face of the Republican party right now and a front runner for the Republican seat. If there’s one thing I know about my generation, it is that we are very socially progressive and open. When people think of the Republican party today, they think of opposition to gay marriage, at least some degree of racism, a disregard for gender equality, and overly traditional values. This is not what the Republican party is really based on, nor are these core beliefs of most conservatives, but when people like Trump are all over the media, flooding every news network and everyone’s twitter feed, some of us can’t help but cringe at his extreme views. Trump has said countless downright stupid things and I could spend pages and pages describing them, but the point is that he is getting all this media attention and publicity for the wrong reasons.
Though Trump makes for the easiest example, the front-runners for the Democratic seat seem equally extreme. They are often perceived as man-hating feminists, environmental nuts, baby-killers, or even socialists. To top it off, these candidates come with their fair share of political scandals and have made plenty of questionable decisions in the past (cough, cough Hilary Clinton). These thoughts were all running through my head as I slid into a red booth with four of my friends, the smell of french fries wafting through the air.
The five of us sat in a McDonalds last Monday night, eating Oreo Mcflurries and, out of the blue, discussing politics. It was a strange setting for a heated debate and we got our fair share of odd looks, but we realized something important. Whether we grew up in households with conservative or liberal parents and whether we identified as more Democratic or more Republican, most of our opinions were similar. When they did differ, we were able to at least understand where the other person was coming from. The moral of the story is that all five of us are moderates, but we will be forced to decide between a far right Democrat and a far left Republican when we vote for president, all because of the way candidates are nominated for their party’s seat. When the majority of Americans are probably moderates, siding to the left on some issues and the right on others, they should not be forced to decide between two extremist candidates. It only took one Mcflurry, and about an hour sitting in McDonald’s for me to decide that choosing one candidate for each of the two seats may not be giving us the president that the people really want or the person who is best for the job. The question is—when will America agree?
