Many people have fairly rational fears of what will happen to the United States after the 2016 election- and I am one of them. As someone who can vote legally for the first time, this election is the first one that has personally mattered to me (to be fair, I can only remember the last two elections and only vaguely). I have grown up with an understanding that voting and political awareness are one of an American citizen’s greatest rights and gravest responsibilities.

What worries me about this election is that while everyone is up in arms about the latest thing either candidate has done (good or bad), the Congressional race is largely going unnoticed. I see so many Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. posts about the Presidential candidates but haven’t seen a single one about what’s going one (or not going on) in Congress. Fun fact: a majority of Congress is up for reelection- in fact, according to ballotopedia.org “34 Senate seats and all 435 House seats”. Another thing to remember is that the president doesn’t actually have constitutional authority or power to create and pass laws- Congress does. The only thing the president can do is sign or veto what’s passed on to him or her from Congress. The real thing we should worry about is who it elected to Congress- we have a chance to turn over a huge amount of the House and Senate, many of whom are complained about on a daily basis for not getting anything done or being corrupt. Shouldn’t we take the opportunity that’s being handed to us? Show Washington that we are done dealing with them and they don’t have the immunity they thought they did? My home state of Pennsylvania has its senator and multiple representatives (including one from my district) up for reelection, this is huge for our citizens- I would hope that everyone would get out to vote, we may never again see an opportunity like this in our lifetimes.

Another thing that worries me is the impact this election will have on future generations. With one Supreme Court seat open and many other aging justices, whoever is elected will have the responsibility of appointing at least one justice- their impact won’t just be felt this election cycle, but for many, many years as it seems that the seats are only switched up if a justice dies (as the human life expectancy increases, the terms seem to grow longer). We have had many historic cases that rewrote history, some that have been under attack as of late. Whether it be Roe v Wade, Obergefell v Hodges, or others, the Supreme court has the potential to take away some Americans’ hard earned rights. The LGBT+ community has worked too long to see their progress fade away so soon, and the repeal of Roe v Wade put the health of too many women at risk. We as Americans could be stripped of basic human rights (outside of these cases as well) because of the decisions of the president & his or her supreme court justices. Congress has the power to approve or disapprove of the nominees, and this makes it even more important that the president and congress are the choice of the people and will look out for the interests of the common people rather than the interests of their own wallets.

I don't necessarily approve of either candidate’s actions, etc. but what's done is done. The real question we should be asking is what they have learned from what they did & whether they'll do it in the future. I have no idea the intentions of either of their actions, but we do need a president that will be able to positively represent our country & as an American I'm not sure if I trust either (or any) of the candidates with that responsibility. We have been dealt an unfortunate hand this election cycle- these candidates (in my opinion) don't represent the best that America has to offer & the American people deserve better than to choose "the lesser of two evils". We need someone to pull us up by our bootstraps and reunite us as a common people- not divide us by class, race, political party, gender, etc. Both major candidates have court cases against them, some of them for committing felonies. The way they have handled themselves in the past don’t give me hope for their presidencies- whether it’s Donald Trump with the Trump University scandal and how he has managed to insult so many people based on nationality, religion, gender, or their relation to beauty standards, or Hilary Clinton and her email crisis, Benghazi, and everything else she has managed to divert the American public eye from. Personally, I think they should both be declared unfit to run and possibly even taken to court for their actions. Both parties pose a huge risk to the American people in their own right, and the United States deserves a president that can do better than the two of them have to offer.