What's Wrong with the 2016 Presidential Race?

            The most powerful position in our world today is President of the United States of America. As I’m sure you all know, we are currently in the midst of the 2016 Presidential Race. For those of us who have interest in this subject, now is a very exciting time to learn more about the candidates, re-think our political views, and of course, watch the Presidential Debates. As time has gone on, we have already begun to create bias and favoritism in each of our minds towards certain candidates and prejudice towards others. As the frontrunners begin to pull ahead of the other candidates, our “couple of favorites to win” become narrowed down to just one. Today I’d like to talk a little bit about the Presidential Race and what’s wrong with it, but especially about voter awareness. The foundation of this country is We the People. If each of us as individuals refuse to take action and become aware of our awful situation, our freedoms and liberties will be taken from us. You may not feel like you can make a difference as one person, but a nation with millions of weak individuals is like a herd of sheep being led off a cliff. Freedom begins with individual effort.

       Before I go into my points, I’d like to admit that I have very strong political beliefs. So no matter how hard I try, what I say is going to be biased, but hear me out before you shoot me down because you can still learn something from a biased point of view.

Trump currently holds the lead on the conservative side

of the 2016 Race

            The first item of business I’d like to talk about is Donald Trump. Trump has been in the lead of this race for quite awhile now, and surprisingly, despite the many Americans who despise him as a politician, Trump still currently holds that lead. I believe the thing that sets him apart from the other candidates is the fact that he is not a politician. He is a businessman. Because he’s not a politician, he doesn’t really follow a lot of the same unwritten rules as the other candidates do. Trump is notorious for not being afraid to speak his mind, even when he fully intends to offend or even personally attack someone with his comments. So why do so many people support him? I think it’s because the American people are sick of politicians. We have had far too many of those in office who have lied to us, made poor decisions based on poor policy, refused to do their job of enforcing the law on certain points of legislation, overstepped their bounds of stewardship in certain areas while neglecting other areas of responsibility, and done many other acts and things which politicians have a reputation of doing. Not to say that Trump wouldn’t fall into some of that criteria, but America is ready for change, and that’s why Donald Trump leads the Presidential Race right now.

            That is also precisely the reason why I believe Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have any support at all. Honestly, all you have to do is turn on five minutes of any Democratic Presidential Debate to realize that these candidates want nothing to do with upholding the Constitution of the United States. Why would people support them? Because people want change. They want something different than what America is now. What they don’t realize is that socialist policies will destroy our constitution and give us bad change rather than good change. I want to be absolutely clear: putting a socialist in the White House will be the downfall of America. It has been proven time and time again throughout history that socialism creeps into societies and destroys them. Bernie Sanders said himself that he is a socialist. It’s kind of insane and frankly scary that a socialist is even getting any support as a presidential candidate in this country. Why in the world is America supporting the very thing that we fought against only one or two generations ago? Have we forgotten already? We are embracing what thousands of our fathers and grandfathers gave their very lives to keep us safe from! Come on, America! Open up your eyes! Socialism is evil, and that is the truth! If you disagree, you are disregarding the history of the human race! The reason this is happening is because the dangers of socialism are not taught in schools today, and as a result, people do not understand history. To go even further, people are too caught up in their own lives to take the time to find the truth for themselves. If they did, they would be able to see these dangers.

            Let me give you an example here of an ignorant and apathetic American. A little while ago I was discussing the Presidential Race with a close friend of mine. I inquired who he supported out of the candidates, and he told me that he believed Bernie Sanders was the best candidate for the job. When I asked him why, he didn’t have a good answer. He told me that he wanted Bernie Sanders to win because he thought that Sanders was one of the only candidates who would actually do something in office (and I agree with him on that point, by the way). But the main reason he gave for supporting Bernie Sanders was this: that his parents are Democrats, and so he believes that he has to choose one of the Democratic candidates to give his support.

            Now obviously, this friend of mine isn’t even old enough to vote in the 2016 Election, so who he supports doesn’t really apply at this point in time. But to me, this was a very interesting reflection of the American people as a whole. We have got to get out of this division. We are the United States of America, but we are not united because the biggest battle that is going on right now in this nation is the Republicans versus the Democrats. We have got to get out of this mindset that you either have to be on one side or the other when it comes to party candidates. The truth is: it doesn’t matter whether a politician calls himself a Republican or a Democrat. In our world today, party status does not determine political belief or policy. It sure used to be that way, but even though each party platform lists the beliefs of each party respectively, very few politicians regard those platforms today. Washington is full of wolves in sheep’s clothing. We need to start looking at each candidate individually and researching his political beliefs and policy. I don’t care if Bernie Sanders ran for president as a Republican, I still would never support him, and honestly he doesn’t even belong on the Democratic side either, and he shouldn’t belong in America. He doesn’t believe in the principles this nation was built on, and as president, he would finish the job of ripping the constitution to shreds. I believe that even Donald Trump is running on the conservative platform because he knows that he’s going to get more support that way, and not at all because he believes in conservative principles or would implement them as president. Whether someone calls himself a Republican or a Democrat should not be a deciding factor in an election.

What in the world is happening to America?

            In the midst of all this, we have Kanye West. The world-famous hip-hop artist announced last August that he would be running for president in 2020. We all know that he’s nothing but a joke, but the saddest thing is how many votes he will actually get if he runs in four years. Didn’t we think that Trump was a joke a year ago? But that’s the thing: the presidential election has become a joke. People think it’s funny to make Donald Trump the president, so they do it. They think it would be cool to have an African-American or a woman as the president, so they vote them in, regardless of any other factors! Kanye West isn’t a joke just because he’s a rapper; the office of President isn’t for politicians and lawyers only. I say that Kanye is a joke because of his agenda (which is evident in his music), his ego, and most importantly, his character. For me, character is the number one factor that should be looked at when choosing a president, because it is so vital in our world today to have someone in the White House who will serve the American people rather than serving himself.

            My final concern is the most disappointing of all, because it all comes back to the American people. We are in control, but as a whole, We the People don’t care. I was 13 years old on Election Day in 2012, and I remember going into a Papa Murphy’s to pick up a pizza for dinner with my dad on that day. As we were waiting in line, the lady in front of us asked the cashier who he was going to vote for, and the cashier responded that he wasn’t sure yet, but he was leaning towards voting for Obama. This was on Election Day. The cashier wasn’t sure who he was voting for on Election Day. The most disturbing part of this encounter was that the cashier was “leaning towards” voting for President Obama. From my perspective, the cashier was treating this decision as something of little worth; something that didn’t affect his life. He was treating it as a formality, and he couldn’t see that in reality voting was not only his right as an American, but his duty. Earlier today I stated “for those of us who have interest in this subject, now is a very exciting time to learn…” but I firmly believe that it doesn’t matter if you’re interested in government or not. If you have freedom, you have a solemn duty to protect and uphold it, and if you don’t fulfill that duty, you don’t deserve that freedom. I often see comments on political social media posts like “Ew, politics” or “I’ve never really been into government” and it’s ridiculous! Once again, if you don’t even care to understand how to keep and value your freedom, you deserve to be in slavery. And unless individuals like these get their acts together, mark my words; they will one day be in chains wishing they had valued freedom back when they possessed it.

            To sum it up: America as a whole acts like the election process is a very exciting thing, and we express and discuss our political opinions with our friends and neighbors as citizens of a free nation should do. However, we treat the presidential election the same as we would treat the Olympics or the Super Bowl (and perhaps for some of us, we treat it even less so). We neglect the fact that the person who we elect as president will not only change our lives, but the lives of our posterity. The team that wins the Super Bowl will not affect our lives at all. We don’t realize how much power we are investing in one person when we go into the polls on Election Day. What I see today is an ignorant and apathetic American people who do not realize the role that they play in their government. And if we can’t get ourselves together, our liberty will be taken from us.

Only believing in hope for America isn't enough.
We must act on that belief and fight for it.

            However, there is hope. Many, many Americans really do care and really are educated, and they are fighting and trying their best to secure a better nation. We can all do better, though, because we’ve still got a long way to go. Become more educated. Contact your legislators. Try your best to change what is wrong. Study the candidates. Pray for America. Please, please try your best to do what you can to heal our wounded nation. Let us all have faith that if we Americans can get outside of ourselves and take charge of our government, if we can become the masters over the government instead of the servants under it, and if we can become a literate people in the Constitution to tell our government how it should be run, then we can once again ensure that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the Earth.