Making the Vote Count: An Insight Into the 2016 Presidential Elections

Introduction

www.elitedesignweb.com

It’s all over the news, it’s taken over social media, and it’s impossible to ignore. This
year’s presidential election is topic of discussion in many classrooms and households, but it holds a special place in my heart. For a few years now I have been interested in politics and following what is going on in our society, and I feel as though it is my civic duty to do so. It started when I was about 16. I attended cyber school and in the mornings I watched the news for about an hour. My favorite segments were always political based and now that I am a college student my passion for it is elevated. What is different about this election from others is that I, like many of my freshmen peers are, for the first time, able to vote.

Now the hard part; making an informed and educated decision on which candidate to support. In order to do so, it is necessary to conduct some external research beyond what is presented on the forefront of mass media. To say it is hard to find sources that aren’t biased is an understatement.

As the primaries are under way, the forerunners in the 2016 presidential race are, on the democratic side, Hillary Clinton, and Bernie Sanders, and on the republican side Donald Trump. All three agree that things need to change in our country but they do not agree on what those changes should be. According to Katha Pollitt, Hillary Clinton is being urged by Bernie Sanders to become more liberal and she is being pushed to conform to the democratic point of view instead of staying more towards the middle.

The ideas Clinton is being pushed toward, according Robert English’s article on Bernie Sanders, include a realist foreign policy. There have been many discussions of whether or not Sanders’ views are Utopian. English challenges this saying that Bernie Sanders plans to continue the U.S.’s military dominance but with more reservations. He doesn’t want to make quick military decisions but instead keep in mind the cost of overestimating minor threats. This is the opposite of what Donald Trump thinks we need to do to “Make America Great Again”.

Clinton,Trump,Sanders www.telesurtv.net

Trump wants to amp everything up and make an impression.
Both of which he has done successfully so far. He and Bernie Sanders are both said to be making the most dramatic changes. While the article referring to Trump says that he wants to change immigration policies, the article on Sanders is more focused on his changes to foreign policy. These two can overlap and part of the charm for Hillary Clinton is she wants to change a little of everything but not do anything drastic.

Which candidate you choose may be based on these issues or others, but no matter why you vote or who you vote for, it is important to do so for your state and country.

Annotated Bibliography

English, Robert. “Bernie Sanders, The Foreign-Policy Realist Of 2016.” Nation 302.11 (2016): 20-22. Academic Search Premier. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.

Bernie Sanders is one of the leaders in the presidential race behind only Hillary Clinton in the democratic race. Robert English addresses the false accusations on Sanders and instead gives the reader what he deems to be facts about Sanders’ political platform in “Bernie Sanders, The Foreign-Policy Realist of 2016”. Bernie Sanders is thought to be seeking a utopian form of foreign policy but English argues that he instead is a realist in his foreign policy ideas. Sanders is also compared to the other potential candidates through the analysis by former defense secretary and CIA director Robert Gates.

Pollitt, Katha. “Yes, Hillary’s A Democrat.” Nation 302.4/5 (2016): 10-11. Academic Search Premier. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.

With Hillary Clinton as a forerunner in the upcoming election, it is no surprise that there are people who doubt her competence and who will “sling mud” at her. Katha Pollitt address those who have their suspicions of Clinton while also addressing those who support Bernie Sanders. Pollitt explains how Sanders has pushed Clinton to become an even better candidate and a more liberal at that. Pollitt suggests that Clinton was not influenced by her husband’s presidency and does not take anything for granted but instead she is doing something to empower herself and other women.

Engelhardt, Tom. “What Trump Means When He Says He’ll Make America Great Again” Nation (2016): Academic Search Premier. Web. 2 May 2016.

Tom Engelhardt addresses the notions that Trump is just a fad and will simmer out. He says that Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again!” has been there from the time Trump announced that he was running, and even if he does not win, Trump will have made an impact. The reasoning for this slogan is because Donald Trump does not believe America is great the way it is now and he alone is able to change that. Engelhardt also addresses the history of the notion of exceptionalism. The term was not used by any president until President Obama. The reasoning for this according to Engelhardt is because the United States was so dominant that they did not need a word to prove it with a work like “exceptionalism”.