He says lewd, crass things that can't be aired on national television. He ripped off students who went to his business school
She lied about her emails. She mishandled classified information.
How did we end up with the two most disliked candidates in modern history? I'm going to analyze that question in detail here. First off, here's what this article is not: It is not a massive, meandering philosophical babble where I hope you may or may not actually gather anything of substance from reading my complicated thoughts. What I hope this article will do is give you an idea of how we got here.
The average person clicks away from a page after only a couple seconds. Still reading? Great! Because we're talking about you. Are you a human? Awesome! You're also probably part of the population center we call "America." This means every time you turn on your TV or look at your Facebook page, you want to break something. Or is that just me?
The source of the angst is the two major party candidates. One is Trump, disliked for his lies and bullying tactics, the other is Hillary, disliked for being a sneaky, underhanded politician. Trump is disliked merely for being Trump. He has no embarrassment gene. Hillary is disliked for her public record, although that may be more of a right-wing political tactic, since every time anyone digs deep enough, she comes up clean. Trump, on the other hand, has had less political whitewashing than Mrs. Clinton. He gets harangued for ripping people off, making lewd comments about women, minorities, gays, and others, and for constantly bullying people. In fact, he may suffer from clinical narcism - a condition whereby a person is literally incapable of thinking about anyone other than themselves. He won't even listen to his own campaign most of the time!
But I digress. What's wrong, America? Why didn't you elect Kasich, or Rubio, or Fiorina, or any other Republican candidates who were functioning at perfectly normal levels of conservative dysfunction? Why did you instead elect the equivalent of a fruit-cake Jerry Springer horse and pony show? Is reality television, that worshipped bastion of American stupidity, simply not enough, so you have to bring it to the election as well?
My apologies. I may have just insulted you there.
Trump, on the other hand, probably would have no compunction about insulting you, and in fact, probably has. I can think of no demographic left unscathed by Trump aside from white, male, and rich.
So, to get to my point, what we are seeing is a tragedy of the commons, where the American voter has become so angry, disenfranchised, and desperate that they are willing to vote for anyone to fix their problems. Unfortunately, most problems in society are caused by humans, and the only way to actually fix a human is for the people to fix themselves. As a result, there is no clear solution in sight, which spans many demographics, ideologies, and disciplines. As a result, people are voting with their middle finger.
Did anyone watch the debate last night? (Monday, 10.9.16) This is what we have been reduced to, ladies and gentleman. A debate that is not a debate, and is instead possessed of the intellectual equivalent of a football-beer-mud-brawl. (I tried to combine as many unintelligent things as possible.)
The Republicans starting biting their fingers when Trump ran, and by the time they had chewed their nails off, Trump had already clinched the nomination. They barely had time to chew on anything else, instead swishing the unpleasant taste of confusion in their mouths as Trump actually won. Trump was a tornado, taking the established party guidelines and playing games with them. No one wanted him to make it, yet he did, thanks to the American voters who voted with Velveeta instead of Natural Sharp Cheddar.
As a result, the choices for president are bad and worse, take your pick. Bernie Sanders put up a good fight against Hillary Clinton, and won several states and gave her a hard battle. The other Democratic nominees were unsubstantial, unfortunately, and Americans simply weren't ready for an outright socialist president. They would rather lie to themselves for a while longer and elect Clinton.
The process through which Hillary won was understandable, aside from the unethical rigging on the part of the DNC.
Trump, on the other hand, is a wild card. No one really knows if he's going to play golf the entire time he's in office, actually make the economy better, or start World War III. By many indications, the rest of the world better send white rich guys over for ambassadors, otherwise Trump will insult them, send them packing, and the next ambassador will be a carefully swaddled bomb.
No, I will not vote for Trump. He is not what America needs, or actually wants. Neither really is Hillary, but at least we know what she will do. Trump's actual policy positions, if he has any, are vague at best, invalid and dangerous at worst. He has no grasp on foreign policy or many aspects of American life.
On that note, I hope you vote for whomever you feel is best for the country. Perhaps, like me, you will vote for Hillary, or choose a third party option, such as Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, or Evan McMullin. And past that, we need to hope for the best for the country and do our part to keep it together.
