Alex Thomas
Staff Writer
@Alex_Thomas14
We’re now through the first two primaries in the 2016 Presidential election and things are starting to become much clearer. Although there is still a lot of time left before we get down to the final showdown, we are now beginning see the road set up. Quite frankly, I’m a little alarmed by the road we are headed down.
If you would have told me following the 2012 Presidential election that four years later we would be talking about picking between a businessman and another guy blaming Wall Street , I would have laughed at you. Low and behold, that is now part of the reality.
Looking at the field, it’s pretty bleak r. As of Tuesday night, it sounds like Chris Christie is about to drop out of the race, marking another longshot candidate realizing that his dream at holding office is over. Over the next few months, we’ll see more of this and we’ll likely get down to a small group that includes names like Trump, Sanders, Clinton, Bush, Cruz, Rubio and Kasich.
What is the way I look at this election? No one has stood out as a candidate that this voter can truly believe in. How many other people share that opinion with me? I’m not sure but I’m willing to bet, judging by conversations and even seeing what some share on social media, that at least some people share this thought process with me. It would be nice to have that one candidate step up without controversy and appear to have their house in order. So far, that hasn’t been the case.
On Tuesday night, Trump and Sanders won New Hampshire. It is not a surprise to me but still something that makes me shake my head a little bit. Let’s go back a week ago when Ted Cruz was brought up at Trump’s rally in the Granite State. Someone in the crowd mentioned Cruz as a certain word, Google it if you want to know, and Trump repeated it and appeared to agree with the statement.. Trump doesn’t know where the line is and it has become a major problem for him. .
Politics is all about mudslinging and putting down your opponent, its dirty business, but the way Trump acts and reacts makes me nervous. What is going to happen when he’s at the table with Russia and Putin doesn’t give him what he wants? Yes, I’m still concerned about that.
Then there is Clinton, who somehow someway can’t overtake Sanders even though it has become painfully apparent that the Democratic Party wants her on the ticket. Here’s the kicker, though, as Marco Rubio mentioned in a debate, her first act could very well be to pardon herself of the entire email scandal. Think about this, we are talking about electing someone to office who is under investigation by the FBI and very well could be guilty. Have we completely lost our minds?
I’ll admit, at first I looked at Ted Cruz and said, “Yeah, I like this guy”. Well, after a months of paying closer attention, I think I’ll pass on the man from Texas. Forget the Canadian thing Trump keeps bringing up, it’s irrelevant, but this is a guy that is so far right that he would never win the nomination. He’s the Republican Bernie Sanders, so far to one side that it is bordering ridiculous.
Which brings us to the hottest man in politics right now. Bernie Sanders is the Jeremy Lin of politics right now. Remember when Lin came flying onto the scene for the New York Knicks four years ago and took the NBA by storm? He came out of nowhere and a lot of people fell in love with him. He was hot for a long stretch, but after a while, it all faded away because people realized that the product was vastly overhyped and it would never live up to the promises being tossed out there.
That’s the best way I can describe Bernie. I’m not going to just bash the guy, he brings up valid points on a few things, but far more often than not he’s a scary candidate because what he wants boarders on socialism. Folks, voting for socialism is insane, there is no other way for me to say it.
People work hard to make their money and work hard to become rich. Punishing them by taxing them an absurd amount is not the way to approach this. It’s how people lose their drive, it’s how people become content with just getting by and having others support them. In theory, it sounds good and everyone will be happy, but in practice it would be a nightmare. Just ask numerous countries around the globe both past and present.
I wrote back in the fall about this election and just touched on Clinton, Sanders and Trump. Well it’s been a few months and unfortunately my thought process has not changed. There isn’t a candidate that has stood out to me and that’s pretty alarming. So far, on both sides, it’s been a battle of defamation that has just produced shouting matches and poorly put together advertisements.
What we need, from either party, is someone who is willing to make congress work together and move us forward as one country. Whether it’s Clinton,Sanders, Trump,Cruz ,that person hasn’t stepped up just yet. For the sake of all of us, I hope someone does step up as these primaries keep rolling on.