Being an active and patriotic American, I feel obligated to cast my vote in the first presidential  election that I’m able to vote in. The problem being for me is that, the presidential election these days looks less like a process of how we decide our next great leader, and more like a Twitter beef between two angry freshman who are still stuck in middle school. It’s amazing how much of a debate or speech is spent on candidates just throwing out insults at each other, and how little is spent actually talking about what they would do in the oval office.

    Trying to figure out what the candidates are actually about in this election is nearly impossible due to how personal the election has become. While I do agree that acting as a watchdog towards other candidates is important for a candidate to do, I think it is more important that I actually learn about what they are trying to do if elected along the way. No matter which side of the political spectrum a person looks at, politics has become far too catty for any work to actually get done. It has become clear that as far as political parties go, there is too much of a divide between the two to get any serious business done.

   To a young citizen of this great nation, it quite frankly discourages me from pursuing a career in politics due to the fact that I feel change cannot be created in the environment around Washington D.C. these days. It also gives me the (hopefully wrong) impression that politicians only seek to move up the political ladder for their own gain and not for the gain of the people who they represent. It seems like every legislator in this nation is so worried about getting re-elected that they refuse to do anything bold. It looks so bad that it seriously gives many young people like myself serious concerns with how the government is run these days.

     I can only imagine what a mess this election looks like to an outsider of this country. We have open discrimination, racial violence at campaign rallies and shady money all in just this year’s election. Not to mention the KKK and Neo-Nazi are both heavily supporting the republican front runner, who has not denounced the group’s support.  Americans must look like we are stuck in the 1950s to other countries with how much open and blatant racism has been shown in this year’s election. It looks bad on us as a country to be electing people who are so hateful and so shady with their election methods.

     I propose that we as a society need to see through the slurs and slander by these politicians in an attempt to look strong, and see that a person who continually insults people is a bully, not our next great leader. Our nation must choose whether we are a nation of kind and loving people or a nation of barbaric people ready to jump at each others throats the moment we need to. At the end of the day, I believe in my heart that America is a nation of love, and not hate, the masses just need to remember that when picking a candidate.