Editorial – October 2016
This presidential election season has been a rollercoaster of emotions for people on both sides of the aisle. Democrats and Republicans alike have been pained by who represents their party. Both candidates have done and said some questionable things, Clinton with her emails and Trump with his alleged business dealings in Cuba, among other things.
But only one has time and time again insulted and attacked immigrants, the military and their families, other politicians, and, most recently, women. Donald Trump has repeatedly said downright xenophobic, sexist, vulgar, and truly offensive things.
This is not about policy or party politics. This is about human decency.
Everyone has heard the things Trump has said, like in May when he said a California judge wouldn’t be fair to him in a trial because he has Mexican heritage. Or like when he perpetuated the myth that President Obama was not born in the United States, or when he implied soldiers with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder weren’t strong enough, when he himself deferred from the Vietnam draft four times.
In any other election, these comments would have tanked the candidate’s chances of winning, but somehow, he’s stayed in the race.
We have already set a dangerous precedent with this election. Campaigns have already been trending more and more negative. But never before has the atmosphere been this toxic. How can we as Americans allow this to happen? The President of the United States is known as the “leader of the free world”. So what message would it send to the rest of world if the country elected a man who many believe is a loose cannon?
So what if he “tells it like it is”, or he “doesn’t care about the establishment?” Do the things he says and does really represent what the United States is as a nation? Are we a nation whose leader indulges in Twitter tirades at three in the morning? Are we a nation who doesn’t trust the democracy we hold so dearly?
This is not about policy or party politics.
This is about human decency. And if this country is based around freedom and acceptance and opportunity for all, Donald Trump does not represent who we are.