So it’s been over a year since Clinton and Trump announced their campaigns for presidency, and every second of it has been horrible. It has been a long, tiring journey to Election Day 2016 and it’s hard to believe I’m here. Throughout this entire process, I have never written a column about any of the candidates or anything that has happened in relation to the elections. I never wanted to feed into the amount of attention these people were already going to receive, mainly because I never wanted to even dwell upon it myself and nothing that was being done was particularly shocking to me. Now, I’m ironically enough writing about it with the same level of defeat I felt filling out my absentee ballot.
Late last night, the voters of this country elected Donald J. Trump the 45th president of the United States. Despite running a campaign distorted by hints of authoritarianism, building a platform based in racism and misogyny and despite the appalling personal inadequacy of Trump govern this great nation, in January he will ascend to the White House. Cornellians last night and today reacted with an outpouring of horror and sadness. Many minority students fear they could face deportation. Women are anxious about the decisions that will be made by a Republican Congress and right-leaning Court, and wonder about the implications of elevating a man who brags about sexually assaulting women to the Oval Office.
“This year’s election has been unprecedented in so many ways,” Corn said. “The damage done to the Republican party may be irreversible, at least in the near future.”
Re: “‘Disenchanted’ Students Seek Alternative to Clinton and Trump,” News, Nov. 6
To the editor:
Yesterday, The Cornell Daily Sun published an article titled, “‘Disenchanted’ Students Seek Alternative to Clinton and Trump.” Cornell Political Union member, Nate Baker ’17, states that, “Growing up in the era of gridlock has disenchanted many young voters from tradition party affiliation, We don’t feel loyal to a party, but rather to values, to candidates and to ideology.”
While Mr. Baker offers an interesting perspective, he fails to acknowledge another reason why many young voters are disenchanted with the current state of politics:
For many of us, this election is not a matter of values, appealing candidates or ideologies in abstraction, but rather, a matter of survival. Though values and ideologies are highly important, we also must fully consider the perspective of those who are not just disenchanted by the political system, but also disenfranchised by the system as a whole. As an undocumented student my life changed drastically in 2012, when President Obama issued an executive action that created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, under which I was able to get a work permit and driver’s license. DACA has given me the ability to attend Cornell and have bright job prospects upon graduation; however, since the primary days, Donald Trump has vowed to end DACA, something he could easily do given that it is under executive power.
I am proud to cast my vote for our first female president, Hillary Rodham Clinton. I respect her, I admire her and I cannot wait for her to represent our country. Hillary has comprehensive and feasible goals. She intends to bolster our gun control policies, preventing those who are a danger to themselves and others from owning lethal weapons. She envisions welcoming 65,000 persecuted Syrian refugees who need our help.
Originally, I did not want to write about the election because both presidential candidates are depressing. One candidate is clearly the lesser of two evils, but both candidates will only widen racial and economic divides in this country. I changed my mind though because many people have misconceptions about the race and its consequences. Although both major party presidential candidates will only polarize our system further, we can still improve our system tomorrow by voting. Plenty of politicians are running for town council, state assembly, congress and senate on exciting platforms designed to bring us together.
I have a lot of questions at the end of this election cycle. Why did immigration become such an intense focal point this year? Why doesn’t Hillary bring up the progress of the current economy more? Who decided that Trump’s son should have any kind of presence on Twitter? At times, I’ve questioned why Hillary wanted to run again at all.
Forget Clinton and Trump, vote strategically. A vote for Gary Johnson isn’t just a protest vote against the two least liked presidential candidates in history. It’s a strategic vote for the next election and the future of our country. This election cycle is a mess. We have a billionaire playboy with a trash mouth who doesn’t know why we just can’t “nuke” people and a former secretary of state who is one of the least liked and most corrupt politicians in history.
In less than a week it will finally be over. No more ads, no more speeches, no more debates. In just five days the most vitriolic election in modern American history will finally come to a close — and I can’t wait. Four years ago, MSNBC anchor Joe Scarborough said something quite fascinating. Remarking on the first presidential debate between President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney, Scarborough stated how lucky we were to be Americans.
A long, contentious, and exhausting election has finally come to a close. Yet, this is the point where your part actually counts. When millions of Americans go to the polls on Tuesday, November 8, they’ll be charting our nation’s course for the next four years. Make sure you’re one of them. That’s the simple point of this column: I’m asking you to vote, and telling you why should.
