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It’s almost incontestable that the 2016 Presidential Campaign has been the most dramatic and divisive race in the history of the United States. While it’s unfortunate that politics has become America’s favorite source of entertainment, and that party lines are moving towards becoming irreversibly polarized, this thunderstorm of a campaign does have a silver lining: people are getting involved. In the past, many young voters have felt that their vote had little to no effect on the politics of this country, with only 38% of 18-24 year olds turning out for the 2012 election. But the added advantage of feeling like your country’s positively doomed if the other side wins has led to estimates of a significantly higher voter turnout in November. Cal Lutheran is a particularly interesting campus to watch the campaign unfold from, due to the wide spectrum of ideologies that students here hold. It’s not unusual to find Trump and Hillary supporters separated only by those few feet between dorm beds. So, as voting begins and Election Day creeps ever so close, here are what some CLU students have been thinking about the campaign:
“I believe that I’m going to vote for Hillary Clinton in the election because I do understand that there’s a lot of different controversy… between the two presidential candidates. And I do not personally, completely side with either one of them, but I do believe I can trust Hillary Clinton a lot more than I can trust Donald Trump as a leader for our country… because the controversy against Trump I feel, is a lot more severe than the one against Hillary Clinton.” – Anya Moody, Psychology
“If I absolutely had to vote, I’d probably vote for Trump, just because I don’t want my dad to disown me. I think it’s really sad that we’ve reached this point, I know everyone’s saying that, but I genuinely don’t feel like either candidate is emphasizing what we need in our country right now. They’re kind of taking the negative and running with it. I saw something on the internet once where it was ‘you have to decide which disease you’d be most okay with having in this election.’ And I don’t think that a particularly inspiring outlook for our government.” – Holly Leeson, Sociology
“So as of right now, I’m considering voting for Gary Johnson, the libertarian party candidate, because of the fact that I know that California’s going to go blue anyways, so I might as well vote for someone else, kind of sending the message that I don’t agree with the two other candidates. Basically, when the primary started, I felt that the Republican Party had a really good array of candidates, and even though I don’t agree with Hillary Clinton’s stances, this election just kind of turned into a mess having Trump and Hillary, and I think it’s pretty sad.” – Dakota Allen, Political Science
“So basically I’m voting for the queen, Hillary Clinton, if you know her, hit her up. I’m voting for her, well, not just because she’s from the Democratic Party, but because…she represents everything that I am passionate about, her views are the same as my views, whether it be social equality or just her stance on our financial needs, or the state of our actual nation.” – Christian Bustillos, Biology
“I’m voting for Hillary Clinton, because I think she’s a lot more experienced, steady, and I think that she’s been ready for this job for a long time. Her opponent… okay… lets stop there, because I could just go on and on about Donald Trump. I don’t think he realizes the gravity of the presidency. And I’d think it’d be a catastrophe for the entire planet if he is elected. I think a lot of people aren’t happy with either one because of the polarization of the political climate right now….and the political climate has really come to extremes…when you have candidates to the far right and left, you’re going to have complete disagreements, which will come to really cause anxiety and harm.” – Zach Damir, Political Science
“I spent hours trying to find one reason to vote for Hillary, but I just can’t find one good one. She’s a great listener I guess, but her policies don’t make a lot of sense. Trump has a really good policy on immigration, some people say it’s pretty racist but… it’s not. Trump’s pretty great, I feel like we need him in office, especially with the things going on recently. He’s just very anti-PC. He just cuts bulls**t.” – Sean Patucci, Computer Science
“I feel like Hillary is the lesser of the two evils. I’m not personally a fan of either candidate, but at this point, they’re your only realistic candidates. I don’t believe that a third party will stand a chance in this election since a third party has never won an election. So if you have to decide between those two, I would choose Hillary Clinton. I just feel like this is the craziest election that has ever happened to the United States.” – Christian Moreno, Business Administration
“I’m not voting for anybody in this election because I do not like either candidate that’s running. I’m republican but I don’t like Trump, because he’s a racist, and it’s just wrong.” – Brittany Williams, Exercise Science
“I’m voting for Hillary Clinton because I believe that the most important issue is foreign policy, and I don’t think that Donald Trump has a handle on how to deal with other nations or other foreign leaders. And realistically, Hillary Clinton does have more experience, even if 100% of it isn’t positive…. People are taking this in a manner in which the election is more funny than it is anything else, and I think that we need to remember that these people are running for office, not just to amuse us, like reality TV… I think you just have to look at it overall, whose done the most damage, and who could do the most damage.” – Kaitlyn O’Hara, Criminal Justice
Voting is now open for the 2016 elections! Remember that even if you choose to opt out of this unusual presidential campaign, you can still vote for other elected positions and propositions. Your last day to register to vote is October 24th, and Election Day is November 8th. Also, be sure to tune in to the final debate on Wednesday, October 19th.
Enjoy the rest of the campaign season or, perhaps more accurately, stay sane.
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– Note: The above opinions are the opinions of those quoted and do not represent the views of Her Campus Media or Her Campus at Cal Lutheran. –