Kristen Adams

Columnist

What has stood out throughout this presidential election, compared to other elections, is the public concern with national security and foreign policy. Foreign policies and national security are more important to voters in many ways than the economy, according to a December 2015 Wall Street Journal poll. This is not to say that our economy is anywhere near acceptable, but the threats of safety are something the candidates, now more than ever, have had to assure voters they would fix.

Previous elections can often be described as picking the lesser of two evils, but this year has taken that concept to an almost comical extent. Morality and personality aside, the Democratic and Republican party nominees are not solely for their own parties, according to a March 15 Huffington Post article. Clinton has flip-flopped on many of her original opinions, and Trump has no experience in politics, so we can’t be sure what decisions he will actually be making in office.

This presidency truly seems to be a situation in which the American people must pick their poison and brave the storm until the next election rolls around and someone better can step up to the plate. For the next election, I would like to see better candidates with more solid plans to fix the state this nation is in.

Maddie Steen

Columnist

I do not remember ever seeing another election in which both candidates were so blatantly ill-fit for office and voters were dissatisfied with their choices for candidates.

Nearly 63 percent of voters have reported they are not satisfied with their choices for president, according to a survey done by the Pew Research Center. In 2008, only 26 percent were not satisfied. During the 2008 election between Barack Obama and John McCain, 71 percent of Republican voters and 76 percent of Democrats were happy with their choices of presidential candidates.

Voter satisfaction is at the lowest it has been in decades. Most voters do not want either of these two in office, and I think that is remarkable. We seem to be in a hole that we are unable to dig ourselves out of with these two candidates.

I think it is just totally out of this world that these two ended up as the nominees for the two major parties in America, and now we must determine who is the lesser of the two evils.

For the next election, I hope everyone is completely over a two-party system and that one of the third parties rise up to win. We cannot continue to let these two bodies control our nation. In four years, I want to be able to see people come together to vote for a positive change instead of voting against each other.

Brooklynn Harper

Columnist

Social media has had a huge presence, especially with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his Twitter account. Trump often takes to this social media outlet to bash opponents. He made a series of tweets bashing Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, as well as the media which are “burying the FBI criminal investigation of Clinton,” according to his Oct. 30 tweet.

This is not to say Clinton doesn’t use the platform for this purpose as well. She used Twitter to accuse Trump of being involved with the President of Russia Vladimir Putin.

“With the election just eight days away… Trump should immediately disclose all his ties and connections to the Kremlin and its associates,” Clinton wrote in an Oct. 31 tweet.

Clinton’s campaign is, to some extent, based on anger over Trump’s bullying and mistrust of his lack of political background. Similarly, Trump’s campaign is based on anger at the government as it is and mistrust of Clinton’s preexisting ties to it.

Next election, I hope to see less social media action and more action in real life. I hope to see less anger and more hope. Future candidates should bully each other less and market themselves more.

Ian Tancun

Columnist

The disturbing behavioral revelations made during the 2016 general election stood out during this election season. These revelations, such as how large portions of the population feel about issues including race, discrimination and sexism, were brought to light by the campaign of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said we could put half of Trump’s supporters into what she referred to as a “basket of deplorables,” according to a Sept. 10 New York Times article. While she faced backlash for making that comment, I agree completely with the characterization. While that may offend some people, a video released by the New York Times on Aug. 3 is proof of what Clinton was referring to.

Racism, homophobia, hatred of immigrants and violence against those who oppose them are common sentiments exhibited by some Trump supporters during his rallies, according to the video. I find the behavior exhibited by these supporters disgusting and it is something that, unfortunately, stood out to me during this election year.

For future elections, I think it is imperative to shorten the general election campaign season. There is no need for the campaign season to be more than a year long.