Counterpoint: Voters must look beyond parties

Maddie Steen

Columnist

Presidential nominees Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will not get my support in the upcoming election, because I plan on voting for Green Party candidate Jill Stein.

I feel Clinton is too corrupt to hold office. Clinton used an unapproved private email server and might have compromised government secrets; she then deleted 33,000 emails which raised more questions, according to a June 26 National Public Radio article.

I cannot put my trust into a woman who has been proven to be greedy and deceptive. She will say anything to appeal to voters. In 2004, she believed marriage was a sacred bond between a man and a woman. Then in 2008, she favored civil unions. In 2013, she said she supports same-sex marriage entirely and personally, according to a May 26 NPR article.

Jill Stein, on the other hand, is an ethical candidate with straight priorities. The money from her campaign comes from her, small-dollar donors and political action committees, according to the Center for Public Integrity’s website.

Her “Power to the People Plan” fights for the people, planet and peace over profit, creating system change that shifts focus from corporate capitalism to a human-centered economy. She believes there are solutions for unemployment, inequality, injustice and endless war but thinks political parties are serving the corporate elite before the people, according to her campaign homepage.

Aside from being liberal and people-oriented, a big reason I will be voting for her has to do with her plans to protect the planet and its resources. She has ideas to create millions of jobs by transitioning to 100 percent clean renewable energy by 2030. Stein wants to end destructive energy extraction like offshore drilling and oil trains while protecting water, land and biological diversity, according to her campaign website.

I urge students to look further into this election, beyond the Democratic and Republican Party candidates. They are not our only options.

Point: Clinton will eliminate college debt

Ian Tancun

Columnist

I strongly encourage students to consider voting for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, although the allure of voting for a third-party candidate may appeal to voters disappointed by Senator Bernie Sanders’ unsuccessful presidential bid.

As a college student who has already amassed a great deal of student-loan debt, a candidate’s higher education plans are one of the most important issues I focus on. Students should carefully review the candidates plan for helping students deal with growing college costs.

Clinton’s goal as president is to make tuition free at in-state public colleges and universities for families making less than $85,000 a year. She would also work to make community college tuition free, according to her education plan on her website. Donald Trump has no plans to deal with higher education mentioned in his platform, according to his website. There is no mention of any plans to help students deal with overwhelming debt and make college more affordable anywhere on his website.

Another key issue Trump does not acknowledge in his platform is global warming.

“The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive,” according to a Nov. 6, 2012, tweet from Trump.

Clinton plans to address global warming head-on with plans to launch a $60 billion clean energy challenge designed to expand clean energy and reduce carbon pollution, according to her website.

While Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein has some policy proposals I agree with, I do not think she can win the election. In a poll, only 1 percent of voters will be voting for Stein, according to a Sept. 25 Washington Post/ABC News poll. My fear is that younger voters who cast a vote for Stein, or Gary Johnson, are going to inadvertently help Trump win the election.

I encourage students to review Clinton’s proposed policies in order to make informed decisions this November.