Caleb Bolin
Political Columnist
An old, untrustworthy, grandmother/career politician and an old, reckless businessman with the behavior of a schoolyard bully walk into a bar and immediately begin to argue about the condition of the United States of America without presenting valid solutions.
Wait a second. It’s not a bar. It’s the 2016 Presidential Election. How did we even end up here?
This election cycle saw one of the most talented and experienced primary fields in Republican Party history defeated by a man with absolutely no political experience and a penchant for saying almost anything that crosses his mind, disregarding truth and a large percentage of his hopeful constituency’s concerns as non-white males.
That man is Donald Trump, and he has brought the worst out of voters on both sides.
Trump has painted a picture of a nation that is under attack by immigrants, losing jobs every day, rising in crime and terrorism. Trump plays up fear and divisiveness in the country, heightening tensions between Americans.
Fifty-eight percent of voters have an unfavorable opinion of Trump.
The other side of the aisle saw a tight race between ultra-liberal Bernie Sanders and more-conservative Hillary Clinton in which Clinton prevailed (amid scandal over Democratic National Committee favoritism toward Clinton).
Clinton has promoted a message of unity and growing stronger together, but 52.5 percent of voters have an unfavorable opinion of Clinton because of scandals that have made her look like an untrustworthy, lying politician.
Trump has called Mexicans “rapists and murderers.” He has bad-mouthed Muslims, including the Gold Star parents Ghazala and Khizr Khan who spoke at the Democratic National Convention about their experiences in our country. He refused to disavow former KKK leader David Duke’s endorsement. The list goes on.
He played a large part in the birther movement, which questioned Barack Obama’s citizenship–even after Obama produced his birth certificate.
He basically admitted that he doesn’t pay federal taxes during the first presidential debate. Clinton has generalized the nearly 40 percent of Americans who support Trump as a “basket of deplorables.”
Clinton has also claimed she had no idea it was either unethical or unsafe to have her own private email server for her work.
Clinton has said little to really clarify anything about the emails that are supposedly missing or hours of testimony about Benghazi.
Clinton has experience, but she is playing the part of someone who is brutally ignorant or very good at acting brutally ignorant.
Polling at about 9 percent combined are former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, the candidate from the Libertarian Party, and activist Jill Stein, the candidate from the Green Party. Both are running grassroots campaigns but by and large have not been able to tap into the pool of voters who are disgusted with Clinton/Trump.
As a young person interested in politics and what is going on in our country, I have watched this election cycle closely.
I supported moderate candidates, and when they were knocked out of the election, I supported anybody who seemed to genuinely care about our country that wasn’t Clinton or Trump. When it came down to only Clinton and Trump, I started to support Gary Johnson. Lately, I don’t know what to do. It seems like our country is headed for disaster.
I can’t find it in me to support Hillary Clinton, who happened to live in Arkansas for many years. I can’t find it in me to support Donald Trump. I can’t find it in me to support Gary Johnson. I can’t find it in me to support Jill Stein. Instead, I have chosen to throw my support behind a man who has combined these candidates’ best qualities: ECHO advisor Donald Johnson.
Donald Johnson has taken the best qualities of Donald Trump and Gary Johnson–their first and last names, respectively– and combined them into one. He has taken the best quality from Hillary Clinton as well as he also lived in Arkansas for much of his life. Finally, Donald Johnson has taken the best quality from Jill Stein–her silky smooth hair.
What more could the people want than a candidate like Donald Johnson?
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