You walk into the voting both in November Who are you. going to choose? Do you even plan to vote? The three most hotly

Transcription

1 November 2016 You walk into the voting both in November Who are you going to choose? Do you even plan to vote? The three most hotly debated candidates as of March 14th 2016 consist of Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump. Voters across the country have already made their choice for who they prefer in the General Election this fall, but the race is still far from over and has yet to reach Pennsylvania (Note: register by March 28 th for the Pennsylvania Primary). On the Democratic side of things, Hillary Clinton leads in delegate and super delegate count with 1, 231 (I ll explain why this number is bullshit later) while Bernie Sanders has only 576. On the Republican side, we have Trump with 460 delegates, Cruz with 370, and Rubio with 163. I would like to present to you the reason why you should get involved in the voting process, learn about what is influencing the election process and who to vote for. I don t want to force my opinion on you, I would like to keep this unbiased, but my biased side will ultimately leak out you ve been warned. It s hard for it to not when out of the top three nominees, only one seems to truly understand the needs of ALL American people. Very often, most Americans consider voting for the lesser of two evils in most elections, because the majority of the time, politicians can be a bit sketchy. For the first time though, we might not have to make that choice between the lesser of two evils. I

2 consider myself an Independent. I don t 100% side with either the Democrat or Republican side. I refuse to align and support undying love to a political party. I see both sides to an issue, and will vote for the person, not the party, that has mine and every other American s best interests. The presidential nominee that fits this is Bernie Sanders. He himself has been an Independent during his 30 year political career, only to have sided on the Democratic side for this election to garner more support vs then if he ran 3 rd party. Thus, I registered as a Democrat for this election. For as long as I can remember, I have always felt that our government has been screwed up and had the thought my vote doesn t matter and that nothing will ever change. Bernie Sanders has completely changed my mind and so many others views on this subject. Approximately 58.2% of eligible Americans voted in the last Presidential election. (Voter Turnout) For an election to decide the nations next leader, that seems pretty low. There are a number of reason why one might not vote. The biggest being, it s just one vote, it doesn t matter. This mind set isn t all too surprising. Presidential candidates promise to do this, promise to do that, but in all honestly, they will never get everything they promise in action. The president can t just enforce whatever law he wants. It has to go through Congress and the House of Representatives. This is where another main issue lies. What becomes a conflict is the ideals between Democrats and Republicans. They all have different views and they fight over different laws. There s far more to this then just not agreeing. Corruption s real in the government. It s why nothing ever gets

3 passed that works for the general public. It s the mega wealthy and lobbyists for major corporations that control our government. This probably sounds like a crazy conspiracy theory, right? Sadly, it s not. CORRUPTION IS LEGAL (Represent.Us) In a perfect America, if for example 85% of the people support an idea, then there s an 85% chance that the government will enact that law. In reality though, if 100% of the people support a very favorable law, there s only a 30% chance of having that law enacted. 0% of the population might not like a specific law, but it doesn t matter. There might be 30% chance on that law. No matter much the people want don t want a law, the government does not guarantee the law. The elite of the country (mega wealthy, mega corporations, ect) have a different graph. The government is much more likely to listen to the mega elite versus the average American citizen. This is done through lobbyists. Essentially, lobbyists of the elite pay lawmakers through campaign fundraising so that they pass a law that will benefit that specific elite interest.

4 MEDIA BIAS Another major issue in our government/election campaign is media bias. Many young people get their news from the internet which includes many, many different sources and opinions, compared to say my grandparents who don t bother with the internet and get their news from the news on TV or local newspaper. MSNBC can be viewed as Democratic or liberal while Fox News skews more in the Republican or conservative side. I think it s important that ALL news corporations remain neutral. There s the joke that CNN is called the Clinton News Network. One great example of this bias comes from the delegate and super delegate count. Throughout mainstream media, Hillary Clinton dominates with 1,231 delegates while Bernie Sanders has 576. This is with the super delegate count added. What are delegates? Well, every state has a proportional number of them based on its population. If Bernie wins 60% of a state s vote, he will get 60% of that state s delegates while Clinton would get 40%. It s still worse than straight up counting every vote, but it works. Super delegates VS. Delegates What s wrong are the super delegates. Super delegates are people are in the government, such as elected officials and congressmen. There are 712 that will side with either Hillary or Bernie. BUT- these super delegates can change their vote anytime by the Democratic Convention by July. They will always side with the person with more regular state gained delegates, which represent the way the rest of America voted. The

5 media uses this in their media bias though. Clinton has more super delegates right now, making the race look far worse than it really is for Bernie. It gives the false impression to the people when in reality, Bernie is only down around 200 delegates. It s still a mountain to climb for the Democratic nomination, but still doable. Alright, I ve bashed on the corrupt election process that we call democracy but let s get into the meat of this election, the candidates. Donald J. Trump Let s begin with Donald J. Trump, the Republican frontrunner who just might be the Republican Nominee (that is a terrifying thought Ted Cruz is too, but I think Trump is just slightly more bearable.). He wants to Make America Great Again. How you ask? Well, for one, he is going to build a wall (Reyes) to block out the Mexicans from crossing over of course! A giant one, believe him, it s gonna be great! In all seriousness, I do think something needs to be done about illegal immigration from Mexico, but like everything else Trump has said, it s just far too extreme. He says Mexico is sending rapists and criminals. While that may be true in some way, not every illegal immigrant from Mexico can be bad. And not everyone single one should be shipped back. Like it or not, these illegal immigrants have lives here and families. There needs to be an easier to make them formal citizens, rather than just sending them

6 back. He has generalized a group of people into a negative group. He has said negative rhetoric on Muslims as well. Trump is forming a hate speech (O'Connor, Marans) against other races that is just unacceptable for someone who WANTS TO BE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES! He has come out in support of torture which, a highly controversial subject, but again, his mouth just says whatever with zero disregard for how the rest of the world views America. While it s great Trump is honest, I personally feel there are just some things, no matter how honest the opinion, should not be said by a presidential nominee. I could go on and on about why Trump lacks a presidential appearance, but do you really want someone with a mouth like Trump in charge of our army? Trying to negotiate with Putin? I don t. At the end of the day, I support Trump as a nonestablishment candidate who brings up solid points, but when watching his violent rhetoric at his rallies and him having no filter at all, I cannot put my trust in him as someone who will lead our country on a positive path. I d fire him day one in office. Hillary Clinton Ah, now we get to the great Princess Hillary Rodham Clinton, out to gain the throne as the first Queen of the United States of America. Yep, that s right, Clinton is trying her darnedest to become the first ever women President. Its her [my] turn!, don t you get it? Skip the Primaries, skip the General, and send her send her straight to

7 the Whitehouse now! Some say that if you are a female not supporting her, there s a special place in Hell (McCarthy) for people like you! That s a wonderful thing to say to supporters and a great way to gain negative press and lose support as well. I think that s the best way to describe Clinton s campaign. Negative press, regardless of how bad her bought and biased media machines (Timer Warner, owner of CNN, has given $591,524 to her campaign) try to swing the news to make Clinton a helpless innocent women just being attacked. Yeah, totally innocent with the FBI on your case for her scandal. In all seriousness, Clinton has been working in the government for a long time, there s no denying she knows her ins and outs of scandals, how to get Congress to work together, make tough discussions, and to engage in foreran affairs. I wish I could trust Hillary Clinton in office, she has spent a lot of time as Senate and as Secretary of State, but her scandals and wishy-washy, flip-flopping stances, and taking of cooperate money leaves an awful taste in my mouth for Clinton support. In 2004, she was in support of the Defense of Marriage Act, which prevented gay couples from married. It was only in 2013 (Human Rights Campaign), when everyone else was beginning to accept homosexuals that Clinton came out in support of it. She has said that she would release her 250,000$ dollar transcripts that she gave to Goldman- Sachs for her 2016 campaign, but said I ll release them when everyone else does, including the Republicans, who she isn t even running against in the primaries!

8 Clinton is not a leader, she s a follower of the status quo where ever the money leads her. Hillary Clinton never gives a clear insight to her plans either, in debates and questions from random audience members, it s almost always her saying Well, what I CAN tell you is. Often followed by some pandering side story that doesn t answer the question. This leads me to believe she doesn t even have a plan. Her stance on fracking? Yes and No (TP Video Channel). She never gave a straight answer to a student s question at the Flint, Michigan debate. Why? She gets money from the fossil fuel industry. Hillary Clinton is a scandal filled, corporate bought, lying candidate. I can in no way whatsoever, give a single bit of my support, nor should you if you care about progressing our country, and world, into a better direction. I know what I have just said about Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump sounds extremely aggressive and biased against them, as I have previously talked about the bias in this election. I just can t help it though as a self-identified decent human being. Trump is unpredictable with his 5 year old attitude and extreme solutions while Clinton s untrustworthiness and saying anything to get a vote greatly turns me off to both candidates. This has led me to support Bernie Sanders, someone who I would also call a decent human being.

9 Bernie Sanders Last Spring, I had my doubts about a 74 year old Independent from Vermont named Bernard Sanders. No way is this old man going to understand about the needs of the people today. He s probably one those stuck in the past opposing gay marriage. I was thankfully proved very wrong when I heard and looked up his policies. Watching his rallies, watching a politician ACTUALLY calling out the bullshit of our government such as Wall Street corruption, the fossil fuel industry denying climate change for their own gain, and being unafraid to state the unpopular opinions most politicians are afraid to admit. The reason Sanders can have such strong and passionate views and say whatever he wants is because he isn t held to the standard of a typical politician. He has standards and views that he has held for a very long time and refuses to change them to fit the status quo of politicians. He does not, and will not, take money from mega corporations and Wall Street. He is proudly funded by the people, the average citizens the United States. The average donation is 27$. He has received over 5 million individual donations. Bernie is the only candidate fighting for free healthcare and public colleges. Here s the part where you say: But how Bernie! You can t just give it all way for free! People need to work for what they want!. There s this thing called taxes. Part of your income is going back to the government to, hopefully, to pay for important things like

10 education, healthcare, social security, but no. In 2015, approximately billion, 54% of the year s spending, was on the military. Over half of our government s spending is on war. I get it, ISIS is scary and needs to be stopped, North Korea could lose it any second, but we can combat this by moving taxpayer money into free public colleges for a better educated society to improve the world without war. What Sander s wants to do is increase the taxes on the mega wealthy and Wall Street CEO s. Anyone making less than 250,000$ a year, will not have their taxes increased! Those making 250,001$ and up will have their taxes increased, as shown in the chart here. Honestly, if you re a wealthy CEO making enough to live a very luxurious life, one better than the majority of Americans, why can t you pay back more in taxes? Putting away half your income in taxes still leaves you with far more money than the average person dreams of having. This is how free college and health care will be funded.

11 Getting free healthcare and college education is not called lazy entitlement. As Sanders says, Healthcare is a right of all people because I am human being (Haugemeister). No one should have to struggle go get health care because they have a worse job then someone else. One should be able to walk into a hospital, regardless of income, and get help. As for college education, a 4 year college degree is the equivalent of a high school diploma 50 years ago. Young adults that are pressured into going to college to get a well-paying job should not have to suffer under years and years of student debt. Back To The Ballot I hope I didn t annoy you with my clear support for Bernie and apparent despise of Clinton and Trump, but those are the facts. Why support someone who is under FBI investigation? Regardless if it s anything criminal, it s a red flag to her character. Trump on the other hand spews extremist bullshit to rile up angry Americans. Neither are worthy of being president. We could debate forever on who has the better polices, but when you strip them of that and look at their character and personality, it s clear Bernie Sanders is the only one with a decent character suited for presidency. He has spent years fighting for the same things, never changing his views in exchange for money. I hope this discussion has gotten you interested. I hope you will investigate further on what our government does. Our government needs a change, it favors the rich

12 business and bank owners. It s not a conspiracy theory that the government does everything it can to not listen to the people. It s up to the American citizens to make a stand on what is truly right for our country. So, who do you hope to pick in November 2016? Have you now been given a reason to vote?

13 Works Cited "John Boehner." Opensecrets RSS. Web. 31 Mar Haugemeister. "Bernie Sanders: Healthcare Is a Human Right." YouTube. YouTube, Web. 31 Mar Human Rights Campaign. "Hillary Clinton for HRC's Americans for Marriage Equality." YouTube. YouTube, Web. 31 Mar McCarthy, Tom. "Albright: 'special Place in Hell' for Women Who Don't Support Clinton." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, Web. 31 Mar Millstein, Seth. "Bustle." Bustle. 16 Feb Web. 20 Mar O'Connor, Lydia, and Daniel Marans. "Here Are 9 Examples Of Donald Trump Being Racist." Huffington Post. 29 Feb Web. 19 Mar Represent.Us. "Corruption Is Legal in America." YouTube. YouTube, 30 Apr Web. 13 Mar Reyes, Jonathan. "Donald Trump Says He'd Build a Wall along the Mexican Border. We Tried to Figure out How." CNN. Cable News Network, 17 Feb Web. 31 Mar TP Video Channel. "Clinton and Sanders Differ on Fracking." YouTube. YouTube, Web. 31 Mar Voter Turnout - Fairvote." FairVote. Web. 31 Mar

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