Recap, Reflection, and Analysis of Election 2016

​By Julia Gokalp
 
Seventeen Republican candidates and six Democratic candidates, outspoken politicians, tension within parties, heated debates, and alleged scandals. From the beginning of the 2016 presidential election, it was clear that this election would not only be out of the ordinary, but also unforgettable.
 
The primaries began with a wide variety of opinions due to the large number of candidates in the two major parties. The Democratic candidates- Martin O’Malley (former Governor of Maryland), Bernie Sanders (Senator from Vermont), and Hillary Clinton (former Secretary of State) most notable among them- and the Republican candidates- including Marco Rubio (Senator from Florida), Ben Carson (retired surgeon and author), John Kasich (Governor of Ohio), Ted Cruz (Senator from Texas), and Donald Trump (real estate mogul and television celebrity)-- engaged in debates and compared views over the months leading to the primary election, months during which the numbers of candidates dwindled.
 
The choices for presidential candidates in the Democratic Party were Sanders and Clinton, while Kasich, Cruz, and Trump remained candidates for the Republican Party. Clinton and Trump were the victors in the primaries and faced off in the general election. They were joined by Gary Johnson from the Libertarian Party and Jill Stein from the Green Party (there were, of course, other candidates from lesser-known political parties, but they did not gain enough votes to stand out in the election).
 
Both of the two final candidates were considered controversial in their own ways, but so was the idea of voting for a third party candidate, for such an action was often considered a wasted vote. Despite the complicated nature of the election and its candidates, people managed to find some merit in the ones they chose.
 
Gabby Zingarini believed that, in Hillary Clinton, “America has never seen a more qualified candidate in our entire history,” since “she was as close as one can get to the presidency without actually being the commander in chief,” for she was Secretary of State during President Obama’s first term and a Senator from New York.
 
Aside from her experience, her supporters cited her policies--such as Keynesian economics, paid medical and family leave, environmental protection, reproductive rights, infrastructure repair, and reduction of college prices.
 
Her victory would have also meant that the first female President would take office, which, her supporters believed, would send an inspiring message to women throughout the country that they could succeed in any field. Of course, her victory also meant Donald Trump’s defeat, and to many liberals, fear of having Trump in office was enough to persuade them to vote for Clinton.
 
Many Republicans, though, argue that Democrats misconstrued Trump’s campaign as divisive--that his idea of building a wall was meant to protect the country from criminals; that he retracted his plan to ban Muslim immigration; that his KKK endorsement does not define him, for one’s supporters do not fully define a person.
 
As some of Clinton’s supporters simply wanted to help the Democratic Party, so did some Trump supporters want to bolster the Republican Party. Many others supported his conservative values such as his pro-life stance or his belief in laissez-faire economics.
 
While Clinton supporters believed that government intervention in certain aspects of life was crucial to protect public interest, Trump supporters generally believed that businesses would benefit from a lack of oversight from the government. Many of them also agreed with Trump that additional border security was necessary to protect the country from criminals who could access it illegally.
 
Supporters such as Nolan Hartwell hoped that a “big, beautiful, glorious wall” would help protect the country. Although a wall would be expensive (and doubt remains over whether Mexico would actually pay for it or not), Jack Earley, a junior, compares the funds needed to build a wall to our current military spending: “[An] F-18 fighter [...] jet costs [m]illions of dollars. [...] That’s for our national defense. [...] Whether it’s building up our air force or building up our navy, it’s the same thing as building a wall because it’s [...] to protect the country.”
 
Although not all of Trump’s supporters focus on his plan to build the border wall, many share the same desire to keep the country guarded from potential threats.
 
Meanwhile, others supported third party candidates. Some of these people believed that the two-party system was broken and that the two major parties did not cover the beliefs of all voters. The majority of the third party voters supported Johnson, for the Libertarian Party’s ideals are socially liberal like those of the Democrats, but fiscally conservative like the ideals of the Republicans.
 
Griffin Murphy, a senior, believes that Libertarian ideals appeal to him “because they allow people to have the liberty to make their own choices in their lives as long as they don’t hurt anyone else.” To his supporters, Gary Johnson’s ascension to the presidency would have led to more freedom--both social and fiscal.
 
Political views greatly varied- even amongst members of the same party- especially in this election. However, many people and national polls believed that Hillary Clinton, who had more political experience, would be the winner of the election until Donald Trump’s victory was announced early in the morning of November 9.
 
How did Trump pull off what many consider to be an upset victory?  One explanation could be that a large number of people supported a candidate for the purpose of defeating the opponent they deemed worse. Both candidates were involved in scandals of some sort. Both candidates had their personalities questioned. Neither one seemed to be a clear favorite of either party, nor were they favorites of the general public, as shown by a voter turnout which was lower than it had been since 1996, according to exit polls on CNN. Trump was also an anti-establishment candidate going against someone who represented the status quo, and although Trump’s idea of change was arguably quite drastic, it was still a change, one that Clinton, who exemplified for many the “broken” system, could not offer. The highly charged and often negative atmosphere, combined with these aspects, may have contributed to the election’s outcome.
 
Despite the divisiveness of this election, on a cold Thursday night, religious leaders, CRN students, politicians of both major parties, and other members of the community gathered in the Garden of Reflection and stood together against hatred--not the election results, but hatred itself, a sentiment that cannot be blamed on an election alone. Although the election and subsequent events left some in the community and the country divided, this gathering was one of many in which people showed unity despite differing political views.
 
It was a way of showing that we cannot- we must not- allow politics to splinter our country. The divides in our country will only be healed if people are willing to exchange opinions with others and not let these differences become divisive. Whether students supported Trump, Clinton, Johnson, Stein, or anyone else, the majority of people chose whom they thought would be the best leader for our country. They just saw different ways of improving it. Our country can be improved, as long as people are willing to work together and communicate, not silence each other and be afraid to share their voices. To borrow from both candidates, we can make America great if we stay strong together, whatever our differences may be.

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