An ex-minor in possession, a four-time bankrupt, a plagiarist, and a possible facilitator to investment fraud.
Despite sounding like the candidates to a bad season of MTV’s Real World, these are actually the Republican candidates for the 2016 presidential election. With over thirty Republican candidates that all seem to be doused in scandal, and with almost exactly the same political views, how can anybody know for sure who the best candidate is? This is being reflected in the polls, where support is largely divided. This is also a factor to why Donald Trump is taking the lead in the polls.
Donald Trump is the man that everybody loves to hate in this election. His opinions are well known, and he’s not afraid of offending anybody, which is exactly what sets him apart from all the rest. Why is he taking the lead right now, despite his blatant sexist, racist and classist attitude? Well, it may come as a shock but there are sexist, racist, classist people in America besides him and these people are usually old, white people which is one of the largest voting demographics out there, even if everybody else wishes they weren’t.
The elderly’s “traditional” values are usually on par with Donald Trump’s views, specifically the immigration issue. While his comment about Mexican immigrants being criminals lost him a lot of public support – such as NBC dropping the Miss USA pageant from their lineup – it has gained him both support and publicity. The media is adding fuel to the fire by continuing to talk about him, and in turn giving him another reason to keep talking. He is not a politician. He has no experience in any sort of government work. Even economically, he has declared bankruptcy multiple times, yet somehow with millions of dollars remaining in his personal account. He has no chance at getting the Republican bid, but if he chooses to run as an independent he could potentially become a legitimate threat. Once one Republican gets the official bid, it is to be expected that most Republicans will turn and support that candidate.
In all honesty, Jeb Bush is the unstoppable candidate. He has experience in both politics and business. He is the closest thing to a bipartisan candidate running as a Republican. Which, for a democrat, is a great thing, but some people view this as wishy-washy. They don’t want a leader that seems like he doesn’t know what he wants. Granted his name is Bush, but this could both help and hurt him: he is the most known Republican candidate, besides possibly Donald Trump. To uneducated voters, he looks amazing, to supporters of his father and brother, he also looks amazing.
But the Bush family has made a lot of enemies too. Many Americans think that we’re working our way towards a Bush dynasty, which a lot of people are not okay with. A democracy is about giving everybody a chance – that’s how America began. Our founders ran from the oppressive monarchy of England, and eventually from monarchies and dynasties all over the world. Do we really want to go back to the same line-up of Bush after Bush after Bush? This is the same criticism that Hillary Clinton is receiving. People don’t want another Bush-Clinton race, but at the moment that’s where it seems to be heading. Looking back on history, not only the presidents, but congress as well, there does seem to be a surplus of Bushes, Clintons, and Kennedys, all of which have served multiple terms in their positions. Should people be given incredible amounts of power because of what their families have done?
What we haven’t noticed during this election is the rise of Ben Carson. This Republican neurosurgeon is quietly rising in the polls, slowly creeping in on Trump and Bush. He is a conservative politician, yet he’s made his career out of science. This is unusual for many Republicans. He doesn’t believe in evolution and he is pro-life, two things that you don’t often see in doctors. He is gaining support from much of the middle class, as he came from a home without much money to spare, and worked hard to work his way up to study at Yale. Perhaps we need somebody with ties to the middle and lower class that can identify with the average working American. Yet, for obvious reasons, many people are uncomfortable with a scientist that denies the theory of evolution. This could cause huge problems in the education system. As with any candidate, their are major pros and cons to his political beliefs.
Right now, the Republican primaries look like a joke. A man that made his name from firing people on national television is leading the polls by a long shot, and all of the other candidates – including Jeb Bush – haven’t been able to do anything to get the attention off Trump and on their own campaigns. If they don’t seriously step up their campaigns, the Republicans as a whole will stand no chance against Hillary Clinton. Despite Trump being number one in the polls, Clinton is still 16 percentage points above him.
But even many Democrats admit that it’s time this country sees a Republican president; arguing that we need Republican economics to get us out of the recession. The poor Republican campaigns not only hurt the party, but potentially the country.
Words by Casey McGourty