Anonymous
Writer '18
Unless an individual has been living under a rock for the past few weeks, he or she has most certainly heard about the results of the 2016 Presidential election - and probably lost a few friends over political discourse. Despite these results being completely unexpected for many Clinton and Trump supporters alike, there has definitely been a negative vibe throughout the entire country this month. Riots and protests ignited by Clinton and Bernie supporters, or just people who generally hate President-Elect Trump, ceaselessly occur nationwide every single day. Many Clinton fans are demanding recounts or even the abolishment of the Electoral College itself, since Clinton leads the popular vote by over 1.5 million votes, and yet still lost the election.
In the weeks after the election, Clinton fans have become somewhat in denial about the results and continue to defend their candidate, but many people have started to gain an overall feeling of resigned acceptance, realizing there is absolutely no way to remove Trump from office at this point.
Some Clinton supporters have taken a step back to figure out what factors could have possibly ensued such unexpected results. Junior Jessica Rothstein explains, “Clinton herself was the main factor contributing to Clinton’s loss. It was not that Trump was a superior candidate, but that Americans just believed that he was the lesser of two undesirable candidates. Clinton’s government experience betrayed her because Americans were not interested in following the trend of electing a typical Washington type. Americans did not trust her as a result of the things that she did, even though she, unlike her opponent, previously had held positions in government.”
The lack of trust in Clinton that many Americans had when debating voting Clinton or Trump most likely led them to choose Trump as the more trustworthy candidate. Additionally, Trump’s promise to “drain the swamp” of corrupt politicians appealed to the Americans who wanted a change from the normal way the government functions. This complete political outsider was able to garner so much attention and support from the nation because apparently his lack of experience was more favorable than a woman with over 30 years of political experience. The American people, essentially, decided to vote an inexperienced businessman to run this country, instead of a perfectly capable woman with actual experience in government. All of which was decided because of trust issues. Are deleted emails that big of a determining factor when comparing the two candidates side by side?
Many Trump supporters have now been criticizing Clinton for her “poor” campaigning strategies, but was there anything she could change that would have amassed enough voters to overturn the electoral vote? Junior Megan Xu suggests, “I think the nation has become incredibly divided in a lot of controversial topics such as abortion, gay marriage, climate change, etc., and due to this, any of Hillary’s opinions would have hurt her because there are still many conservative people in this country that are adamantly pro-life or anti-gay marriage…I personally think that she could have gone in a more Bernie Sanders-type way, as in more traditionally democratic, because she is technically conservative for a democrat. Other than that, her performance as a candidate was good… it wasn’t bad in any way and I wouldn’t criticize her. It’s just that in the end, I do think that her being a woman contributed to her loss.”
Partisan politics was ultimately one of the main downfalls of Hillary Clinton, because conservatives’ traditionalist, right-wing views are the complete opposite of what Clinton and the Democratic Party stand for. Trump was eventually able to appeal to most white Americans and gathered an influx of votes from Democrats and Republicans who were fed up with the Obama administration, deeming Trump as the candidate who would provide some real change for the country; whereas Clinton would just be “another four years of Obama.” Oh well. Best of luck, America, from the Clinton supporters who are heavily concerned with the decisions of this nation and hope for only the best out of these next four years.
Writer '18
Unless an individual has been living under a rock for the past few weeks, he or she has most certainly heard about the results of the 2016 Presidential election - and probably lost a few friends over political discourse. Despite these results being completely unexpected for many Clinton and Trump supporters alike, there has definitely been a negative vibe throughout the entire country this month. Riots and protests ignited by Clinton and Bernie supporters, or just people who generally hate President-Elect Trump, ceaselessly occur nationwide every single day. Many Clinton fans are demanding recounts or even the abolishment of the Electoral College itself, since Clinton leads the popular vote by over 1.5 million votes, and yet still lost the election.
In the weeks after the election, Clinton fans have become somewhat in denial about the results and continue to defend their candidate, but many people have started to gain an overall feeling of resigned acceptance, realizing there is absolutely no way to remove Trump from office at this point.
Some Clinton supporters have taken a step back to figure out what factors could have possibly ensued such unexpected results. Junior Jessica Rothstein explains, “Clinton herself was the main factor contributing to Clinton’s loss. It was not that Trump was a superior candidate, but that Americans just believed that he was the lesser of two undesirable candidates. Clinton’s government experience betrayed her because Americans were not interested in following the trend of electing a typical Washington type. Americans did not trust her as a result of the things that she did, even though she, unlike her opponent, previously had held positions in government.”
The lack of trust in Clinton that many Americans had when debating voting Clinton or Trump most likely led them to choose Trump as the more trustworthy candidate. Additionally, Trump’s promise to “drain the swamp” of corrupt politicians appealed to the Americans who wanted a change from the normal way the government functions. This complete political outsider was able to garner so much attention and support from the nation because apparently his lack of experience was more favorable than a woman with over 30 years of political experience. The American people, essentially, decided to vote an inexperienced businessman to run this country, instead of a perfectly capable woman with actual experience in government. All of which was decided because of trust issues. Are deleted emails that big of a determining factor when comparing the two candidates side by side?
Many Trump supporters have now been criticizing Clinton for her “poor” campaigning strategies, but was there anything she could change that would have amassed enough voters to overturn the electoral vote? Junior Megan Xu suggests, “I think the nation has become incredibly divided in a lot of controversial topics such as abortion, gay marriage, climate change, etc., and due to this, any of Hillary’s opinions would have hurt her because there are still many conservative people in this country that are adamantly pro-life or anti-gay marriage…I personally think that she could have gone in a more Bernie Sanders-type way, as in more traditionally democratic, because she is technically conservative for a democrat. Other than that, her performance as a candidate was good… it wasn’t bad in any way and I wouldn’t criticize her. It’s just that in the end, I do think that her being a woman contributed to her loss.”
Partisan politics was ultimately one of the main downfalls of Hillary Clinton, because conservatives’ traditionalist, right-wing views are the complete opposite of what Clinton and the Democratic Party stand for. Trump was eventually able to appeal to most white Americans and gathered an influx of votes from Democrats and Republicans who were fed up with the Obama administration, deeming Trump as the candidate who would provide some real change for the country; whereas Clinton would just be “another four years of Obama.” Oh well. Best of luck, America, from the Clinton supporters who are heavily concerned with the decisions of this nation and hope for only the best out of these next four years.