Walls, Emails and A Bad Hair Day: The 2016 American Presidential Elections are a Joke
With the current President, Barack Obama, ending his final year as leader of The Land of The Free, the elections are just around the corner, and I believe that there has never been an election quite like it.
From childish, racist insults and false accusations to comparing penile length and girth, this year’s presidential elections have morphed into what seems to be a Reality TV Show. Whatever is the most offensive or ‘’politically incorrect’’ is what gets the most attention. We are bombarded with sound bites and video clips of the most cringe-worthy and completely ridiculous statements made by candidates and never get a glimpse of what their policies are, what their core beliefs are, or even of what the softer side (if ever they have it) of their humanity is like. Furthermore, media outlets eat up the statements made by specific candidates more than others and will showcase only them, excluding the others, knowing that even the audiences are more interested in these candidates and what they will do next. Some candidates ‘’say it like it is’’, others may delete all emails thinking they were ‘’unimportant’’. Others may even try to showcase their intended plans and policies but are silenced by the cameras that are focused on the more charismatic and louder candidates, the ones with a status in American pop-culture. It’s late-night TV shown during the day.
For instance, over the course of the last few months, there have been many debates between candidates of each party. The debates themselves are organized with questions that may stir up a very passionate debacle between opinions, but are unfortunately used as an event where candidates insult each other back and forth.
Insults involving gender, race, anatomy of the lower parts of the body, and even hair have been the highlights of every debate. It’s what gets the most attention. No one wants to know their beliefs; they just want to be entertained. Because of course, a debate must be entertaining, right? Forget all of that boring stuff like answering questions that are short and to the point! Let’s just talk about how we have tremendous wealth. Let’s talk about the fact that you are pro-choice and pro-life simultaneously, or how you have accepted money from a candidate of the opposite party.
They’ve certainly built walls around themselves, and they are paying for it. No one else is.
But the rallies… well… those are something else entirely.
For some candidates, it is simply an amalgamation glorious fists fights, bad hair, and a throwback to the Jim Crow era. For others it is just a rally, one where the candidate motivates their supporters and incites others to vote for them. Sure there are protesters, but there is never a brawl.
But ask yourself, which one gets more attention?
Of course, the recreation of Black Friday at your local Wal-Mart is certainly the media’s first pick.
The elections have become a representation of the most hideous side of humanity; it’s become a joke. It is used as an outlet to get attention for some candidates, and these candidates in question get all that. Elections should not be about insults, who is richer, or who is more controversial, they should be about who has the best expertise and policies, and about who shares the same beliefs as the masses. That is what an election is for; to decide the leaders and even the fate of a country.
And as much as many of us treat it like a joke, it is not a joke.
Voting does count. Every person counts.
Written By: Lazaros Kalipolidis
March 2016
