WASHINGTON D.C., USA — The United States’ presidential election is shaping up to be quite the circus show spectacle. Never before in the country’s history have voters felt that the two leading candidates were so highly unlikable.
However, this perceived similarity does not mean that the candidates’ unlikability is identical.
The #NeverTrump camp finds Republican candidate Donald Trump’s worlds objectionable and unpresidential. Resting upon the justification of not being a politician, Trump shows his rough edges verbally.
Among the long list of statements people have objected to are: his on-again, off-again calls for banning Muslim immigrants from the Middle East, his calls for a border wall between Mexico and the US, his calls for the deportation of millions of (presumably Mexican) immigrants who are undocumented, and his allegations that a judge of Mexican heritage could not fairly adjudicate over his Trump University trial due to political conflict of interest.
His opponents say his messages are racially, ethnically, and religiously charged–they use little understood labels like facist–and contend that, if president, he would only divide US residents rather than unite them.
On the other side are Hillary Clinton’s opponents–the #NeverHillary people–who point to what former Secretary of state Hillary Clinton does, alongside her husband former President Bill Clinton, in her decades in politics.
As evidence of opposition to her candidacy, they discuss how Hillary Clinton alone raked in over twenty-seven million US dollars from paid speeches for Wall Street bank executives, biotech conglomerates, and other special interest groups.
Moreover, opponents condemn her refusal to release the contents of the paid speeches, although one speech that has been leaked shows Hillary Clinton promising a biotech company that she would use taxpayer moneys to fund a propaganda campaign to convince the general public that genetically modified crops are not only suitable but also ideal for mass consumption.
In short, her speech reveals her support for the biotech industry’s food replacement program, leaving opponents to wonder: what other promises has she made to special interests for millions of dollars?
#NeverHillary trumpeters also mention her rampage of killing–most notorious is the murder of Gaddafi in Libya accompanied by Hillary’s infamous words: “We came, we saw, he died.”
Closely linked to the assassinations are her penchants for war and regime change and her taking of money from human rights violators like Saudi Arabia through the Clinton Foundation in exchange for political advantage.
No laughing matter, Hillary’s actions as Secretary of State catapulted her to the subject of an FBI investigation.
Moreover, she has supported the undoing of African American communities–mass incarceration through the 1994 Crime Bill and cutbacks on support for poor families through dismantling the social welfare system. Furthermore, she has supported trade deals that basically eroded the American middle class.
What Hillary has done throughout her political career causes many to give pause towards what she might yet do if she were to obtain the highest office in the US,and arguably in this present world.
It is no wonder that many US citizens find themselves trying to answer an impossible question: Which is worse, what Donald Trump says or what Hillary Clinton does? Sticks and stones that break your bones, or words that haven’t (at least yet) hurt me?
Overall, support for either candidate is low. Deciding which offender one would endure might well determine who wins this closely-watched race.
Thank you foe writing so clearly Afiya X. Thank you!!
Thank you for this!!