By William Lewis
This year’s presidential campaign is very unusual to say the least.
Beginning in January the Republicans had a field of 17 candidates, which was reduced to one, Donald Trump, after six months of party primary campaigns.
The Democratic Party was expected to give the nomination to Hillary Clinton, but 74-year-old independent Bernie Sanders came out of nowhere to challenge her.
Sanders attracted a large group of young supporters and did well in a number of primaries. However, Clinton prevailed. This year’s campaign has seen a constant number of political attacks and name calling from both sides. It started in the Republican Party primaries and continued in the Democratic and Republican Party conventions.
There doesn’t seem to be anything like it in any recent presidential campaign. The closest thing to it may have been Democrat Harry Truman’s race against Thomas Dewey for president in 1948. Harry Truman especially was very outspoken in his criticism of Dewey. But he did not resort to name calling and severe personal attacks.
In addition, Truman attacked the Republicans in the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate for not supporting his government programs. Truman’s actions were not comparable to the 2016 campaign.
When we consider the issues of this year’s campaign there is a wide difference in how the two major political parties view them.
First of all, the issues this year are much different than in previous years. Terrorism and immigration have become primary concerns. With terrorist actions taking place in the United States, Europe and parts of the Middle East, there is increasing concern. American and European citizens are becoming deeply worried. The issue of immigration especially from our southern border is being debated constantly as never before. Both major political parties are taking different positions in terms of allowing immigrants to enter our country.
Free trade also has become a major issue, which has brought discussion and debate, far more so than in previous campaigns. It is good this is happening so that the voters get an opportunity to participate in government policy. The two major political parties continue to disagree on almost all major issues.
There is a high negative rating given to both candidates by the people. It seems that some voters will be choosing a candidate when they dislike both of them. This is not what our founding fathers wanted.
Increasing job opportunities has become a major consideration among the voters.
There seems to be a lot more interest in this year’s presidential campaign than in recent past presidential campaigns.
However, two major considerations which were mentioned before seem to strongly influence the campaign. That is the high negative ratings of the two candidates and the increasing personal attacks by each of the candidates. It would be helpful if the personal attacks would stop and the candidates would deal with the very serious issues facing our country.
The issues will be handled differently after the election depending upon which political party comes into power.
The Conservative Party State Committee will be meeting on Sept. 7 to endorse their candidate for President. They are expected to designate Donald Trump. There is a possibility that Trump may attend the meeting.
