Hillary vs. Trump: The Lazy Election

By: Patrick Olliffe, Student Voices writer

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Now that Super Tuesday has been and gone, with the final results on the horizon, it’s quite apparent from what we saw that the 2016 Presidential Election will be former Sectary of State and First Lady of the United States Hillary Clinton vs. Billionaire, Reality Star Donald Trump.  The reason I and many people see this happening is because of national polls giving Trump a strong lead over his closest Republican rival Ted Cruz, who has lost states like Georgia and Alabama to Trump. The same could be said of Hillary Clinton of course; a latest poll puts her at 54% of the Democrat vote, giving her a 15% lead over Bernie Sanders who stands at 39%.

The reason I call this article “the Lazy Election” is because if Trump gets the Republican nomination I believe the Democrats and Hillary will see that as half the job done in terms of the campaign they will lead. I’m talking about the sort of politics where the campaigning concentrates on disparaging the opposition rather than addressing the current issues. In this case the Democrats campaigning against Trump rather than for a Democrat President, so in a way the smoke and mirrors game along with the negative campaigning will sway people to vote for them out of the lesser of two evils.
We do get a similar problem here in the UK, with tactical voting, and smear campaigns between the main political parties. Of course in America the problem is more potent because there are only two parties to vote for.  

Even though this Election will be a lazy one, it’s certainly turning out to be an interesting one. I’m quite comfortable in saying that I and most people in UK think Donald Trump’s ideas are somewhat farfetched and in some cases ludicrous. However I think it’s safe to say he’s taken the U.S. by storm.
Clearly, there is a deep-seeded social and economic angst pushing Republican voters into the arms of the controversial, near enough presidential Candidate Donald Trump. I believe it is mostly anger at America’s political class and wanting to rebel against political correctness driving this more than anything else. The anxieties I refer to point towards the state of working America, wages being a good example.  All workers have suffered in the U.S. from decades of stagnating wages even with gains in productivity. Not only is the current U.S. minimum wage $7.25 (£5.04) per hour but most minimum wage jobs have minimum benefits i.e. no health insurance coverage. So I think that says a lot about the quality of low paid jobs in America.

Mr. Trump is also homing in on the social tensions felt by people in the U.S. in terms of the issue of immigration. From what Trump has said, I can only make the comparison of what Nigel Farage has done in the UK. I draw a clear distinction between the two. I think they have both touched on an issue that other main stream politicians wouldn’t openly discuss through fear of alienating certain demographics of society, by doing that they have fed into this feeling of disenchantment and anger that voters feel with the current establishments.

The appeal that Donald Trump has to sections of America is an appeal that Hillary Clinton will not and cannot have and let’s explore why. If a Trump supporter is presented with a woman like Hillary Clinton all they would see is a woman who has been part of a Government that, in their option, is the reason they feel America is not as good or as great as it once was or could be, hence Trumps slogan (Make America Great again). They would also see Hillary Clinton as very much part of the establishment as she has been in the White House as First Lady and then proceeded to be Sectary of State, not to mention her links with Wall Street. Flipping that on its head though and looking at Donald Trump from the perspective of a Hillary voter or just a Democrat voter. Presented with Donald Trump they will just see someone who has more money than sense, someone who they believe to have very right wing controversial opinions, an individual, to them who seems dangerously close to the White House.

 So overall, I see this Election going very much in favour of Hillary Clinton because however many people come out in their droves to vote Trump. I do believe there will be more people coming out, not necessarily voting for Hillary, but voting against Donald Trump and that is what I think will pave Hilary Clinton’s way to the White House.  

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 Meet the author:

Patrick Olliffe

Writer

My name is Patrick Olliffe I'm Student Governor at Strode College and I pride myself on telling it as truthfully and as honestly as I can, in whatever format that might be.  I'm not really a fan of "People Pleasers" people who don't have opinions or personalities, In other words vanilla people. However I love people with opinions and views on things, even if they are the polar opposite of mine, I have a lot of respect for that. 

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