By CONOR McCONVILLE ’17
This letter comes from your Editor-in-Chief, Conor McConville. As a senior in charge of this wonderful newspaper, I am anticipating an exciting year both inside and outside of the classroom. And of course outside of the classroom, one of the most exciting events and topics that has been discussed for the past few months is the upcoming 2016 presidential election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Undoubtedly, this is both one of the most important and most interesting elections in American history.
Considering that politics is one of the most dangerous places to spark an argument, I’m going to try to avoid offending anyone’s political views, but rather, discuss things I see around campus regarding the election.
My government teacher last year made a comment along the lines of, “This is one of the only elections in which I don’t want to side with either candidate.” Although, the only elections I can really remember clearly are this one and the one in 2012 between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, I find that this quote from my government teacher very clearly reflects my view on this election.
In my eyes, I don’t see either candidate being much better than the other. Sure, Donald Trump is better than Hillary Clinton is some regards, and sure Hillary Clinton is better than Donald Trump in other regards. However, I still think they are both just bad candidates, and I question how we got these two people out of all 319 million people living in the United States.
We have one candidate who has an unfeasible and ridiculous plan to build a wall on the Mexican border that will somehow be paid by Mexico, and a candidate who for months refused to admit to a wrong action she blatantly did that cost the lives of several Americans.
So when people say they are voting for a specific candidate, I am convinced that it’s not because of who that candidate is, but rather what political views that candidate identifies with.
And when it comes to students at Saint Ignatius stating who they are voting for (or if they are not old enough to vote, who they are supporting), I still find it interesting that some people are already so close to a set of political views at such a young age.
Part of this comes from the fact that kids tend to adopt the political views that their parents identify with, but for us teenagers to debate major political issues with these views is at times a little
bit ridiculous.
In my opinion, that is because as teenagers we do not have enough knowledge of what goes on in the world to be politically sure of ourselves.
While many of us debate hot political issues like gun control or what to do with the economy, I have a hard time believing that any of us understand the full scope of the issues. Therefore, I think it’s silly that at such a young age we choose our political beliefs, considering that many serious issues of government such as Social Security, or Taxes, or job security are things that none of us will have to deal with for several years.
I also think it’s a little ridiculous that as Ohioans we are so concerned with immigration from Mexico, an issue that in no way affects Ohio.
This doesn’t mean that I think it’s unimportant for people my age to be politically involved, but rather I encourage them to look at issues as a whole rather than from a narrow political scope, which often times is prematurely chosen and unnecessarily, stringently, and rigidly followed.
Regardless of whether or not anyone adheres to this advice, this 2016 election is surely to be both interesting and exciting.
