Nowadays, the world of politics undergoes a plenty of considerable changes and improvements. On the one hand, the current President focuses on the development of strong international relations and the identification of the military actions that could influence America and help other countries to solve their own problems and uncertainties. On the other hand, new presidential elections are coming, and people try to understand and make use of the current political campaigns, competitions, and ideas.
The peculiar feature of this political issue is its nature and outcomes that could be observed in the lives of millions of people in the country and worldwide. Though presidential elections are usually defined as the contests between the representatives of two major parties, they are usually more than just that (Holian & Prysby, 2014). In this paper, the US presidential elections of 2016 will be researched and analyzed in order to comprehend how this event is organized, treated in different countries, understood by the native citizens, and accepted by the direct participants of the chosen political race.
A US presidential election is one of the main political events in the country that occurs quadrennially. It is usually introduced as a complex process that consists of a number of stages. Besides, it is one of the most expensive events in the whole world during which several presidential candidates have to complete a number of activities and share their goals and plans with people before the time of a general election comes (Masters & Ratnam, 2016). As a rule, presidential candidates start their campaigns in a certain period of time (usually, it is the beginning of February) and follow the regulations identified by the government.
However, during the last several elections, in some states, it was observed that some candidates try to start their campaigns earlier, organize caucuses, and inform ordinary people about the intentions on the political arena. Some people admit that such decision is a good chance to learn the candidates better, and some people believe that it is just another form of irrational expenses promoted by the government.
Anyway, the majority of foreign countries, as well as many American citizens, cannot help but agree with the fact that though the US presidential elections gain the same form each time they occur, they always come with surprises that may be pleasant, frustrating, shocking, confusing, or unexpectedly effective. For example, the dropped out representative of the Republic Party, Marco Rubio, said that “America’s in the middle of a real political storm, a real tsunami… And we should have seen this coming” (“Who is running for president,” 2016, par. 3). What kind of storm was he talking about? Is it really dangerous for ordinary Americans? The evaluation of the current political situation and the peculiar features of the current elections should be identified and explained to comprehend the worth of the elections in 2016.
A number of people including the candidates, voters, donors, and advertisers are involved. A number of sources including television, the Internet, and other mass media are used to elucidate the events. The relations between different sources and people play an important role in the country because the position of the president predetermines the country’s present and future relations with other countries, the conditions under which the Americans and migrants have to live and work, and the benefits and shortages the country may get.
In 2016, as usual, the fight for the seat of the US President is developed between the representatives of the Republican Party (Trump), the Democratic Party (Clinton or Sanders), the Libertarian Party (Johnson), and the Green Party (Stein). However, the presence of the last two parties remains to be under the question. It is hard to find the cases when the Liberal or the Green members were close to winning the presidential election. The main fight usually takes between the Republicans and the Democrats.
If the American citizens are aware of this fact, why the country continues spending its money on the campaigns for these organizations? Is it true that the presence of these parties in the list is just another possibility to make the Americans believe that they have the rights and choices in politics? A number of questions concerning the organization of the presidential elections and its worth occur.
Nowadays, many countries follow the events that are developing in the USA. For example, Canada is one of the closest friends of America. Its citizens visit the USA for some working or personal reasons. However, the observation of US presidential elections was always nothing more than just the intention to hear the results. Trade relations between two countries have been already identified in terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Canada has nothing to be worried about. Still, the recent fights during the presidential elections and the recent political decisions made Canada think about the rationality of the country.
The Canadians cannot understand why such huge nation that always strives for its liberty cannot come to a peaceful decision with some representatives of the Middle Eastern countries and avoid discussions about the place of Muslims in the current world (“From nervous laughter to Trump-supporting Kremlin,” 2016). South Africa is another country that does not understand the choice of the Americans. The citizens of South Africa were pleased with the activities and decisions made by Obama.
They cannot comprehend how the same Americans, who elected Obama several years ago, support the ideas developed by the current presidential candidates to re-evaluate the attitudes to Muslims and Mexicans (“From nervous laughter to Trump-supporting Kremlin,” 2016). The majority of the representatives of Britain underline their sympathy to Hillary Clinton as they believe that this woman can be a successful representative of the country.
At the same time, Britain wants to know about the American intentions in regards to the Middle East and the development of military activities worldwide. The Russian Federation is interested in the developing relations with the USA; therefore, it supports Trump by any possible means. Finally, there are many countries such as India, Japan, Iran, and Israel that begin to think about the importance of the US presidential elections for the whole world.
As it was expected, the opinions of the American citizens divided in the way the political representatives introduce their intentions and plans. There is one group of people, who support the democratic ideas of Clinton and her intentions to develop the sphere of health, stabilize the country’s military position, and regulate the position of the immigrants in the USA. People believe that Clinton’s desire to keep families together should help her to choose a correct decision and help people.
Besides, Clinton does not sound that radical in her intentions to gain control over the health care and the women’s rights to ban abortion (in comparison, Trump wants to defund Planned Parenthood and make abortion illegal). She also wants to improve the conditions under which people can have and use guns. Gun control is another important issue that bothers the politicians. Clinton underlines the necessity to make sure that mentally ill people or criminals could never have access to guns.
Her powerful aspect is the attention to the statistics and the recognition of this issue as a problem. At the same time, she admits that her presidency could help to take the necessary steps to solve this problem and clarify the conditions under which gun control could be possible. Still, there are no clear approaches and methods identified. This person knows about the problem and understands its importance, but she, as many other politicians, cannot explain how it can be actually solved.
Trump introduces a complete opposition to the ideas developed Clinton. He confesses that people love the Second Amendment, and there is no need to change it. At the same time, people should have guarantees that they could be protected by the government against the possible injuries and threats of other people. Trump offers not to reduce the rights for guns but to empower gun owners to protect themselves.
In fact, the ideas offered by Trump and Clinton are like the two shores of the same river. They touch upon the same country, identify the same problems, and underline the necessity to make some improvements. Senator Sanders even says that Hilary and Trump are powerful indeed, still, Clinton is “the lesser of two evils” (Stableford, 2016). All their suggestions will never be alike. Trump is not going to hide the truth that he is a rich person with a plenty of intentions to keep his richness and try to make his country better.
Clinton tries to focus on all aspects of the American life and make voters believe that she could make the world better, provide the Americans with safe living conditions, and improve tax and gun issues. However, it is hard to comprehend how she is going to achieve all her goals. From the perspective of the reality of the candidates’ goals, Trump sounds more persuasive than Clinton. Still, Clinton does not stop believing that her abilities as the president could be impressive indeed.
It is enough to remember the experience of her husband, Bill Clinton, and his achievements in the development of international relations and the improvement of the economy of the country. His decisions were not effective from the first time. It took several months or even years to choose the correct direction. Still, his presidency was successful for the country in many spheres.
In general, it is hard for ordinary people to comprehend which candidate is better for the position of the President of the United States. Therefore, to promote successful and effective presidential elections, people should realize their importance in this process, try to investigate the programs of all participants, and realize how crucial their opinion can be.
Not many countries comprehended the outcomes of the US presidential elections several years ago. Today, the number of countries that follow the development of the events in the political arena of the USA has been considerably increased. The achievements of the political world affect the everyday life, and the sooner people come to the conclusion that presidential elections are not about entertainment and the possibility to compare the powers and ideas of the politicians, the better things and American life can be.
References
From nervous laughter to Trump-supporting Kremlin: How world sees U.S. vote. (2016). CNN.
Holian, D.B. & Prysby, C.L. (2014). Candidate character traits in presidential elections. New York, NY: Routledge.
Masters, J. & Ratnam, G. (2016). The U.S. presidential nominating process. Council on Foreign Relations.
Stableford, D. (2016). Bernie Sanders: Voters see Hillary Clinton as ‘lesser of two evils’ against Donald Trump. Yahoo! News.
Who is running for president? (2016). The New York Times.