A First Time Voter’s Disappointment In This Year’s Election Season

This March 15th, I will cast a vote for my first time. My first presidential rally was in 2004 for John Kerry. In 2008, I stood outside Walmart with my mother and encouraged people to register to vote. In 2012, I made phone calls to help elect my state senator and knocked on doors to help reelect President Obama. I have been a politics and history junkie for as long as I can remember. I was inspired by the kind of hope that our current President gave this country, and I have been excited to finally be able to participate in our political system in the way that most Americans do. But I am disappointed. I was expecting to be as euphorically supportive of my candidate as my parents were for theirs in 2008. I wanted my vote to help elect the next Kennedy or Roosevelt or Lincoln. This election has revealed an ugly underbelly of the political process for me. I am not always going to be inspired by the candidate I am voting for, and I am not always going to help elect the next incredible leader, because between the Lincolns and the Kennedys are the William Henry Harrisons. Among the Obamas, there are the Trumps.
In the midst of this hectic election season, I have attempted to stay nonpartisan. However, my blue blood starts to boil when I watch debates and interviews from the other side. I have found myself in a stupor whilst reading reports of what the Republican candidates have been saying about this country and about each other. As we quickly approach the end of primary season, I am left asking a few rhetorical questions: how on Earth has the Republican party allowed a candidate such as Trump to make it this far? Has the whole Republican base lost their minds? Or did the party really think that Trump would quit before he was this close to the nomination? I had hopes that old-school Republicans and moderates would have reeled in their supporters and rallied them around a much more sensible candidate by now, but to my, and the base’s, chagrin, it seems as though it is too late to trump The Donald.

Last week, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who made a Presidential run in 2012 against President Obama, gave a speech that answered my questions about the Republican base. What I have realized, is that they’re worried. They’re terrified. Romney made it clear that under no circumstance will Donald Trump have his support, and even more, fervently spoke out against Trump and his supporters. Romney said that the economy would suffer if Trump won the Presidency, that national security would be compromised, and that the hypocrite’s temperament is not one that should be in the White House, holding the most powerful position in the world.

For the first time, I could not agree more with Romney. Although in 2012 my ninth grade self cheered at his failure, I was excited by his most recent statement. This is something that goes beyond party politics. This affects not only our lives for the next 4 years, but for the next several decades. Trump’s supporters are a loud, miseducated minority, but now that we have heard their voices, it is unlikely we will be able to silence them anytime soon. I worry that if The Donald is elected the leader of the Free World, we will not be able to recover the damage he makes. Flash forward four years after his presidency, whoever takes over for Donald Trump will likely have a hard time undoing his mistakes and making America great again.

Still, despite my attempts to maintain neutrality toward the Republican party, I cannot stop myself from finding this whole ordeal at least a little humorous, and even beneficial for my party’s gain. Donald Trump has already won the nomination. He has won too many state primaries to be stopped now, and it’s the fault of the very people who have recently decided to try to stop him. And while I am disappointed that the moderate Republicans I admire have failed to nip Trump’s campaign in the bud, I am a little excited about him being the nominee; although Trump is leading the party with 35.6% in the polls (according to RCP’s average from last week), 64.4% that is split between the remainder of the Republican candidates, and it is highly unlikely that supporters of any of the other candidates would be so quick to support Trump in the general election. What this leads me to assume is that the voter turnout for the Republican party will be quite low this November, and it won’t be too difficult for the Democrats to take back the Senate since they are only five seats short of a majority. Do I feel badly for them? Absolutely not. I believe that to move our country forward, we need forward thinkers. The anti-establishment complains that the political system currently running the country is bad, but politics aren’t bad. Insulting others is bad, running campaigns on hate is bad, discrimination is bad. While the Republicans argue about their hand sizes, the candidates for the Democratic party that I am proud to back have continued to run on the ideals that I support, without insulting the personal lives of their opponents.

This election year is one for the history books. I look forward to witnessing the candidates walk the tightrope for the next few months of this circus, and I wonder how the Republican party will handle the pesky 35.6% that has deviated from their norm. I hope, as I’m sure the Republican establishment also hopes, that the GOP will continue to be the party of Eisenhower and of Lincoln, rather than the one of Trump