Voting

Voting: a right for all citizens of the United States in which your voice has an impact on the decisions being made in our government. Because our votes directly impact the people put in power and office, this is one of the most direct ways we are able to be connected to our government. There are numerous ways that elections influence the political beliefs of the people. The beliefs of officials being elected get to us through elections and election coverage. What we hear from the officials is understood and synthesized through our own personal lenses and experiences. Our personal lenses are shaped by factors such as race, gender, and stances on other issues in our world. If a Republican says something a person doesn’t like or resonate with, there is a high possibility that the person won’t identify as a Republican and vote for their party. In this blog post, I chose to write about the 2016 Presidential Election. The two candidates, being Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, were running for President.

Hillary Clinton (Democrat) was the first woman in history to run for president. She believes in taking on the threat of climate change, fighting for disability rights, criminal justice reform, paid family and medical leave. One of the ads that Hillary released to show that she is a more suitable candidate for president is one that Trump is an ad related to Trump's past comments about women and the treatment of women. The video includes clips of Trump talking about what makes a woman attractive and how he views woman in our society. By doing this, Clinton is illustrating how Trump has no respect or regard for women today, arguing that if he views women this way, he had no place in being president of the country. This ad greatly favors Hillary and aligns with her campaign because she is the first woman to run for presidency. Something she strongly believes in is women's rights and the fight for breaking down social constructs and barriers. Creating this ad emphasizes her beliefs and shows people that she wouldn't say things like that about women today. Doing this helps Clinton's message resonate with people, especially when she mentions how we shouldn't want Trump as president for our daughters especially after all he has said. A big way officials and candidates persuade audiences is by bringing up what Trump has said and done, which was done in this ad.
Link to video

Donald Trump (Republican) had no political background going into the campaign process, as his career was based in business. Submerged in controversy all throughout the campaign trail (and still today), Trump’s most notable belief is his stance on immigration, saying he would build a wall on the border between the United States and Mexico. He also believes climate change is not an issue, believes in lowering taxes, and in the deportation of illegal migrants, among other things. In order to illustrate how Trump is more suitable to be president than Clinton, he released a series of ads to highlight just that. One of the more outrageous ads released in favor of Trump decided to show how Hillary Clinton is not in good physical health or mentally strong enough to be president, implying that he is. The entire video includes clips of Clinton coughing and being helped up stairs to her home, then going back to the overarching idea that she is the reason for our issues with other countries. The ad ends with telling viewers we can’t let her fail our country again, and that he is able to protect us. In short, the ad wants to tell viewers that Hillary is not mentally or physically able to lead our country, while he is. All throughout the campaign, he tried to prove to everyone that he was better than Hillary Clinton, as evidence by the amount of times we saw Trump comment on Clinton's past and the affects the past have now had today.
Link to video