Trump’s poor policy worse than Clinton’s unlikability
September 25, 2016
With the elections coming up, Trump and Clinton are neck and neck. With Trump’s poor policy and debate skills, it will be Clinton’s election to lose.
Just after labor day, crucial polls were released by CNN showing Trump with 45 percent, barely edging out over Clinton, who received just 43 percent. These numbers aren’t being seen because people can’t decide who they like more, in fact it’s quite the opposite, most people feel as though they just have to pick the lesser of two evils. They’re choosing between someone brash and egomaniacal, Trump, and someone they see as cold and untrustworthy, Clinton. One candidate can turn their attention image around and another has sealed their fate, and because of her safe policy and level head, Clinton will win.
Hillary has 43 percent in the polls, and a high unfavorability rating, at around 52 percent, but that will change. Clinton has a weapon that Trump doesn’t, well built policy. She has pulled upon her vast experience as Secretary of State and as First Lady to put together a plan for our country built on a tax rate that helps to keep our wealth distributed well, an education plan that allows affordable post-secondary school, and a jobs plan that continues our steady growth from the past eight years.
These policies have have been well supported by the public, when asked about why she supports Clinton, senior Corri Gardner said “I support Hillary Clinton because she’s been a progressive fighter her entire career, she has the intelligence for the job, and the heart to truly care for our people, all of our people, not just the ones at the top.”
You may notice that her compliments for Hillary are centered around career and intelligence, the takeaway from that being that she knows what she’s doing while she’s writing policy or giving a speech, and she’ll know what she’s doing as our commander in chief. When she’s writing policy it will be for us, the people, and when she highlights that she’ll gain support.
The reason why many people dislike Hillary has very little to do with how well she’s served our country, instead it has to do with who she is as a person, specifically finding her trustworthy. All year, stories about Hillary’s email scandal have circulated around the country, painting her as a lying crook. She was also hurt by conservatives attacked her for foreign policy mistakes made in Benghazi while conveniently forgetting the good she’s done for the U.S. and the world, and everyone bought into the bad image. The lack of trust for Clinton can bee seen in a New York Times poll that said that 63 percent of people find her untrustworthy.
There are some things Hillary may be able to do to improve her image, when Social Studies teacher Matt Kiedrowski was asked what he thought Hillary could do to improve how people see her, he said she can “Interact with people on an individual basis”, he also said “(Clinton) needs to act less stiff, she just doesn’t seem comfortable.” If she can do these things she’ll finally be seen as a person instead of just a public servant, and she’ll gain some more support.
An advantage that Clinton does have is having Donald Trump as her opponent. Trump’s domestic policy consists of an economic plan that cuts government revenue by 20 percent, while only cutting spending by 18 percent, a plan that will cost the U.S, $1 trillion over the five years. His stances on social issues flip often from left to right, and he wants to put up a massive, unrealistic, extremely expensive border wall. His foreign policy consists of poorly thought out aggression towards the Middle East, tariffs that would destroy trade with China and Mexico and the destruction of alliances like NATO, and trade deals like NAFTA. Some of these policies such as a low tax rate aim to help the rich, but end up harming us all, Corri Gardener said it best when she said “I think (Trump’s) policies tend to help a certain group of people, consistently, more so than any other. Need I say more?”
The biggest reason that Clinton continues to struggle in the polls against Trump is the appeal he seems to have with people that are sick of politics. In a world where nothing gets done in D.C., a brash, unpolitical, businessman can look appealing as a candidate. Many people stand behind Trump because he “tells it like it is.” Even if he occasionally says it in a lees than polite way. When Junior Blue Buettner was asked about if he found Trumps controversial comments offensive he responded with “I don’t no, but I could see how someone could take offense … he’s not tying to hurt anybody but he just says it in an ignorant way.” I think this best represents how Trump supporters feel, they believe that he truly does have good ideas that just get a little jumbled in his disregard for political correctness, and when you’re sick of politics as usual, politically incorrect is attractive.
What this election will come down to is a choice between a safe, somewhat unlikable public servant, vs an unfiltered exciting businessman. When you really get a good look at Clinton, you’ll see stable policy, strong leadership and experience being brought to the table, and when you really get a good look at Trump, being something new and different is his only appeal, once you really get down to it, he has nothing to back up his aggressive, arrogant approach. No matter how exciting the Trump option looks at first, on a fundamental level his ideology is flawed, and that daunting fact will be brought to light before November, and it will lead to a Clinton victory.