Donald Trump vs. Bernie Clinton

It's been almost two months since my last blog post. Posts will definitely become more frequent now that finals are over and I'm on summer break. That aside, there has definitely been a great amount of political news over the past few weeks. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are the presumptive nominees for their parties and the competition is mostly between them. What gets me, though, is that Bernie Sanders is still in the race, which is unreasonable at this time considering that it is now 100% impossible for Sanders to win the nomination. He needs 919 more delegates, if Clinton gains absolutely no delegates from now forward. In total, there are 84 delegates left. Of course there are also super delegates but even those will not propel Sanders far enough forward as to clinch the democratic nomination. So it's definitely time for Sanders to drop out of the election, while he is consistently insisting that he "is in until the end." However, Sanders' reasoning is quickly becoming clear. He recently agreed to a "truce" with Hillary Clinton. Sanders isn't in it for the presidency now, he is in it for the defeat of Donald Trump. Trump reached the needed delegate total before Clinton, and he was able to focus all of his energy to fighting just her for quite a long period of time. However, Clinton still had Sanders to worry about. But more recently, Sanders has made his speeches about how horrible Trump is more than anything else. This means that Trump now not only has to battle Clinton on the political battlefield, but also defend against the consistent feed of attacks from the entire democratic party (specifically both of the democratic candidates). Another theory that has been brought up was that Sanders is attempting to stay in the race in the case that Clinton has any negative findings (from the FBI... or anything else). This is also very possible. I'm hoping that Sanders will be dropping out of the election soon, because he is simply wasting money by staying in it. However, it is also important for him to stay in, as being a presidential candidate is the easiest and most effective way to get widespread media coverage (which is definitely not a concern for Trump).


*Note: All delegate counts were at the time of writing.


Sources:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/democratic_delegate_count.html

https://news.vice.com/article/bernie-sanders-and-hillary-clinton-talk-truce-after-she-wins-final-primary

One vote won't count... right?

It's only one vote... I'm not going to really make THAT much of a difference... right? WRONG. One vote can be a lot. In some cases, as is with Bernie Sanders, every vote matters, because every vote could give him another delegate. But even when the race isn't so close, a vote will always matter. In the United States, 83% of people are registered to vote, but only about 53% actually do so. And the turnout rates can be as low as 15% during the primaries. Now, while one voter will make a very slight impact on this number, they will still make an impact. And then there's the concept of mass-population ideas. If you are contemplating not voting, you are probably thinking that you don't have to dedicate all of your time towards such a small difference. However, there are 47% of people that think like that. And if that 47% of people actually voted, it is very likely that another candidate would be elected. This is ridiculous! The time and energy is worth it, because slowly, one by one, everyone will end up getting together and it might ACTUALLY make a difference. Now, voting is a privilege and a duty, not another thing that someone HAS to do. There are many countries, well over fifty, in which citizens are not allowed to vote. Women were fighting for this right into the 1900s. This is a right that so many fight for. And at the same time, so many people are taking this for granted. The right to vote should be appreciated and utilized, because so many people don't have it. The fact that so many people overlook this duty as citizens is absurd; a low voter turnout should not be a problem. Almost everybody has a political belief, and the best way to make the belief a reality is to vote it in. As Michael Jackson once said: “If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself then make a change.”

What's your opinion on voting? Let me know by clicking on the blue "comments" link and leaving a comment below!

Sources: 

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/05/06/u-s-voter-turnout-trails-most-developed-countries/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/21/democracy-index-2013-economist-intelligence-unit_n_2909619.html