Clinton and Trump Faceoff Nov. 8

The news media is, admittedly, a mess. The type of mess waiting to smother you every time you open your closet door. Except, it isn’t clothes or toys or various trinkets that come out of this hypothetical closet. It’s information, but most of it is biased and trying to evade the point by being filled with fluff.

Most people aren’t aware Hillary Clinton “…fought to expand human rights, internet freedom, and rights and opportunities for young people around the globe,” according to her About page on her campaign site.

However, people want to know about her political background and if she’s qualified for the job. And while it’s nice to know that she’s helping others around the globe, people want to know if she’s ready to take on the responsibility of the United States, not a charity foundation. This article has the rundown of what you need to know, and not what’s nice to know.

Clinton’s political career has been quite active since she graduated at 25-years-old. She worked at Rose Law Firm – a distinguished firm that has thrived since its founding in 1820 – for about thirty years, up until she became First Lady in 1993 when Bill Clinton was elected to the presidential office.

During her time at Rose Law Firm, Clinton juggled with caring for her family, being on the board of two different charity programs, and holding one of the positions of director for the Legal Services Corporation – a group focusing on the legal defense of the poor.

Her time as First Lady was certainly not a relaxing one, per se; she worked on public policy, foreign policy, and welfare reform issues. She also gave advice to her husband concerning Cabinet promotions and higher-up White House positions.

After being First Lady, Clinton was elected as a Senator of Arkansas, in which she served for another eight years. She ran for office in the 2008 presidential election and lost to President Barack Obama. That same year, Clinton became Secretary of State.

Despite this previous experience and knowledge in the political field, Clinton has made many false and misleading statements throughout her campaign.

Regarding the controversy over her emails on a private server, Clinton claimed that conducting her affairs on her private account was “allowed” by the state. Not only is there any rule or guideline that explicitly says Clinton is allowed to use a private server, but there was a policy established in 2005 that requires routine activities to be done on a government server. It makes people wonder if she will continue to conduct her affairs so underhandedly if she is elected to office.

Despite her tendency to do who-knows-what away from the public eye, Clinton  has a good idea of the amount of effort it takes to be in office based on her previous experience as First Lady, and she has about 35 years of experience in the political scene.

While being an avid businessman and owning a vast empire of properties and wealth, Donald J. Trump has only dabbled in politics and has just recently decided to dive headfirst into the political scene with a big bang.

In 1999, Trump announced he was going to form a committee to advise him on whether or not he should strive for an independent party’s nomination during the 2000 presidential election. However, he backed out of the candidacy after the California primary.

In 2012, Trump said that he was toying with the idea of running as a presidential candidate again, but he did not fulfill this ponderance until 2015, when he announced publicly that he was running for president as a Republican candidate.

Despite his many radical comments, some of which crossed the border into racism and/or sexism, his popularity with many of the American people is undeniable.

This indicates the people’s desire for change and for a president that isn’t a politician bent on playing the game of politics, unlike Clinton, who is perfectly fine with being above the law and wields a silvery, misguiding tongue.

However, despite Trump’s pledge to protect the LGBTQ+ community from further terrorism and harm, he has made several statements contradicting his promise, which betrays the lack of validity of his pledge.

He mentioned appointing judges that would reverse the decision to legalize gay marriage.

When asked how that would promote gay rights and equality, he said “We’re going to look at judges… They’ve got to be conservative judges,” before adding, “I would prefer they stand against it [gay marriage].”  

Looking past this, though, Trump has shown great gusto – and guts – in his campaign so far, both of which have paid off impressively, even with his lack of political experience and a filter.

Overall, he shows himself to be a charismatic man concerned with the well-being of the people.

Whether you, as the reader, desire hard, cold experience and knowledge in the field of politics or crave a less traditional president more concerned with national matters rather than foreign, both current presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump have proven their formidability in the eyes of the American people.