Here’s my issue with this election cycle. It isn’t that Clinton seems to be surpassing Bernie in the amount of delegates she has won, or that Donald Trump now seems to be the leading contender for the Republican nomination. What truly troubles me is that politicians in this country have finally figured out the secret to American public opinion — as long as we are entertained, it doesn’t matter what things you say, people you belittle or races you disparage.
It doesn’t matter. If you’re belligerently racist (and trust me, there are candidates who are), people will say, “Well, at least he’s interesting! Those other candidates are so boring.”
Guess what, people: Politics aren’t supposed to be interesting because of their entertainment factor. They’re supposed to be interesting because they concern the passing of laws that affect millions of people here in our own country — as well as untold millions abroad.
No, there aren’t as many hot women, witty quips or dramatic scandals. But nowhere else will you see decisions made about environmental change, clean water and public education. If we could unplug from our obsession with being entertained for just a moment, we would be shocked with the horrific state to which our political process has fallen.
In some ways, I don’t resent Donald Trump. Though he has made himself the poster child for this sham of an election, he has — unwittingly, perhaps — exposed the very problem that I’m talking about.
A businessman — but most importantly an entertainer — with no political experience and no inkling about the vastly diverse and complicated nation he is trying to win over, has garnered significant support among Americans. This only proves my point that we have become so married to entertainment that we have sacrificed the rationality necessary to truly gain the benefits of democracy.
And this doesn’t even delve into the fact that there are hundreds of thousands of Americans who aren’t even going to vote. There are even students at Elon who are going to shirk their single most important responsibility as citizens. It is in these moments that I am both happy and morose to be someone passionate about history — I can see the times where Americans used the power of their vote to win great victories against opponents thought too great to challenge.
But at the same time I mourn the sacrifice that thousands of Americans — and millions more around the world — have made in defense of democracy when we here, in its supposed birthplace, have turned it into a glamorized reality show.