Hillary Clinton’s health and well-being were called into question following her appearance during a 9/11 memorial service. Later that day, she was on her feet and saying that she “felt great,” despite her mysterious departure earlier. Immediately the media jumped on the story, some defending her, others insisting she must have had a body double. So once again, any talk about the 2016 election will now be centered on Clinton and Donald Trump’s physical fitness and health rather than important issues, such as the economy or terrorism abroad.
For three days following Clinton’s incident, all news or talk about the the election was centered around Clinton’s health and Trump’s clean bill of health. Trump decided that in light of these events, it was time to release the results of his physical from the previous week on the Dr. Oz show on Sept. 14. While on air, he used the opportunity to reiterate his stance that Clinton should release her medical records to the public, as that was what was really important. For three days he kept building up his appearance on the show and how it was a huge deal that he was doing so, but had nothing to say on his stance on any issues such as police brutality, rising racial tensions in the United States or even our current healthcare system.
For months, the U.S. has been bombarded with stories and theories of how unscrupulous Clinton is, while on the other hand, Trump keeps promising to “Make America Great Again.” It could also be the opposite; Clinton is an experienced and capable politician while Trump lacks any real political know-how and lacks the ability to compromise. I’m always reminded of their flaws and given examples of how they are unfit for the presidency without any insight as to why each candidate is actually fit themselves. The fact that the next huge story of the week was Trump finally admitting that President Barack Obama was born in the U.S. and Clinton putting on the heat only makes me more certain of this point.
Where are the discussions on gun control or improving education so that we can compete on an international level? Don’t remind me about “the wall” or how racist the idea of a wall is; tell us how we can vet potential threats coming into the country or create more jobs so that everyone can work. Clinton seems pretty dishonest and untrustworthy and Trump has a serious lack of a filter, but we’ve been hearing about these two facts since this time last year. I want to hear Clinton speak without mentioning Trump and vice versa.
In this election, where name calling and accusations of under the table tactics is the focus of who you should vote for, we are all forgetting about what really matters: the issues. It is so long since I have heard Trump and Clinton actually tackle an issue and discuss it with their respective voters without using it as an opportunity to take a dig at the opponent. It will be interesting to see what happens when the two are put in the same room; will we have intelligent, thoughtful discussions on the issues that affect us? We still have two months before a decision must be made and hopefully each candidate will have made a better case than just proclaiming how much worse their opponent is in comparison.
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