Reporting from Capitol Hill

8.5.16

“Dump Trump, that’s all I’ll say,” Phyllis Thomas, 50, from St. Louis, said with a chuckle. “This election right here is an interesting one.”

    Indeed, over a year of aggressive campaigning has proved beyond a doubt that this election is like no other. The Daily Show, a political satire on Comedy Central, has been referring to it as “Democalypse 2016”. This seems to grow more and more apt as both frontrunners continue to incite drama, whether in the form of inflammatory comments towards a Gold Star family or an email leak that revealed the Democratic Party was never really “feeling the Bern.”

   We seem to have slipped into a bizarre, uncertain universe in the last few weeks. The tensions running through the nation culminated in party conventions which served as each other’s antithesis. Trump used the RNC as a continuation of his narrative of fear, once again presenting himself as the sole solution to a country he characterizes as drowning in the “death, destruction, and weakness,” of the Obama administration.

    Meanwhile, Clinton seized on traditionally conservative themes of patriotism, military strength, and faith. She told a story of optimism to follow the Republicans’ gloom-and-doom speeches. “Let’s look to the future with courage and confidence,” she urged. “And when we do, America will be greater than ever.”

    Her shiny rhetoric reinforced her slogan: “stronger together,” and her endorsements- especially glowing praise from the Obamas and her husband- bolstered this idea of unity, hope, and continued progress. However, not all Democrats were so easily caught up in the image Clinton attempted to project through the convention. Thomas seemed to be more against Trump than for Clinton. “I’m voting for the lesser of two evils, and that’s her,” she said.

    She seemed very clear on this point, but didn’t want to elaborate on why Trump was the poorer choice in fear that she wouldn’t be able to censor herself.

   The effect of the race has forced some voters, onlookers, and media members to re-examine all their assumptions and revisit their allegiances. Such a polarizing election might seem to leave no room for people to be indecisive, yet many seem stuck in that very space. Thomas has noticed this too.

   “I’m hearing people say they’re not going to vote because they don’t like either candidate,” she said. “That’s scary! I feel like it’s your right to vote, and you should exercise it.”

   George Baugh, 35, a Republican from Leavenworth, KS agrees. He said it’s important for voters identify their views and figure out which candidates they align with best.

   “The hard part to that in this election is that there’s a lot of contradiction between what’s been said in the past and what’s being said now, so that’s what has people confused,” he said. “That’s made it much more difficult to see where I’m going to go. I’m still riding the line, which is something I never thought I’d say with Hillary on the ballot.”

   Baugh’s inner battle was also reflected in the sentiments of Mary Bricker, a 55-year-old pediatrician from South Jersey. “I’m a Republican, and I really do not like Trump. I do like some of the things he says, but he’s crazy. I just worry about him not having everybody’s interest at heart.”

   In any other election, such concern might lead one to cross party lines, but Clinton’s email and Benghazi scandals are, to Bricker, proof that she is unfit for the presidency. “I have to vote, but there’s no good choices. So I’m probably going to vote Republican,” she said. “Reluctantly.”