Politics Aren't as Easy as They Seem

Modern day technology has overrun the morning newspaper and the evening newscast by supplying all of the necessary news on the at hand media source, being smart phones or computers. What this form of media does is lets people devour the information that corresponds with their beliefs, and shun the information that counters them. The problem with this is that once a person is set in their ways, it is very difficult to change their point of view. The only two things that can be done to win their opinion would be to either to appeal to them based on their ideas, or to show them why the other option is not as good as yours. This is exactly what is happening in the 2016 election between Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton.

Every day on social media we express our opinions, whether it be through liking someones picture on Instagram or reading a featured article online. In fact, I believe that our negative opinions only make our positive opinions even stronger. For example, if you are a supporter of Hillary in this current election, everything Donald Trump says will only seem like it is showing how Hillary's ideas are stronger, and vice versa.

Another struggle with modern day technology is that you can look up anything and everything that you want. No matter what you look up, there is almost always an answer online. One instance of what you might look up is whether or not something is true that you heard from one of your friends or that you saw on live TV.

How this plays into modern politics is that a candidate has to be 100% honest almost all of the time, because one massive slip up could ruin their whole campaign. In addition to that, the candidate might not even have to say anything for them to be considered unreliable and not to be trusted. In the current election of 2016 there have been quite a few examples of how the media has hurt a candidates campaign. The media is not the only thing that candidates have to be worried about when running for president, they must battle against the attacks of the opposing candidate as well. TV advertisements and radio commercials go all out when it comes to the election year. It seems that the majority of campaign ads are bashing the opponent rather than supporting their own campaign.

Despite the media trying to bash a certain candidate, on November 8, 2016, the United States will have a new president to lead the country. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton both have their baggage, but one must prevail over the other. Who will it be? It's up to you America.

Politics or just Drama?

      The presidential election of 2016 has definitely been one to remember, although this is not necessarily a good thing. From Donald Trump's ridiculous quotes to Hillary Clinton's suspicious emails the actual politics of this campaign are getting lost in all the drama. The ideas and plans for the future of America don't even seem to be relevant in most arguments. This is shown in the commercial 'Movement' by Donald Trump for the campaign. Throughout the whole ad nothing is said about what the problems of America are, but only that they will be fixed and forgotten. He also attempts to get viewers excited by just saying power words like "success", "dreaming big" and "freedom". These words do not even fit into the sentences that the male voice over is saying. At one point the male voice says "Donald Trump. Builder, business man, success." while "success" is printed in bold letters over a video of the Trump tower. I get frustrated listening to this because of these weird sentences. It also looks like this whole ad was made in twenty minutes after finding some clips of Trump hugging people and American flags blowing in the wind. Also a Trump commercial can not be completed without at least a little dig about Hillary Clinton, which is mentioned but showing an old video of Bill and Hillary Clinton while the voice says "leaving the past behind". The whole video is finished off with some motivational music playing in the background. This video proves how this campaign has gone down the toilet. The presidential campaign needs to get back to focusing on solving the current issues in America, instead of this silly madness that is occurring now.

Pathos in Politics

What is clearly shown in the presidential debates in this year's election that contrast traditional professionalism is each candidates use of pathos. Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were well known prior to this election, Clinton was the first lady and Secretary of State as Trump stared on Reality T.V and sponsors beauty pageants. Never the less, this reputation they each hold is their opponents first target. Hateful ads and slogans are thrown at each other, phrases like 'Love Trumps Hate' and 'Trump That B*tch may be completely different but both are just jabbing one another.

This is my problem with modern politics, the unnecessary insults and hatred thrown from each political party towards the other. The feud between Democrats and Republicans has gone to the extreme, people are stereotyped and reprimanded for picking the 'wrong' side. In the most recent debates between Clinton and Trump some extremely important questions were not answered. Instead, Trump brought up the email scandal and Clinton exposed Trump on being the sexist and racist person we already knew he was. There is so much destruction and hate in this world right now, and these presidential debates are meant for each candidate to share their plans to fix everything. So many citizens, especially younger people, are still undecided because it's unclear what side Trump and Clinton are taking. At this point, I could care less about what happened to those emails and the 'locker room' talk. I care about how to handle the wage gap, abortion laws, immigration, and every other form of oppression still here today. There is too much pathos in politics, and not enough logos in this election. 

Putting Hillary Clinton in Her Basket of Deplorables

In this ad for the 2016 presidential election Donald trump is trying to convince people to not vote for Hillary Clinton. He is trying to convince people of this by using pathos, ethos and logos.

In this ad it shows Hillary Clinton is giving a speech to a room of upper class Americans and during her speech she calls the middle and lower classes a basket of deplorable. In this ad Donald trump uses pathos by making the ad more personal to the viewer. He does this by saying she’s calling “you” a deplorable. This makes the viewer feel more personally offended and hurt by Hillary Clinton's words.

In this ad Donald trump tries to turn voters against Hillary Clinton by using ethos. At the end of the ad it takes Hillary Clinton's words and uses it against her by calling her “deplorable for viciously dehumanizing hard working people like you.” This tries to smear her image by showing that she would openly insult people that don’t agree with her or people who are not on her side. This also shows that she is a hypocrite because she would generally stereotype a group of people negatively, but still judge Donald trump for doing the exact same thing.

In all, this ad tries to convince people of not voting for Hillary Clinton by making her seem like she is personally offending the voter. And by shining her in a bad light by making her seem hypocritical, stereotypical and willing to offend anyone that is not on her side.

Have You Heard? Apparently Trump is a Bully

On Monday Oct. 17, Hillary Clinton released another campaign ad, America's Bully. This ad is a blast campaign against Trump that mostly uses negative ethos for its argument. This ad is special in that it also uses some comedy and culture in its argument.  The ad starts off with a dictionary definition for the work "bully" It then fades to a scene of the character Scut Farkas, the neighborhood bully from the movie A Christmas Story. The clip shows Scut bullying the main character, taunting him into crying. the ad also incorporates clips of bullies from other movies such as Mean Girls and Back To The Future. This is a comical approach to calling out Trump for his harsh, blunt, and bullying attitude in some situations. It especially appeals to those who have seen these movies, which are just old enough to capture some of the younger voters, but not too young to only appeal to people unable to vote yet. The Ethos in this ad comes directly from the clips of lines from bullies in the movies meshed with clips of similar lines from Trump. It highlights Trumps actions as that of a bully, and not someone who should be the leader of a country.

The second Half of the ad shows a little girl asking Hillary a question. She asks what Hillary is going to do about bullies in America. Hillary asks why she asks this, and it is because the girl has been bullied before for having asthma. This section is a split of positive ethos for Hillary and pathos in the form of sadness for the girl. The ethos comes from Hillary's apparent wonder and want to help this little girl with her problems, and eventually the whole country with its issues. Hillary commends the girl for being brave to ask the question as well, bringing some happiness into the pathos argument as well.

The big issue I see with this ad is that the Trump is an asshole river has long been run dry. I can't imagine anything from this argument will sway anyone who is undecided or planning to vote Trump. One of Hillary's largest appeals to many is that she isn't a bully like Trump, and that's the problem. Anyone that cares about if the president is nice or not is already voting Hillary, so I can't see this ad swaying anybody. One of Trumps largest appeals to his voters is that he is a jerk who is straight to the point, no matter if it offends people, and that is a trait of someone who can and will get things done the right way.

Overall, I see the appeal and rhetorical strategies this ad uses, and its  pretty cool video with all of the movies referenced within, but I can't see this ad moving around the polls at all. Anyone with a preference on how nice the president is has already locked in their opinions, only to be swayed by some other argument..

Third Presidential Debate (Not So) Live Blogging

The fact that Trump was able to ensure his defeat in the election with just one sentence should not surprise me at this point, yet it does. When asked if he will accept the result of the presidential election, Trump did not answer with a "yes, of course", which was surely what everyone was expecting. Instead he said to the country "I'll keep you in suspense", essentially meaning that unless he wins, (which he won't) he is almost promising us that he will not accept defeat in a respectful and dignified manner. Trump fails to realize that this response was frankly un-American. Isn't respecting the outcome of the presidential election essentially the definition of a democracy?

Third Presidential Debate (Not So) Live Blogging

Right out of the gate, Hillary highlights one of her favorite things to talk about, which is getting regular American people more involved in the government. She hits the ground running by eloquently stating the importance of letting the working class and all minorities in America have a larger say in what goes on in our country. This appeals to ethos because it makes her appear more just and trustworthy.

Trump Doesn't Need a Recount, Unless he Loses

One of Donald Trump's most recent claim has been that he will wholly accept the results of the upcoming election. There is one catch though, he will only accept the results if he wins.

During the most recent debate this Wednesday night, Trump not only undermined the entirety and accountability of our nation's election system, but he also clearly exposed his arbitrary and hypocritical thinking. To justify himself, Trump pointed to the election of 2000 between Al Gore and George W. Bush. During this election, Al Gore had demanded recounts from many counties, and ultimately caused Florida to rescind its vote to Bush. Bush eventually sued Gore from continuing the recounts in other places and eventually won in a Supreme Court ruling causing Gore to concede.

Now, there are many holes in Trumps argument. Al Gore had a real reason to call for a recount in Florida. The votes in Florida were so extremely tight that Gore had no choice. Also, throughout the election of 2000, Gore and Bush were completely confident in the legitimacy of the electoral college and the voting process. In no way did they question it like Trump. If Trump were to demand a recount, it would be on the basis of his own anger and hissy fits. Why are the American people allowing Trump, a possible leader of our country, to throw temper tantrums whenever he does not get what he wants?

To look on the bright side, if America does end up having to recount the votes, at least Trump will have lost in the first place.

Live Blog. Debate 3.

It's funny how Hillary makes Trump look bad when calling him out by using a "scare tactic," when talking about abortion, but she turns right around and does the same thing when talking about border control. Doesn't seem too fair, even sounds a little hypocritical.

Live Blog. Debate 3.

It really shows how much more civil Hillary is than Trump, she only ever interrupts when it comes to something she is extremely passionate for example pro choice. You can tell the change in her tone when she starts talking, really showing true, genuine, raw emotion. I think this helps her as a candidate, to be seen as someone who people can relate to.

Live Blog #3

I think their closing statement were perfect reflections of the way they debate. Hillary spoke well about wanting to improve America and make it fair and create jobs and a better education. Overall the whole closing statement flows from one word to the next. She presented it with a strong tone and ends on a good note. While Trump first starts off with insulting Hillary (which isn't all bad for arguments but has no place in a closing statement) to then talking about military and our treatment of immigrants and our police men with no justice and this and that. It jumps all over the place, he's on the next topic before you even got to comprehend the first one. It was almost like he was just cramming as many issues into one minute. Then he ends it with yet again insulting our current president. It seems pretty clear who is winning the election this year...

Live Blog #2

When the question about how to create more jobs Hillary explains how she wants to make education system better from preschool to college to prepare young people for the jobs ahead of them. Also for people who make under $125,000 will not have to pay for college to try to make their life debt free. She is very forward and to the point with all of her arguments which makes them seem even better. Then she talks about Donald Trumps plan to make tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations adding to our debt and costing is jobs. He responds he only speaks of how Hillary's plan would increase taxes and then he switches to talking about Germany, Japan and  other countries having to "pay up". He constantly states random facts to change the subject and at one point Hillary almost starts laughing because listening to his nonsense is laughable because of how ridiculous it is. Its hard to choose a candidate when they don't even make arguments.

Live Blog #1

Trump constantly explains how things are going to get better but never explains how to do so. Trump was asked about creating more jobs. He talked about how the gdb will rise from 1% to 4% or even 5 or 6%, but then he rambles off about creating new companies (which he still does not explain how to do this). He also is constantly insulting our current president. First by talking about the horrible leadership of today, to just ranting about needing to repeal and replace Obama care and how much of an issue it would be if we didn't. He has obviously come a long way from the first debate, but he is still interrupting and criticizing Hillary's comments instead of waiting. At one point while she was talking about an issue Trump just leans into the mic and says "your husband disagrees with you", which shows his true immature side he has been trying so hard to hold back.