Presidential Election 2016: What Poland Has to Say


As November 8th approaches no one can escape talk of the election even across the Atlantic Ocean. Every second post on any social media is most likely a joke about Trump or Hillary, an anti-Trump or anti-Hillary post, or a post that yells at you to vote. Teachers make references to the election as a part of lessons and students argue over polls and statistics in class and at lunch. “Who will win?” Everyone ponders anxiously.
In spirit of this memorable election, I decided to send out a poll for students to choose which candidate they would vote for if they had the chance. The poll ended with 166 votes and provided Hillary Clinton the win of 79.5% or 132 of the votes and Donald Trump losing with a mere 20.5% or 34 of the votes.
To acquire even more information, I sent out a facebook message to the entirety of ASW’s high school hoping for some responses on students’ individual reasonings for choosing the candidate they chose as well as what they predict the outcome of this presidency will be. In a pleasant surprise, I received several very thoughtful responses.
The first came from Zacharie, a sophomore, who stated, “I will fully support Hillary Clinton this election. I believe she is by far the most qualified of the two candidates. She has been a first lady, a senator and a secretary of state and has proven that she cares about the nation and its well being… On the other hand, we have an inexperienced businessman with no experience in politics or foreign policy, who wants to close off the US from the rest of the world… I believe that this election will be won by Donald Trump as the anger of the working class in the United States and the world has reached such an incredible point that Donald Trump has become their first and only voice in a society that benefits only the top 1 percent.” To conclude his response, Zacharie adds a thought provoking comparison referring to Great Britain leaving the European Union, “I am frightened that November 8th will likely be another Brexit.”
While Mati, a senior, announced, “I feel that Trump deserves the seat in office. Hillary R. Clinton has been a public servant most of her life and has not accomplished much that is considered noteworthy. Her scandals greatly surpass her achievements. Meanwhile Trump is an outsider to the political scene. He is something new. Most people don’t like him for his strong personality, but being president isn’t about your personality it’s about your policies. Trump has decent policies. So why not give an outsider a shot? I believe Trump will win the election as his pure political strategy has been so mint and well planned that he turned from a 5% chance to win the election to a 50% chance.”
Vitalia, a sophomore, voiced, “While I don't like either of the candidates, I'd prefer Hillary Clinton to win, as she has made a bigger effort to appeal to my specific demographic. As a part of the LGBT+ community and as a female, I'm biased to be inclined to support her rather than Donald Trump. However, I do have a hard time trusting whether she'll keep her promises.”
Another senior, Sung June, spoke,  “I honestly feel like none of them ‘deserve’ office. One is a narrow minded pumpkin and the other is a corporate crook. But just looking at the ‘how screwed are we’ meter, I would have to say the U.S would be better off with Clinton. Personally,” he adds. “ I would have supported Trump, but a lot of the things he says goes against what I stand for, or what I believe in.”
And finally, Zosia, a sophomore, explained, “At this point, Hillary is the lesser of two evils. Donald is a sexist, racist man who cannot stop himself from lying to everyone all the time. And I don't think anyone wants a country that's run by lies and constantly putting people down. He's also teaching the younger generations that it's normal to abuse females and treat them like property but this is obviously not normal. In the recent decade, women have been trying very hard to shine light on how wrong Donald’s view of women and girls is. It really makes me mad. I've noticed that the excuse Trump supporters give for supporting him is that Hillary is a liar and cannot be trusted. And at that point I always ask myself in my head, ‘have you seen or heard your candidate?’” she laughs. “Although I won't deny that she also lies and clearly her email scandal is something that should slightly disturb those voting for her, we need to realize that she's not the only presidential candidate that has done something bad… The fact that a failed businessman has made it so far into this election shocks me.”
These five quotes provide insight on the conflicting views that hover over American society and ultimately prove just how complicated this election has become. It seems that it is no longer just a matter of individual facts and opinions on foreign policies and health care plans, but rather an issue of morals. These responses also supply evidence that this election has become a prominent issue on a global scale as all responses included in this article were from students not of American descent, but rather French, Polish, Ukrainian and Korean descents.
Now the only question remaining is: Will the United States’ poll results mimic ASW’s poll results? Until tomorrow, we can only hold our breath either with hope that it will or it won’t.
A special thanks to ASW’s high school principal Mr. Sheehan for helping me get statistics and to all the students who participated in the poll and supplied responses.

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