2016 has been an interesting year because of the presidential race, and how all of the candidates don’t bring much to the table. Sure, we can get hooked on the rush we feel from the candidates making the promises they usually make before they enter the White House, but are they simply that… promises?

They can say all they want, but once they get into office, it’s a slow moving process. Look at President Obama in his second term. A democratic president, and a congress loaded with Republicans. Situations like this present the certain question all politicians must face in the end… Am I doing what I set out to do?

Honestly, it’s so tedious; every four years, people in politics decide to get on their high horses and see what they can do to not only change the country, but also change the world. People don’t even pay attention to the politics except for when something controversial happens.

In a race like this, though, every candidate is controversial.

Bernie Sanders is trying to approve free everything, but that’s never going to happen due to America’s looming 20 Trillion dollars in debt.

Hillary Clinton lies like her husband, because in the end everyone knew that he did have sex with “That Woman;” just ask someone why the Clinton’s don’t like to go white water rafting.

Then there are the Republicans.

Donald Trump is making a mockery of America by giving idiotic statements, but he has some smarts. At a rally a few weeks ago, he made the promise of opening up the libel laws. The crowd ate it up and went wild.

But for a moment, let me tell you what a libel law really is.

In journalism, when you publish something about someone that isn’t true, and defames his or her character, the journalist can be sued for libel. Libel laws are just to keep journalists in line when they lie about someone in a published news outlet, but I digress.

None of the candidates on the ballot are actually good at the job. Could everyone be getting screwed on this election or did we screw ourselves? If Trump keeps winning, then we will know the answer to that for sure.

During the recent election for New York, only 200 people voted at the polling location designated for Buffalo State College. How are there over 10,000 students admitted, but there were only a little over 200 people to vote. How is this possible?

People don’t care enough to vote because they don’t understand certain parts of politics. In some interviews, it’s rare that the candidates answer the question presented to them, people aren’t sure. Understanding politics and what politicians stand for allows people to retain information about what candidates they should vote for; this in itself presents a series of questions though.

Are any of the candidates really able to rule this country? In this game of who can lead the country, are the wrong people’s names on the ballot? I couldn’t help but wonder.

Of all the presidential candidates, who could be the next president of the United States?

I’d like to clarify something about Trump and the disqualification he faced over the statement about keeping Muslims out of the country. He would have been impeached if he was the president, but you can’t disqualify someone from just running for president.

Trump makes many outrageous statements, but that’s all he’s making; outrageous statements. Usually he doesn’t talk about his plan for basically anything in this country. Although there are those moments where he does actually talk about politics.

For starters, he wants Mexico to build a wall and have them use a payment plan based on Section 326 of the Patriot Act. He has a seven-point plan to change the state of healthcare starting off with Obamacare being completely repealed, he is looking to crack down on the second amendment laws, but isn’t trying to completely take away people’s guns. He uses an example of a program implemented in West Virginia called Project Exile.

“Several years ago there was a tremendous program in Richmond, Virginia called Project Exile,” said Trump’s campaign. “It said that if a violent felon uses a gun to commit a crime, you will be prosecuted in federal court and go to prison for five years – no parole or early release. Obama’s former Attorney General, Eric Holder, called that a ‘cookie cutter’ program. That’s ridiculous. I call that program a success. Murders committed with guns in Richmond decreased by over 60 percent when Project Exile was in place – in the first two years of the program alone, 350 armed felons were taken off the street.”

Ted Cruz is standing on shaky ground because he’s been behind Trump in many of the primaries. He is behind by 431 delegates, and may not get the party nomination if he doesn’t get more delegates. Recently, he has picked someone to be his vice president, former CEO of Hewlett Packard (HP) Carly Fiorina.

Cruz wants to eliminate plenty of agencies, bureaus, commissions and programs; 25 to be exact… just to start with, he wants the second amendment to be upheld the way it always has been, he wants to restore the constitution, which means he wants to make sure that the constitution is upheld.

Only one question remains about Ted Cruz; is he or isn’t he the Zodiac Killer?

Last but not least on the republican side is John Kasich with 153 delegates. He is in last place, but isn’t giving up. Many consider him the most liberal of all of the Republicans, but it doesn’t seem that way.

His thoughts on gun control are that Obama is hostile towards Congress and that Obama is trying to undermine the Second Amendment. For starters, Obama had to be hostile with Congress because Republicans controlled it. The government reached a standstill.

“John Kasich opposes President Obama’s gun control executive orders,” claims Kasich’s campaign. “The Second Amendment is too important and Obama’s hostility to it is too well known for him to be allowed to go around Congress and undermine the Second Amendment. His efforts to expand the federal government’s interference with Americans’ Right to Keep and Bear Arms are wrong and the governor opposes them.”

Kasich, like many candidates, also wants to repeal Obamacare. He believes “Obamacare must be repealed and replaced with efforts that instead improve access by actually lowering health care costs without interfering with Americans’ personal health care decisions or imposing punishing burdens on job creators.”

“Access to affordable health insurance is an important priority but Obamacare has failed to achieve this because it has driven up the cost of health insurance approximately 80 percent in Ohio’s individual and small group market and raised taxes to help subsidize health insurance coverage for families making up to $94,000 annually. Too often Obamacare mistakes treating symptoms for solving problems which only worsens the overall, long-term problem.”

Sure he may be last in the race, but there is still very slight chance that he could win the race, but he still has to get past the Democrats.

Clinton is ahead in the primaries, and it looks as though she could win the Democratic Party nomination. Sanders is good, but doesn’t have the right ideas to lead the country by.

Clinton and Sanders represent the standard politicians; people who can’t make up their mind on the issue because they keep switching their opinions on many issues. For instance, Sanders was opposed to gun control laws and Clinton was opposed to LGBTQ laws.

On the issue of college tuition, Clinton isn’t trying to make it free, but is trying for a measure that will make college affordable so people won’t be in debt for years afterwards.

Her tax plan includes great things for the middle class. As a part of her plan to restore the economy she wants to “give working families a raise, and tax relief that helps them manage rising costs, to create good-paying jobs and get pay rising by investing in infrastructure, clean energy, and scientific and medical research to strengthen our economy and growth, and to close corporate tax loopholes and make the most fortunate pay their fair share.”

Finally, there is Sanders. People are starting to “Feel the Bern”, but it may not be the flames needed to bring America back from the economic recession, and many social injustices. He wants to make sure that the middle class get their fair share.

“The reality is that since the mid-1980s there has been an enormous transfer of wealth from the middle class and the poor to the wealthiest people in this country. That is the Robin Hood principle in reverse. That is unacceptable and that has got to change.”

On immigration, he wants to “dismantle inhumane deportation programs and detention centers, pave the way for a swift and fair legislative roadmap to citizenship for the eleven million undocumented immigrants, ensure our border remains secure while respecting local communities, regulate the future flow of immigrants by modernizing the visa system and rewriting bad trade agreements, enhance access to justice and reverse the criminalization of immigrants, and to establish parameters for independent oversight of key U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agencies.”

“We are a nation of immigrants. I am the son of an immigrant myself,” said Sanders. “Their story, my story, our story is a story of America: hard-working families coming to the United States to create a brighter future for their children. The story of immigrants is the story of America, a story rooted in family and fueled by hope. It continues today in families all across the United States.”

The presidential race isn’t over yet because we are still in the primaries of the race. It’s anyone’s race at this point, but the likeliest candidates to get the party nomination is Trump for the Republicans and Clinton for the Democrats. Just please do your part and vote.

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