The American election, mercifully, is drawing to a close. Wednesday’s debate, again, did more than ever to convince me that Hillary Clinton is the lesser of two evils.
I reached out to three friends from Vernon living and working in the U.S. for their take on the election.
Lee King lives in West Linn, Ore., just outside of Portland. King has been in the U.S. since 1991 and is eligible to vote.
“I’m unaffiliated, and so I don’t automatically lean toward one party or the other and typically, I’m more focused on the individual character of the candidates,” said King. “As such, this is a very difficult election for me, and really I believe, for the majority of people regardless of their historical party affiliation. In my opinion, the candidates are both morally corrupt, simply in different areas, and so my vote (and again, probably the majority of votes in the election) will probably be more about voting against a candidate than for a candidate.”
Lance Arnt lives in Apple Valley, Calif., in the Mojave Desert, 180 miles from Las Vegas, where he teaches high school. Arnt has thrown his support behind Clinton.
“All of your readers are aware how horrible Mr. Trump is,” said Arnt. “I hope that HRC will continue the policies of President Obama, for his administration has been very successful. I also hope that she will add some of the progressive policies advocated by Bernie Sanders and his followers. If there were a good, moderate Republican candidate for president, I might have voted for that person, but moderate Republicans are lying low right now.”
Dana Spankie has been in Pasadena, Calif. for 12 years but is not eligible to vote. If she could, she would cast a ballot for Clinton, but would have liked to have voted for Bernie Sanders.
“I think she is by far the most qualified,” said Spankie. “ I also believe she’s been given a hatchet job and has been set a WAY higher bar than that racist Trump. He has no business even cleaning a litter box. President? HELL TO THE NO!”
Asked their reactions to the political climate, King said: “We should not be surprised by the situation that we find ourselves in now, because our choice of candidates for the presidency of the United States is a direct and accurate representation of the moral and cultural decline of the country. I honestly believe that Trump never intended to seriously run for the nomination...”
Said Arnt: “It seems that there was a lot of racism and other kinds of hatred that were just below the surface, and Mr. Trump’s actions and comments seem to have given those people a feeling that they can be out in the open. What bothers me most is that too many people on the Republican side are mean-spirited, uncooperative, and put party politics ahead of the nation as a whole.”
The situation has left Spankie disgusted.
“When did it become OK to be a flaming racist? Homophobe? Xenophobe? Etc... How did this country get so far down the toilet?”
The election is Nov. 8.