MORE OF THE SAME

Catherine Rampell, an opinion columnist at the Washington Post makes an excellent argument about the top three GOP candidates stance on domestic issues in the presidential campaign. She states that no matter how extreme or fringe Donald Trump's position on key issues such as immigration, foreign affair and healthcare appear to be, other candidates such as Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are not that different.

When it comes to healthcare, all three want to get rid of Obamacare while not always stating specifically what they would replace it with. Trump has stated that he wants to increase competition between insurance companies by getting rid of state lines. Ted Cruz also has proposed similar legislation.

On taxes, Donald Trump has proposed cuts that would end up increasing the deficit by trillions of dollars and are highly regressive. But when you take a deeper look, it appears that Cruz and Rubio's tax plans would also have the same phenomena. All three of the candidates tax plans would disparately hurt poor and the middle-class while giving huge tax cuts for wealthy Americans and corporations.

Immigration wise, Trump and Cruz want to deport 11 million and when it comes to building a wall, all three frontrunners also seem to be on the same page (Trump is the only candidate who has stated that he would make Mexico pay for the wall). All three also would not accept Syrian refugees.

I agree with the writer here. I myself have been following this election cycle closely and have noticed the trend. No matter how extreme Trump's policies appear to be, Cruz and Rubio seem to be desperate to follow and out maneuver each other. It seems like there is an unspoken game the candidates are playing to see who can appear the most right wing.

WHY ARE AMERICANS SO ANGRY?

The 2016 election season has been a very unpredictable episode in American History. From the rise of political outsiders like Donald Trump on the right and a self described democratic socialist on the left, Americans have sent a crystal and clear message. They are angry at the political establishment.

The BBC News has an excellent article about our current political climate. Written by Vanessa Barford, it goes into depth about what may be fueling the anger. Barford goes into greater and specific details about issues such as the economy, immigration, the gridlock in Washington and America's standing in the world. 


She argues that economically, Americans are feeling a tight squeeze in their wallets. Although the unemployment rate may be much lower than the great recession of 2008, wages have stagnated and the quality of jobs are not that great. Household incomes have, generally speaking, been stagnant for 15 years. In 2014, the median household income was 53,657, compared with 57,357 in 2007 and 57,843 in 1999 (adjusted for inflation) 

Because of this reality, people on the left are blaming billionaires, banks and Wall Street and on the right the villains are immigrants and other countries like China and Mexico taking advantage of the United States.

I think this is a great article because whatever your political ideology is, it argues that the root cause of the anger is the same. Our political system is doing a poor job at representing the people and elected officials are more interested in pleasing donors and special interests. Therefore, Americans are more interested in candidates who say will fix the system and get things done.