OPINION: Politics don’t always run along party lines

Whenever I see Hillary Clinton’s mugshot in the news, all I can think of is, “Seriously, that was the best the Dems could come up with?”

And yet, whenever somebody says that they do not like Trump, they are immediately labelled as a Hillary supporter.

I can list any number of reasons why I hate both. They were both older than the majority of voters, both elitist and neither had any idea what it was like to work. Hillary was giving speeches to snowplow drivers; Trump was giving speeches to coal miners. You think Hillary has ever been behind the wheel of a truck? You think Trump has ever swung a pickaxe?

It has been over a year since the election, and both the media and the president are still focused on Clinton. It’s time to move on from Crooked Hillary.

With all the commentators on the internet, on television and in our school, I think comedian Bill Burr said it best about the two:

“You’ve either got a racist dope, or, like, the devil,” Burr said in his January 2017 Netflix special “Walk Your Way Out.” “How did we end up with these two? This is like the first week of ‘American Idol’… ‘Really, this is what I’ve got?’”

I distinctly remember criticizing Trump in eighth grade U.S. History, talking about the irony of how he “stood” for middle-class workers, while all the workers who built his casinos got completely hosed.  

“Looks like we got a Hillary supporter over here,” one kid said.

This is the reason many of us supported Bernie Sanders. Bernie supported all the things that young people want; cheaper college, more jobs and legal marijuana.

“I felt he was the only one who was fighting for the people, regardless of race, religion, gender, sexuality or income,” junior Genevieve Gustafson said. “He was fighting for more than just rich white men.”

Yet, Democrats chose a rich white woman?

That’s why I hate the preconceived notion that you have to be entirely left or right. Whatever happened to the middle? Can’t we agree with both the left and the right sometimes? No, because there’s no candidate in the middle. Sure, you can bring up the Independents, but can you name a single candidate who is  Independent?

There is a solution. Don’t just stand by your party’s leader simply because they are the leader. If you didn’t like Trump, don’t automatically support Hillary. If you don’t like Hillary, don’t automatically support Trump.

Eliminate partisanism and stand up for what you believe in. Make your own decisions. That is what a true American does.