By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher | Over and over in recent days, people are telling me: “I just don’t have a candidate for president. I don’t like either party’s nominees. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I might not vote.”
These are people who have before most always participated in government by voting. They may have been silent, and they are thinking people. But they feel nothing for either candidate, and are perplexed.
Many are dissatisfied with both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Polls show that these two candidates have the highest ever unfavorable ratings in any presidential election.
We’ve heard these comments come from many, from Baltimore, from North Georgia, from South Georgia, from North Carolina and in local conversations.
These people are greatly in the minority, we feel, though they do make up a significant part of the electorate. However, they probably do not make up enough people to throw the election either way because of their lack of participation in the process. They are merely sidelined by the campaign so far. They are saddened and perplexed as to what to do.
You feel for these people. They really want to participate in democracy, and vote their choice for president. Yet they see characteristics in both candidates that make them wonder what to do in the presidential election. Some people feel loyalty to a particular party, but in reality, they don’t have to vote for that party.
There are other choices for president. They could decide to vote for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party or Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party, or even others. But in reality, they know that these candidates from Third Parties and non-tested parties actually have little chance of winning.
Some of these voters upset with the major candidates may simply sit out the election.
We suspect that all this indecision plays better into the hands of Hillary Clinton. At least people know that her position will be more balanced than Donald Trump. She has not rankled the campaign by spouting off first one position, then another, then changing again. And she has not been disrespectful of several segments of society, as Mr. Trump has—now even of babies! It would appear that Mrs. Clinton would have the edge so far in the campaign—at least in propriety.
Then you recognize that many people in these United States feel simply left out, feel unwanted, feel pleased to see someone like Donald Trump speak to them with what they consider a loud and clear message: Trump, they feel, will shake up things. That’s what they want, for these dissatisfied people want not just a little change, but big change. So they put up with the outrages that most people feel when Trump opens his mouth, and are ready for him to show the world another way.
You wonder if there could be coming in the next 95 days some major turning point, some element from one campaign or the other, that could turn these usual voters into people who would be satisfied enough with one candidate to cast their vote. No doubt both camps are working on trying to figure out something like this.
Meanwhile, these unsatisfied people still sit and stew, wondering which way this country is going, and wondering if they will ever again be pleased with the choices for president.
Wouldn’t it be a grand day, perhaps some day in the future, when most of us would be happy with both major parties having presidential candidates who most of us would be content with, whichever one won?
We can wish, can’t we?
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