English

Elephant or Donkeys?

Following the US Presidential elections these days, is pretty interesting. For the first time in American History, an African American and a Female Senator are running for Presidency. People say that the outlooks could not be better. Astonishingly, the big battle right now is being fought between two Democrats! It seems like the Republicans are pretty much pushed back, – but you never know.
I was interested, in how my American peers would think about this race. With NYU located in the most international city, NYC that is, and being not only America’s largest Private University, but also Dream School within the US, one assumes, that there is a high diversity of opinions.

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Asking over 100 students out of different fields of studies, female and male, between the ages 18 to 30 years, the clear majority supports the Democrats in these elections. 55 % favour Obama,  40 % Clinton and 5 % McCain.  Although McCain seems to be a more liberal Republican, the students I asked, are clearly fed up with his party. Thinking about the start of the war(s) under a Republican leadership and the slight side effect of long-term indebtedness for an extremely long time, makes this resentment plausible. I wanted to know, why some students favour a specific democratic candidate. Here are some comparisons:Clinton vs. ObamaA lot of the students I asked about the elections, were truly informed and had some great argumentation why they favour Hillary or Obama. People were convinced that Obama brings hope, is the most honest and will stick to his goals and, that Clinton is realistic, has a great concept and a lot of experience. The dislikes from people who liked Clinton and Obama, were surprisingly pretty much the same: Obama has excellent ideas, but should speak more specifically about issues and policies. A big turn off is also his opinion on gay and lesbian marriage, and his pro life and not pro choice attitude. What students criticized about Clinton, is her negativeness, reservedness, emotionless, aggressiveness, her disability to motivate the voters more, and also,  that she is Bill’s wife. Some don’t like her laugh, that’s where I felt a bit confused though. Some students, were not some much informed about the candidate’s ideas. goals, or campaign at all. These showed their support for a candidate, because she was just related to somebody (Bill) or he reminds of Martin L. King. Getting the answer: “McCain, has the Presidential LOOKS. ” was something I could not really relate to.

Students said about McCain, that he flip flops to much on issues, is too conservative, and that he would “bomb the Iran as well”. A lot of newspapers and magazines stated about McCain, that he is as strong and even more stubborn than Clinton is. Also, that if Obama would take the lead for the Democrats, his argumentations would be to weak in order to cope with McCains’. Some students said, that McCain will end up as the President because of his wartime experience, and that a lot of people in this country are still racist deep down, and that this will affect who they vote for. In general one can say, that a lot of students informed themselves more about one specific party, because one issue turned them away from the opposite party, and this clearly was away from the Republicans. I am glad that the elections are going that well and that the Democrats are fighting so hard, also if that is against each other right now. My suggestion would be, to try something totally new: Two Presidents a female and male! Let’s see who would truly stick to her and his goals then.

(text: Johanna Zapf)

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