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The Presidential Election and the Negativity that Follows

Anyone who has turned on the news or logged onto any form of social media within the past few months is bound to have seen something involving the 2016 Presidential Election. Along with the election comes an unimaginable amount of negativity, and this isn’t referencing particular actions of the candidates. Though some of the quotes and actions from Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton aren’t exactly admirable, various actions committed by their supporters are downright wrong.
For example, on September 30th Hillary Clinton’s Twitter page tweeted a thread of connected tweets replying to Donald Trump’s inappropriate tweet regarding former Miss Universe, Alicia Machado. Hillary’s tweets went on to say how Trump is a dangerous choice for president and even brought up his views on gender equality and equal pay. A Twitter user responded to the thread with a gif of a woman clapping and she wrote the words, “Going to read this thread every morning when I wake up.” Due to one seemingly harmless tweet, this woman who only showed her agreement to what had been tweeted by Hillary’s account was cyber attacked by Trump supporters. These people bombarded her with tweets, videos, and images that they believed showed how ‘wrong’ this woman was for agreeing with Hillary. In this woman’s tweet she did not personally attack Trump or anyone else, yet people thought it was still okay to hide behind their computer screens and bully her.

This isn’t to say that Hillary supporters are innocent either. On the Instagrams of Trump’s children, there are always comments on their photos about how horrible Trump is and how his kids should be ashamed for being his children. These comments are typically deleted quickly, most likely by Trump’s team, but they are still posted nonetheless. Why would someone think it is alright for them to attack a political candidate’s children? They don’t have an affect on their parents political views, and even if they are showing support for their parents, that doesn’t mean they deserve to be attacked for it.

The worst part about these attacks is that some people, regardless of the candidate they support, use freedom of speech as their excuse for saying or doing nasty things. Freedom of speech is the First Amendment in the United States Constitution, as most people know. Part of the First Amendment reads as follows:

“The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, to write, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable. The people shall not be restrained from peaceably assembling and consulting for their common good; nor from applying to the Legislature by petitions, or remonstrances, for redress of their grievances.”

Freedom of speech is one’s own opinion. Someone speaking their mind, kindly debating, and making general statements about their beliefs is great and even encouraged, but the moment a person harshly targets someone for being involved with or supporting something that they do not is when that person should no longer be taken seriously. As citizens of the United States of America, people have the right to have their voice heard, but no where in the First Amendment does it say that people have the right to force their views upon someone else. People are allowed to support whomever they want and freely express their opinions, but they should not force their opinions on others or bully anyone who thinks differently than them.

The negativity connected with this election is disappointing. The fact that people feel the need to turn on others solely because they are involved with something or tweet something that they don’t agree with is ridiculous. Some supporters of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are taking this way too far; they should be focused on promoting the political candidate they favor rather than trying to tear the other side down. Hopefully more people realize there are peaceful ways to support a certain candidate. There is already so much tension surrounding this election, and adding petty and unnecessary fights won’t help the country decide its next political leader.

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