The 2024 presidential election is closing in on America and many Kaiser students are unsure who is fit to be a suitable president.
This year’s presidential election has more republican candidates than democratic candidates. The republicans now have four candidates due to the recent dropout of Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, the mind behind the infamous, “Don’t Say Gay” law which he is known for.
DeSantis was recognized as one of former president Donald Trump’s biggest rivals next to Nikki Haley, the South Carolina governor.
However, now DeSantis has announced his official dropout from the republican race due to his performance in Iowa. Meanwhile, Trump still stands strong n his current reelection campaign.
The former United Nations ambassador and South Carolina governor, Nikki Haley. She is said to be Trump’s biggest GOP opponent this election season.
The republicans also have Vivek Ramasway, the author of a New-York bestseller called Woke Inc. and a successful biotech company owner.
Finally, the last candidate from the Republican Party is Asa Hutchinson, the former two-time governor of Arkansas.
Meanwhile, democrats only have three candidates running which also includes the current president Joe Biden. The second being Marianne Williamson, an author and politician who previously ran in 2020 but lost, and the third candidate being congressman, Dean Phillips.
All these candidates stir mixed feelings among Kaiser students.
Sophomore Malia Major says, “None, since I don’t agree with the majority of opinions and ideas the candidates’ have. Also, as we’ve seen from Biden and Trump, I wouldn’t vote for either because of how they handled the country in recent years.”
These mixed feelings may stem from most of the conservative views of republican candidates. For example, Trump elected many conservative judges into the U.S Supreme Court during his presidency.
As for democrats, the hesitation might come from Biden as many democrats are already unwilling to vote for Biden again. Many link it to his age as president Biden is eighty-one years old, making him the oldest president to sit in office.
However, there are other candidates other than people from the Republican and Democrat Parties. Some of the candidates are independent.
Former president John F. Kennedy’s nephew, Robert F. Kennedy started his presidential campaign. He is one of the leading voices in the anti-vaccine movement.
The other independent candidate, Jill Stein, comes from a third party called the Green Party, a party centered around environmentalism.
Independent candidates tend to be overlooked by voters and so Kaiser students were asked if they’d vote third party or independent since they disagreed with both republican and democratic candidates.
“I would only vote for a third party if I believe that they would make a better president than the republicans or democrats. I wouldn’t vote for the 2024 third party candidates though,” says Katelyn Yoo, a sophomore student.
Seeing as there are only two independent candidates, not many people are inclined to vote for either.
The most notable candidates so far are Trump and Biden, however, students are hesitant about letting either one back in office.
Akio Kimoto, a sophomore says, “I believe that both candidates are unfit for office due to concerns of Joe Biden’s health and also the ever growing tensions of America with North Korea whenever Trump was in office.”
During Trump’s presidency, he held meetings with North Korea. This resulted in the famous quote Trump commented saying that further North Korean threats will be met with, “fire, fury and the frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before.”
This sparked a lot of tension as people worried America would enter a war with North Korea. So it makes sense as to why Trump shouldn’t be in office.
Yoo comments, “I feel like until either of them get their second run, they’re going to keep running against each other. I don’t want either of them in office again as Trump had many scandals and was impeached twice while Biden is very concerned in other nations problems but not his own. His age also is kind of an issue because I feel like it clouds his judgements.”
Many people criticize Biden for his support of Israel and its occupation of the Gaza strip which is a part of Palestine.
Biden has been actively sending funds to places like Ukraine and Israel, however, the government is going into debt which has almost reached $34 trillion dollars.
America is starting to tip in favor of republicans as seen with the presidential elections and how many republican candidates there are in comparison with democrats.
This can also be seen with many new conservative laws being passed such as the overturning of Roe v. Wade which Trump helped overturn when he nominated three conservative judges into the Supreme Court.
The future of America hangs in the balance during the upcoming presidential election.
