Republican candidates lack confident voice, leaving Democrats to shine

By TESS OSMER

At the edge of our seats, we sit in our liberal arts classes as our professors hammer the importance of critical thought and discussion. We constantly hear of our peer’s admiration for Bernie Sanders, who, in my opinion is just a real-life Carl Frederickson, the old man from Disney’s “Up,” and their absolute disgust of Donald Trump, a billionaire that has nothing to lose, making it his mission to oust the Republican Party for being outdated and having an ignorant mentality.

You might as well be able to smell the intensity of the anxiety that surrounds the coming 2016 presidential campaigns as the question, “Who will nab the nomination?” rumbles through the nation. Recently reported by the New York Times, Republican candidate Ben Carson has achieved a lead in the race for the Republican nomination. While, after her successful strength throughout the Benghazi hearing last Thursday, Democratic nominee, Hilary Clinton, climbed to the top alongside him.

The Democrats have a strong set of candidates, to be sure, and I am highly anticipating the outcome of that race. Media outlets, while some argue are only supporting Clinton, have been doing their best to keep up with the strong possibility of Sanders being the all-adorned, championed underdog.

But what about the Republicans? Where is their strong, resolute candidate? Carson provides nothing but surface value, holding the strongest representation of how diverse the United Sates is today in his physical appearance and his practice as a Seventh Day Adventist. Meanwhile, Trump continues to word-vomit offensive and elementary-level arguments on immigration and nuclear arms deals.

As much as I’d like to be encouraged by Carson’s campaign, he loses my, and many other’s interest when he says things such as, “A Muslim could never be president of the United States,” as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

While similarly, Donald Trump takes no issue seriously and loudly spouts outrageous statements such as, “I will build a great wall — and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me —and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words,” in his response to how he would change immigration policy in the United States, as reported by Fox News.

Republicans must shed their outdated anti-immigration skin and birth anew. With the Syrian refugee crisis mounting everyday, immigration reform becomes an even more daunting and highly important topic of discussion. Both Carson and Trump’s responses to the crisis are worrying and I doubt their competence in such an area of political expertise.

Not to mention the fact that there is just not as many extremist right-wingers, if at all, in the younger generations of the United States. As shown in a recent article by the Pew Research Center, on April 7, 2015, the demographics are changing as the Millennial generation grows older.

In fact, their research showed that Millennials remain the most Democratic age cohort as 51% of Millennials ages 18-34 identify as Democrats or lean Democratic, compared with 35% who identify as Republican or lean Republican. This is mostly marked by President Obama’s race in 2008, when Millennials leaned Democratic by a much wider margin.

Similarly, as the Millennials’ strong support for Bernie Sanders grows, the Republican Party lets out exacerbated sighs. Now, not only is their party support dying out, their Congress majority is crumbling before our eyes.

While the American public is left with Carson and Trump who provide little confidence for voters, the Republic Party is trying to deal with their Speaker of the House, John Boehner’s departure. The 2016 election year may be a monumental redefinition of the United States and its governmental structure as the possibility of Sanders winning the nomination grows and the extreme, disconnected Republican Party candidates struggle to find a voice that actually appeals to a wider range of Americans.