Erin Antoch | Staff Writer

The presidential electoral process is at the heart of America’s political system. For over two centuries, the United States Government has provided its people with the unique opportunity to drastically change the direction of the government—an opportunity that citizens do not take lightly. Truly, no other country invests as much time, energy or money into electing its next executive-in-chief.

The history of the electoral process has certainly had its share of bumps and bruises: extramarital affairs, pardoning scandals, the infamous Watergate—but none so much as this 2016 election, which seems to be an unending production of scandals, making this season arguably the strangest to date.

The oddities materialized in the Republican Party from the very beginning. A record 13 candidates were in the running for the Republican presidential nominee at the beginning of the primaries. Between February and May, all would withdraw except for Donald Trump, 70, who would go on to win the nomination. Onlookers both foreign and domestic have viewed this process as somewhat akin to reality TV, featuring offensive personal remarks, plot twists and one-liners that draw widespread attention.

“Never before have we had candidates with so many visible, public flaws,” added political science professor Dr. Douglas Hume. “This definitely affected the first presidential debate, where the candidates seemed to spend more time pointing out each other’s flaws and scandals then discussing their own merits and plans for success.”

Despite a distinctly smaller pool of candidates, the Democratic Party’s nomination process involved no lack of unusual events in its own right. The two major competitors for the Democratic nomination were Secretary Hillary Clinton, 69, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, 75. Although their fight for the nomination was significantly more issue-centric than the Republicans’, the profiles of the two candidates made it especially unique.

Clinton, former First Lady of the United States, had the chance to become the first female presidential nominee of a major party. Sanders was a self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist and garnered an unprecedented number of votes among young people aged 18-29, drawing 70 percent of young voters in Iowa and 87 percent in New Hampshire, according to various polls published in the New York Times. Still, despite Sanders’ popularity with the people, Clinton received the vast majority of delegate and super-delegate votes, which eventually led to Sanders’ resignation and Clinton’s historic nomination. 

The strange spectacle that is the 2016 presidential election has carried on, as Trump and Clinton continue to campaign, highlighting each other’s scandals and controversies left and right. From Clinton sitting trial for controversies surrounding her service as the Secretary of State during the Obama Administration, to email leaks calling into question the Democratic National Convention’s nomination process, to plagiarized acceptance speeches of the Republican nominee’s partner, the American people have been confronted with spectacle after spectacle.

Trump is known not for his political background but rather his reputation as a billionaire real estate tycoon and frequent participant on social media. Drawing upon a popular distrust of the political establishment, Trump has actually highlighted his own inexperience in the political arena to appeal to supporters.

“What we’re seeing now is that [the voters] want someone outside of the D.C. circle, someone more relatable,” explained Dr. Daniel Palm, director of History and Political Science Department. “It’s not unlike the 1980’s election, wherein both Republican candidate Ronald Reagan and Democratic candidate Jimmy Carter were considered political outsiders.”

The 2016 election contenders are both outsiders in some sense: Trump has spent his career outside of the political sphere, and Clinton represents an entire gender that has never been represented in the Oval Office.

“I think this election is the first time that people have been so fed-up with the status quo, especially on the Republican side, that we have actually seen two ‘outsiders’ become viable candidates: Trump and Sanders,” said Hume. “If the voters want a loud-mouthed reality TV personality, a lifelong politician with more baggage than United Airlines or a socialist, then I think we have lost our way.”

Trump likens himself to Reagan, as they both were better known in Hollywood than in Washington prior to their political endeavors. In addition, both Reagan and Trump originally registered as Democrats before taking the Republican ballot, and both were primarily concerned with economic reform. Even Trump’s now-iconic slogan, “Make America Great Again,” was originally adopted from Reagan’s campaign nickname, “The Great Communicator.”

However, here the Trump-Reagan comparisons end. “Reagan was a self-taught politician, spending years in study and consideration of politics before actually getting involved,” explained Palm. “He took time get informed and to formulate his own opinions, which is why he changed his party affiliation. Trump seems to have taken a different approach, which is widely debated.”

Despite the bold futuristic depiction of life in the 2010s presented in the ’80s flick “Back to the Future Part II,” American citizens have seen minimal change during the past 30 years with regard to the electoral process. Political platforms have evidently varied very little–when Americans expressed major concern with the economy three decades ago, the Reagan administration uprooted the entire system, forming the paradigm for Trump’s “trickle-down economics,” a method that Clinton has consistently criticized.

The final element in creating this peculiar political storm is the strongly-voiced opinions of citizens across the United States, who have taken it upon themselves to be active participants in the process. Various social media platforms allow anybody to interact with anyone else, regardless of age, geographical location or education. Celebrity opinions, witty Internet memes and the postings of the candidates themselves have all affected the popular perception of the opposing nominees. The Internet has definitely altered the electoral process.

Even as America realized that this electoral cycle would be very atypical, there was no predicting the level of madness that has ensued throughout this political race. With all that has already occurred during the past year from the emails to The Wall, it is difficult to believe that we have two weeks until we cast our votes. Hang in there, America—at least until November 8.