After the Democrats almost certainly made her nominee for the US presidential elections after she won the support of the Electoral College, Hilary Clinton entered the final, most prominent electoral race. The race has now taken a clearer shape.
Clinton and Donald Trump are now face to face in an unprecedented battle. She is the first female candidate for a major political party in the history of the United States. She is facing an adversary who, since the race started, has raised a great deal of controversy and concern inside and abroad.
The Republican nominee Donald Trump is one of the most controversial candidates in the history of US presidential elections. The man dogged by accusations regarding a wide range of economic, social as well as moral issues, has been accused by his Republican rival Ted Cruz of being a ‘womanizer’, ‘a pathological liar’, and ‘utterly amoral’. He was also accused by the Clinton campaign of being a sexist serial harasser of women. The world is witnessing an unusual electoral competition with regard to both nominees.
Some analysts believe that the nomination of Clinton and Trump reflects an institutional inability by the major parties to produce young political leaders. Such analysis partly ignores factors specific to the dynamics of American politics; the idea of the ‘model’ dominates the American political thought and helps interpreting much of what goes on in the corridors of the two main parties. Historically speaking, the US is ready for a female President, after it surprised the world with the election of an African American president.
In that regard, Trump seems to be a new ‘case’ in American politics, but he is also relevant to the ‘model’ idea. A businessman who has been controversial since he announced his nomination which attracted sarcastic comments. However, the turn of events proved that his nomination was everything but a joke. Trump is so close to the main competition in the elections in the face of the Democratic Party candidate.
The US election race itself involves several paradoxes. Trump is facing a fierce counter-campaign from within the Republican Party, popularized by the hashtag #Never_Trump. Nonetheless, he is still able to carry on and continue the race strongly, while Clinton, the veteran taking her second test in the US presidential election after she failed in 2008, has been preparing for years to achieve the dream to enter the White House, but she probably did not expect to face a competitor of this sort.
Trump is no usual competitor. He is not a politician, so Hillary Clinton cannot claim to have an edge on him in domestic and foreign affairs of such sizable a country as the US. The Clinton Campaign is betting on so-called cons of the opponent, trying to stereotype him as ‘the reckless type’ and stir up voters’ fears of his presence in the White House; but these attempts are still subject to the strong impact of the Trump propaganda as well as the general mood of the American public opinion and the attitudes of voters supporting Hilary’s rivals such as the Democratic Bernie Sands. Clinton campaign called Trump politically reckless as a defense mechanism facing a rival that the Republican Party primaries proved he mingles in each and every subject relevant to his opponents. There are no limits to his attack on his rivals and this makes him a competitor far from the usual and who cannot be dealt with using the planned and conventional campaigns.
In the context of the campaigns of the primaries, Trump put Hillary in traumatic situations, sometimes making comments hard to respond to according to the conventional rules of campaigning. Last December, he commented on Clinton in a way her campaign described as insulting and vulgar. Clinton had to reply saying harassers should not be allowed anywhere and should especially not win the presidency as that would be un-American.
One of the problems facing Hilary is the legacy of the Clintons. She may have to pay the price of voters’ attitudes of her husband, former President Bill Clinton’s policies, not to mention her own policies as Secretary of State.
The American voters are familiar with Hilary Clinton and she may not have a lot to surprise her constituency with. Certainly, she has a lot of causes she needs to defend and clarify in the face of criticism of her rival. Some of her previous positions hunt her in the elections. Trump accuses her of supporting laws regulating the coal industry that drove many into unemployment. Also, he has always maintained that her husband, former President Clinton, supported NAFTA (North American trade agreement) which Trump describes as ‘the worst trade deal maybe ever signed anywhere.’
The surprises of Trump challenge the Democrats campaign to win the electoral race for the White House, as he switches personal views between the Right and the Left. Meanwhile, the cards of Clinton remain face up. The Democrats campaign is focused on stirring fears of the Americans from the ideas of Trump, especially regarding isolationism, the US-Mexico separation wall and the Muslim entry ban.
Once again, the United States surprises the world with candidates for the most anticipated elections in the world. The winner will occupy the most important position, the President of the United States, so the question is worth the attention. If the Obama nomination was once taken with a pinch of salt, before he occupied the presidential seat for two terms in a row, is candidate Trump, who has not been taken seriously like Barack, going to make it, or is Hillary Clinton going to succeed, entering history as the first woman to become president of the United States of America, convincing voters to reject the reckless personality of Trump?
