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Someone is coming for your democracy, and he has really small hands.

We’re in the final stretch of the 2016 U.S. election, and unless you’ve been living under a rock I’m sure you’re probably sick and tired of hearing about it. I’m even more tired of writing about it.

Maybe that’s why I had a really hard time coming up with something to write about this week. Because what else is there to say that hasn’t already been said?

What I can say though, is that it has been one hell of an election cycle.

But possibly the most frustrating thing about it is that this whole situation could have been avoided. There could have been two completely different nominees for both the Democratic and the Republican Party.

On the Democratic side, Wikileaks has revealed that Clinton’s nomination may have, in part, been given preferential treatment over that of Bernie Sanders, the other main candidate for the Democratic nomination in this election.

Sanders struck a nerve with young voters and inspired grand gestures from them, so when it was uncovered that he may have lost out on the nomination because of the actions and maneuverings of Democratic “insiders” (aka old people), it’s easy to see why so many of them have become disenchanted with the idea of democracy as a whole. Clinton isn’t popular with Democrats, but she is the candidate they are stuck with.

In any other election that scandal would have been front page news for the entire cycle. But this isn’t like any other election because somehow the Republican primaries were even more interesting.

Even from the beginning it was off to a crazy start. Other than Trump, there were 11 other candidates who either withdrew or suspended their campaign during the primaries and another five who withdrew before the primaries even began. That means out of 17 potential nominees for president, Trump trumped them all in his destructive path to Republican victory. He is now the candidate we all may be stuck with.

That feat itself would have been incredible even if it weren’t for the fact that many people, most media outlets included, viewed him and his entire run for president as a joke, seeing him as a farce of a candidate as opposed to a serious politician.

Though he had made some half-hearted attempts at a presidential run before, he first broke out onto the political scene in 2011 when he became a loud voice of the birther movement, or the movement that claimed President Barack Obama was not an American citizen. By claiming that he was born in Kenya, birthers claimed Obama was not entitled to run for president at all, therefore delegitimizing his presidency.

If you thought Trump couldn’t be anymore obviously racist than questioning the birthplace of America’s first black president, you are a precious baby angel who should be protected from everything bad in this world.

Trump’s now-infamous plan to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border helped keep him at the top of that long list of potential Republican candidates. I’m not even going to get into how terrible of an idea this is, mostly because I don’t have the patience for it. But even Trump’s campaign has backed away from his “immigration” plan.

This election didn’t have to be the fustercluck it has become, but as with any situation you have to make the best of it. I just wanted to take the time to question how we got to this situation in the first place. This is why we can’t have nice things, America. Because when you’re given the opportunity to make the right choice, you completely fail. I just hope it doesn’t mean the dramatic and fiery end to the democratic process.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.