Opinion

Election recap: primary season gets ugly

Hillary_Clinton_in_November_2014

Hillary Clinton has begun going on the offensive against her main opponent, Bernie Sanders. | Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

It’s primary election season and that means presidential candidates in both parties are going to begin thinning the heard until the last man (or woman) is standing.

Here’s a recap of what you may have missed:

I. Hillary Clinton begins attacking Bernie Sanders

Hillary Clinton began a major offensive last week against Bernie Sanders, mostly focusing on his record on gun control and healthcare. With the news that Sanders is quickly catching up in the polls and overtaking the top spot in New Hampshire polling, her attacks come across as a desperate attempt to get voters on her side again. Clinton claimed that Sander’s healthcare plan would “completely dismantle Medicare,” which makes no sense seeing as Sanders has been fighting for a Medicare for all system virtually his entire political career.

II. Ted Cruz and Donald Trump’s bromance is over

At the beginning of 2016, Ted Cruz was shown to have overtaken Donald Trump in Iowa polls, and this seems to have caused some concern for Trump. Then Cruz comes out and attacks Trump, demeaning him by saying  that Trump represents “New York values.” With the combination of Trump’s very small lead in Iowa and Cruz’s attacks on his home state, Trump decided to finally break from his good standing relationship with the Texas Senator, showing that primary season truly is the more vicious part of the presidential election cycle.

III. A Houston lawyer is suing Ted Cruz about his eligibility to run for President

Though Ted Cruz was born in Canada, he is technically still allowed to run for president due to his natural-born citizenship from his American mother. This did not stop veteran Houston lawyer Newton Boris Schwartz from filing a lawsuit against Cruz, questioning the constitutionality of his eligibility to run for president. It isn’t exactly clear in the Constitution that just having an American parent immediately makes you a citizen, but past court cases show that this is the case.

This all seems to be stemming from Trump, who seems to be revitalizing the “birther” frenzy and stir up the xenophobes in America. It just goes to show it doesn’t really matter if you’re black or white; if you’re citizenship is questioned, people will bandwagon for the chance to get rid of someone they don’t deem American enough.

Opinion editor Anthony Torres is a political science junior and may be reached at [email protected]

8 Comments

  • A Socialist attacking a Socialist? Funny. How much Santa Claus can a Socialist realistically promise? Not enough to make the Poor prosperous.

  • No more like a corporatist (Hillary) attacking a socialist. And Happy New Year to you Bob. As for your santa comment, well at least we don’t have any nutters running on our side? *grins*

    • Come on girl … Bernie Sanders is certifiable. And Hillary Clinton has to be indicted or people at State and the FBI are going to revolt.

      Find me any excitement in the Clinton campaign, and its probably her husband having carnal knowledge with a female intern backstage.

      If you want a chance at prosperity … take a look at Trump. And before you say anything … sit down and really examine your thoughts, can you really support an admitted Socialist or a SocDem in 2016. We already had a verified Socialist in office now, and if you can’t see the damage he has done domestically in our foreign policy. IDK.

      One way that you can turn away from the dark side is to think of Obama as a Republican, and then reexamine his actions. If you agree with what he would do as a GOPer, then you should remain with your leftist bent.

      Personally, I see a GOP president giving a terrorist state like Iran nukes and $150 Billion … as lunacy.

      • First leave Hillary out of this as she is not, nor will ever be, my candidate. So save yourself the typing on thrashing her to me because she is as much in bed with wall street as her husband was with interns.
        Now on the matter of Bernie. Of all of the candidates who does not have a PAC? You may not agree with his policies but you can’t come up with anything against his integrity.

        As for Trump, come on Bob, you are too smart. You complain about Obama running all over the constitution, everything trump has said would be a million times worse. The man is all bluster and bullying. How many times now has his company filed for bankruptcy? He plays to people’s fears, agitates and creates problems where there aren’t any and is the pinnacle of hypocrisy. He appeals to the worst in people, just like the rest of the republican candidates are doing.

        We are better than that, we are smarter than that.

        • Play to peoples fears?

          Girl … if you weren’t a certifiable Socialist you would seen what has been happening the last seven years. More guns are being sold because of the fear of loss of freedoms atmosphere that Obama has created, Peoples careers are being lost because of oppressive Obama policies. Get your head out of the sand.

          The financial markets slides that we are experiencing now are directly attributable to Obama giving Wall Street $4.5 trillion via Quantitative Easing,

          Wall Street knows that Sanders is there enemy, which is why he will never be accepted as President, but possibly as a SocDem nominee.

          Hillary has really messed up with her email scandal. FBI has evidence of ABOVE TOP SECRET information being hack-able and Bill Clinton viewable. Incredible.

          What you see as Trump relaying fears to his supporters … well, I see as Americans beginning to fight back for their lost freedoms. Trump is a positive leader, he talks of American Greatness. Obama never talks of American Greatness … he goes around the World apologizing, and always looks to the US as the problem with the World.

          The attitude of the leader is reflected on the people. Obama is a pessimist He always has to bring down everything with his rhetoric, and in turn the people of the never cannot possibly be uplifted by the man’s thoughts or actions.

          Donald Trump is an optimist, which obviously scares you. You call him a bully. I see his as playing the media like a Stradivarius, He doesn’t cower when challenged by the media like other Republicans would do, and he doubles down when he is presumed to have been caught in a “gotcha moment”. Both Trump and Cruz are of great concern to the SocDems and the GOP Establishment, two entities that I would be happy to see wither on a vine.

          Can we two admit that Obama hasn’t been friendly to the Constitution. The office was designed so that the sitting president have faith in the Constitution, and govern on an honor system that the words of the document should not circumvented.

          The power system devised of an Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches is ingenious. It was never thought that each branch would be of the same SocDem anti-Constitution mindset, and with the GOP Establishment mindset definitely afraid of what the SocDem media says of them, they, like the new Speaker, will gladly pass any legislation Obama wants to keep from being called racists.

          Some things that have not been discussed are Bernie’s Judaism. Will a Muslim, and Muslims are Democrats … vote for a Jew. I’m still peeved at him for voting against the Amber Alert system. And his terrible leadership on the Veteran Affairs Committee has done real damage to the VA, and their terrible record as of late leading to Veteran deaths.

          When I look at Sanders, I see sameness. He promotes sameness, or fairness, or whatever you want to call it. He sees people who have money as evil. And no Sanders supporter has explained how he is to grow the economy

          Gotta go girl. Meeting. I’ll respond to your other stuff later. Maybe to-nite to tomorrow morn. Keep those love handles in good shape.

          • Bob, again, not a socialist. George W. Bush made 288 executive orders during his presidency, are you saying that make them was unconstitutional? Or are you saying the executive orders made by Obama are unconstitutional but executive orders themselves are not unconstitutional? I am unclear which you mean.

            As his executive action on guns, “The changes attempt to tighten — but don’t close — what’s widely (but
            misleadingly) known as the “gun show loophole,” as well as increase the
            efficiency of the federal background check system to avoid cases from
            falling through. The executive actions will also take smaller steps,
            ranging from improving the tracking of lost or stolen guns to
            encouraging technological improvements that will, in theory, make
            firearms safer.”

            Now where in that do you see an order to disarm or prevent a person from purchasing a gun? The fear mongering I spoke of is seen in the reaction of people buying more guns because of the rhetoric that the government is going to take your guns or ban all guns. Understand I support the right to bear arms, I own a few pistols and a shotgun. I have no problem with background checks, and banning sales to felons, the mentally ill, minors, and those on terrorist watch along with those on the no fly list.

            You speak of Obama not being a friend to the constitution, was George W. Bush a friend when he sponsored the patriot act? My answer is neither were. Obama had the chance to dismantle it, instead moved forward with it and continued it so that we had the NSA spying on everyone without a warrant.

            As for Trump, his rhetoric would tear the constitution to bits. Almost everyone of his proposals would spit on the constitution. From Banning Muslims from entering the USA (even those that are American citizens) to spying on Mosques, to even telling Mexico to build and wall a pay for it. Seriously if they say no what is he going to do? Nothing, he can’t without congress.

            He attacks others with impunity and everyone is afraid to call him out on his BS. He attacks Clinton about his infidelity and yet anyone says anything about his affair with his second wife while he was married to his first and he calls liberal media ganging up on him. He creates the whole question about Senator Cruz being a citizen and then lies saying “He did not bring it up, others were talking about it.” The man’s companies have filed for bankruptcy many time and he received massive government subsidies for Trump Tower in 2004. He never even made his own fortune as he inherited the 250 million from his father, who built it off government subsidized housing. Trump’s first big Manhattan deal was to renovate the Hyatt at Grand Central Station. For that project, he got a forty-year fullproperty-tax incentive, which cost taxpayers $60 million (presumably not adjusted for inflation) in the first ten years alone. Trump has also won benefits that cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and Florida.

            So the bluster does not add up to the facts when you shine a light on Trump. All he can do is call names, make accusations, and talk BS. The American people deserve better. In my opinion that is Sanders. I know you disagree and that is fine you have the right to your opinion and I served so that you would. But in this I strongly disagree with your favor with Trump.

            • I get the feeling baby girl … that we are the reason for the recent editorial hogging the commentary space offered.

              I see the difference between W and Obama as … well, Bush at least loved Our Country. Gotta go.

              • Perhaps we are but I say they should be glad to have people posting and participating in the free exchange of ideas and debating opinions, it is what makes a free society free. As for your last comment, come on Bob, I know you are smarted than that. I get you don’t condone Obama’s stance on, well everything, but we don’t have to go down that road. Personally I think he has the one of the best republican presidents, and I too hate a lot of what he has done and more importantly did not do that was promised in 2008.

Leave a Comment