This time, personality matters

Is personality the most important factor in choosing a presidential candidate ? At first, I thought the obvious answer was no.

In a perfect world, the presidential candidates are all good people, in which their demeanor is not something of scrutiny, and the focus can be solely on their beliefs.

Unfortunately, it is not a perfect world and the candidates are far from perfect people. Yes, I would love to see the voters forming opinions based on what the candidates stand for so that the candidates cannot manipulate the voters into bashing the other to boost themselves. But with Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton- we may have to look at just what I thought should be avoided- personality.

My favorite way to define this election is “outlier election”. We had someone like Democrat Bernie Sanders sparking the younger generation into the political world, Clinton the first female candidate to have come this far into the election and Trump who has vocalized polarizing opinions that many Americans agree with.

So what does this indicate? For one thing, America is expanding to embody a greater variety of ideals because of such different mindsets. Second, this election has caught the attention of the youth, other nations and religions. With such attention on the candidates, the candidates have to portray an image that people will associate with and want as the president.

These candidates are representing types of people and we are voting for a type of person. We are voting for a person.

Personality is not everything, but this election has come to the point in which such harsh words are said to one another that we must look at what personality does represent. Why then are debates so important? Yes, policies are discussed, but debates are another platform in which the candidates make themselves look more suitable.

These candidates know that eyes are on them, and how they choose to portray themselves reveals what type of person they want people to view them as.

This election has voters that have strayed away from their party’s’ nominee to vote for the other party’s nominee. Over 160 Republican leaders do not support Trump, according to The New York Times. “Trumpocrats” – Democrats for Trump- have formed in support of Trump over Clinton, according to Breitbart. The Republican Clinton supporters and Trumpocrats show that voters are going beyond policies of their party to vote for the person that they want a president- not what a policy-dictated group chooses.

We are choosing a representative and symbol for America, and this symbol cannot be chosen solely on their party or their policies because a person is beyond what he or she stands for but his or her actions, words, mindsets and how they treat others. Leadership characteristics are not solely based on beliefs, but on how one conducts him or herself.

In presidential elections we have the opportunity to evaluate the candidates; we need to take advantage of this opportunity and factor that into deciding who to vote for with candidates that are so different from past candidates.

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