Political Science Research Questions: Donald Trump

What Should Happen So Trump Got a Victory Over Clinton?

Introduction

During a variety of centuries in human history, politics has proven itself to be one of the cruelest and most unstable aspects of social life, mostly run by hypocrisy and intense fight for power. In such an aspect, presidential elections play an essentially curious role – on the one hand, they represent political life of a civil society as unity (through voting), and on the other, they are evidence of what each candidate is willing to do, give or sacrifice for the sake of obtaining leadership, even temporary one.

As a result, the whole procedure turns into a global mess, as the politicians start playing on people’s feelings, including nationalism, patriotism, dissatisfaction with the current economic situation, the position of the freedom of speech, laws regarding multicultural minorities, etc.

The presidential elections in the USA, scheduled for November 2016, are no any exception – currently, we can see a real violence-driven struggle between the candidates, who eager to gossip about one another and promise people whatever will help them obtain power in the end. The special attention of recent speculations and debates is primarily focused on Donald Trump (Republican) and Hillary Clinton (Democrat) as direct rivals fighting for political power, state superiority and, respectively, the future of the USA and the resurrection of the American Dream.

In particular, this paper is going to briefly access and analyze how many chances Donald Trump has – compared to Clinton’s case – to succeed in the forthcoming elections and become the president of America. Besides that, the paper will shortly compare both candidates and also mention what Trump has to change in his behavior or program in order to have a more serious potential to become the next leader of the state, focusing mainly on the change of register, improvement of the candidate’s program with special focus on the real problems of the state and attitude towards minority groups. What is important, the paper does not directly predict the outcomes of the elections but builds a possible discussion on the issue.

Things that Can Help Trump Win

In the first place, Donald Trump is known as a highly successful person, motivational writer and businessman – one of the richest candidates for presidential position (Top Trending, 2016) – and, currently, also as a scandalous persona, remarkably famous for his direct and “in-your-face” speeches in public, such as the one associated with insulting of the opponent, Carly Fiorina (The Guardian, 2016), or Mexico as the whole state and nation (Donaldjtrump.com, 2016), which is the reason why he can be seen as racist. Besides that, Trump does not miss an opportunity to insult Clinton not only as a politician but a woman, mentioning essentially rather gender-related aspects than political – which labels Trump sexist and should not be the case in the elections. All of these are met negatively by the public, and the opponents use this as a chance to block Trump’s way to the leadership. Nevertheless, there is no opposition without supporters – and, what might seem remarkable – Trump’s team still has many of them.

However, those mentioned above might bring up a question – how does Trump attract supporters? The main reason of Trump’s success is, surprisingly, in his so-called openness – what he attempts to do in his speeches is to use more down-to-earth language and represent things as realistically as possible, with no political pretending. In other words, he seems to be trying to be seen as he is. Apparently, Trump addresses the major problems of the American society, which he promises to solve when elected, such as possible trade war, disrespect of law and police (Donaldjtrump.com, 2016), migration and war on terror (Donaldjtrump.com, 2016). He also plays on the American nationalism, promising to “make America great again” and “bring back the American Dream to life.”

The Opportunity for Victory

Despite this, the recent data present reality as slightly put in contrast with Trump’s expectations – “he faces trouble in a hypothetical general election contest, trailing Hillary Clinton in personal ratings, facing 2-1 opposition on his signature policy issues and falling short in vote preferences and expectations alike” (ABC News, Washington Post Poll, 2016); both actually run competitively in trust to handle the economy as well, while Trump has a slight advantage in handling dysfunction in the political system. However, even though Clinton’s ratings on favorability and trustworthiness are more than Trumps, the difference in between does not result in great numbers – for example, for political honesty, Hillary Clinton has 37% while Trump has just 27% (ABC News, 2016).

Relying on the above-mentioned, Clinton is still ahead of Trump. However, in order to fix his current position, Trump should pay attention not only to the aspects where the difference in ratings is rather slight but, in the first place, he needs to improve his approach regarding the aspects where ratings differ largely. For instance, the one associated with immigration, where Clinton has 56%, and Trump has 37% or the experience section where Clinton is supported by having 66%, while Trump stays with his 26%. To analyze the contrast in between, Trump’s immigration reform consists of providing the wall border across the south, thus isolating Mexico from the US; imposing stricter laws on criminals and immigrants (no catch-and-release), and prevent the government from giving legal visas to all immigrants, which would be a means of fighting terrorism (Donaldtrump.com, 2016). In contrast, Clinton’s plan is: to provide deportation relief and create an easier path to citizenship for the immigrating multicultural societies (Hillaryclinton.com, 2016). Thus, Clinton’s approach seems more open and liberal while Trump offers stricter ways of establishing the government. Respectively, a more democratic approach by Clinton is more actively met by the society.

However, in order to win over Clinton, Trump – considering that the general difference in between is not yet that crucial – should stop being as radical as he is. He strongly insists on his position against Mexico, saying it benefits from the US almost for free (), thus insulting the state and the people as nation altogether. Secondly, despite that it is accepted that the politicians never approve each other’s programs, Trump should stop insulting Clinton and other candidates openly and in such an unrefined manner. This would help him restore his image. Thirdly, apart from closing the borders for Muslim immigrants, Trump should develop a clear plan of how to fight ISIS and, being more specific, build a strategy to end the war in Syria through closer cooperation with other states.

Conclusion

Thus, the nationalist moods imposed by Trump will have fewer obstacles on their way to being heard by society, while spoken not as radically.

To conclude, the case of the presidential elections is essentially complicated, and it is barely possible to foresee the exact perspective of how the votes will result in the nearest future, be it Trump’s success or failure. However, it is evident that Trump’s plan proves useful and relevant for the time being, especially when the problems of immigration and economy have become highly sharp and important – moreover, the Republicans have a revolutionary spirit and need change. The international position of the US and the current threat of ISIS might also lead Trump to leadership, as he offers a means to solve problems, but has to be more specific and less radical, relying on Clinton’s experience; as the current position of the US as democratic state does not allow a candidate to win the elections unless he becomes more tolerant and focuses more on strategies than political gossiping.

References

ABC News (2016). Challenges for Trump vs Clinton: Favorability, Attitudes and More. Retrieved from http://www.langerresearch.com/.
America needs comprehensive immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/immigration-reform/.
Carly Fiorina responds to Trump’s comments about her face –video. (2016, March). Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2015/sep/16/carly-fiorina-women-all-over-america-heard-what-trump-said-video.
Immigration reform that will make America great again. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/immigration-reform.
Trending, Top. (2016, February 14). Who is Donald Trump? [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv0_ZRAylkE&nohtml5=False.