Category: Politics

Political pendulum shifts in Latin America

By Gopika Nair, Editor-in-Chief

By many indicators, Latin America has the most unequal distribution of wealth in the world.

Some have termed Latin America’s uneven distribution “the birth defect of in- equality because it dates back to at least colonization,” said James Franklin, professor of politics and government at Ohio Wesleyan University.

Franklin discussed Latin America’s political pendulum as part of the Great Decisions lecture series March 10. He used the analogy of a pendulum to explain the back and forth trends of the recent political shifts in Latin America. Because of the legacy of inequal- ity in Latin America, political systems were weak. When Latin America countries gained independence, the region experienced “cha- os without centralized control,” Franklin said. He compared Latin America’s post-in- dependence era to that of Afghanistan’s and Congo’s current situations.

Later, as Latin America became more stable and urbanized, large groups of people remained unrepresented and inequality persisted. From the 1930s to the 1950s, a new type of leader, the populist, emerged, Franklin said.

“They carried some of the characteristics of the caudillo, the forceful man in charge who would come in and set everything right,” Franklin said.

Populists were nationalistic and decried foreign powers, especially the U.S., and foreign businesses, arguing they were trying to manipulate Latin America, according to Franklin. Populists believed in an activ- ist government, promising to work for the people.

The Cold War era, in particular, was important in Latin American history. Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, who led the Cuban revolution, promised that revolution would put an end to region-wide inequality.

But the revolution as the solution for inequality proved false, Franklin said. In most cases, plans to overthrow the elite failed and poor peasants were caught in the cross re of civil wars.

The 1980s and 1990s saw major changes in Latin America, including the rise of democracy. More recently the pendulum swung toward neo-liberalism.

Chile and Brazil are examples of a successful shift to neo-liberalism, where growing economies followed a market-oriented approach. But in many other countries, neo-liberalism led to unemployment. The poor continued to believe they weren’t being represented by anyone in the capital, Franklin said.

Populist leftist leaders, such as Hugo ChĂĄvez and NicolĂĄs Maduro (Venezuela), Evo Morales (Bolivia) and Rafael Correa (Ecuador), came into power with the inten- tion of helping the poor.

These leaders railed against corrupt elites, neo-liberalism and the opposition, Franklin said. They were also critical of the news media. The public had concerns about corrup- tion, growing signs of authoritarianism and weakening of checks and balances within the populist leaders’ countries. But the leaders lowered poverty and inequality rates while in power.

“Research in comparative politics shows that people with a more stable economic environment … tend to put more emphasis on things like honest government and rights and freedom,” Franklin said.

Ken Doane, of Delaware, said he learned a lot about the countries in Latin America from Franklin’s talk and it made him curious to learn more.

“The difference between the neoliberal left and ultra-left and how some countries have gone back and forth between the two [was interesting],” Doane said.

Ohio Wesleyan students attend Donald Trump’s inauguration

By Evan Walsh, Chief Copy Editor

Ohio Wesleyan students and faculty made the trip to the nation’s capital to watch the swearing in of Donald J. Trump as the 45th president of the United States.

The school provided transportation and supervision to and from the event for the 17 students who went.

Some chose to attend to observe and take part in the transition from one administration to the next, while others spent the whole weekend there as demonstrators.

Each student had different motivations for going, but the historical significance of the event remained critical to the experience.

Senior Sam Schurer did not originally plan on going to the inauguration and had planned instead to participate in the marches.

“I had a lot of discontent that I wanted to voice and I thought that this was the best platform for that,” Schurer said.

Schurer, a politics and goverment major at OWU, eventually changed his mind about the inauguration and made arrangements to attend that, as well.

Dwayne Todd, vice president for student engagement and success, along with Public Safety Officer Chris Mickens organized the trip.

Todd explained why he feels like Ohio Wesleyan has a responsibility to give students this opportunity.

“The idea is that we are fulfilling our institution’s mission of engaging in the world outside our university… we’re not doing our job if we don’t engage with these ideas and stand outside of the process,” Todd said.

A big reason why Todd thought the trip was a success was because the group going was so diverse and represented the political interests and demographic makeup of OWU.

He described it as a “good cross section of our student body”

Whether or not the university will make this a tradition remains to be determined.

According to Todd, the last time OWU sponsored an inaugural trip was in 2009 for the first of Barack Obama’s two terms.

The university made the decision not to go back in 2013 when Obama was re-elected.

“The idea is that we are fulfilling our institution’s mission of engaging in the world outside our university…we’re not doing our job if we don’t engage with these ideas and stand outside of the process.” Dwayne Todd, vice president for student engagement and success.

Todd said he has entertained the idea of bringing students to each inauguration, but thinks it is more likely that the trip will only be offered whenever someone new takes office.

People march in solidarity

By Anna Davies, Transcript Correspondent

Students of Ohio Wesleyan took to the Women’s March on Washington, D.C. on Jan. 21 to march for women’s rights and express their freedom to protest the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump.

OWU’s trip to the march was a collaborative trip between students and faculty.

Senior Emma Nuiry said the march was not just for feminist issues, but also for issues affecting the LGBT community and people of color.

“Protests and movements are really messy,” Nuiry said. “It’s hard to measure change so quickly. Change is not always visible. Regardless, this march was an incredible moment for learning, making connections and inspiring those of us that have felt so heavy in the past months.”

“I truly believe that so much knowledge was produced in that space and many people were exposed to ideas that were new to them,” Nuiry said.

Sophomore Adrian Burr found inspiration in the march from being among so many women marching in solidarity.

“The trains leaving D.C. after the march were packed, but every time a group of people exited the train the entire car of strangers would cheer for them,” she said.

“The sense of camaraderie I gained with the other marchers was a gift in and of itself,” Burr said.

Ellen Sizer, a junior, said she was proud to support both people who went to the march and people who had to stay back home.

“The most breathtaking and awe-inspiring part of the march was being in the march itself,” Sizer said. “I felt like I was a part of history.”

Senior Jackson Hotaling said he loved seeing so many people marching for a common goal.

“Activists came with their own cause in mind, but the understanding that ‘women’s rights are human rights’ brought everyone together,” he said. Ohio Wesleyan students at the Women’s March on Washington on Jan. 21.

Trump’s immigration ban

By Gopika Nair, Editor-in-Chief

President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration could affect international student enrollment at Ohio Wesleyan, especially among Muslim applicants.

The number of Pakistani applicants is up by 78 percent for fall 2017, according to an enrollment update by Susan Dileno, vice president for enrollment at OWU. The update was sent as an email to faculty on Jan. 19. Trump signed an executive order Jan. 27, barring citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. for 90 days.

The ban extends to students and visitors with valid visas as well as green-card holders. The seven countries include Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

When Sean Spicer, White House press secretary, was asked why Pakistan and Saudi Arabia weren’t included in Trump’s order, he suggested it could be included at a later date, according to ABC News.

“We are communicating with our admitted international students and telling them that OWU is a welcoming and safe place,” Dileno said. “We intend on organizing a chat for applicants and we will be creating a video that features a recent graduate from Pakistan.”

Dorota Kendrick, assistant director of the International and Off-Campus Programs office, said no current OWU student is a citizen of any of the seven banned countries, according to the IOCP’s service list.

In response to Trump’s order, President Rock Jones sent an email to the campus community on Jan. 30, writing that “a diverse student body adds to the breadth and depth of all learning and is vital to our collective efforts to understand and address the world’s most pressing issues.”

Twice during Jones’ tenure, the president of the Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs has been Muslim, he said. The two most recent additions to the Board of Trustees are also from Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Sophomore Ali Chaudhary, a U.S. citizen who was born in Pakistan, said he is worried about what this ban will mean for international students who are in the U.S. on student visas.

“Hopefully, the ban is only temporary and it results in making the country safer,” Chaudhary said. “However, America has a history of being accepting to immigrants and that’s what made it so special to a lot of people in the world and I hope this ban doesn’t signal the end of that.”

Ji Young Choi, associate professor of politics and government at OWU, said the possibility of Trump’s immigration ban being ruled illegal by the courts is low because legal disputes will arise and that would be time consuming.

“I think the U.S. government has a right to determine who can get in and get out across the American border,” Choi said. “But what is problematic is President Trump’s executive order is based on a specific religion and particularly national origins … It is legally very controversial and definitely goes against American values like openness, freedom, diversity and tolerance embedded in the U.S. Constitution.”

Trump’s executive order could also incite anti-Americanism feelings in many Middle Eastern countries and terrorists groups might take advantage of that, according to Choi.

Junior Jannat Mazari said the order could make international students rethink their post-graduation plans, especially if they had intended to stay in the U.S.

“It’ll put them on edge not knowing if their country will be next,” Mazari said.

Protests haven’t taken place on OWU’s campus, but senior Emma Nuiry, a member of the Peace and Justice House (P&J), said she knew of members from the P&J house who went to protests held at John Glenn Columbus International Airport.

“It’s hard not to feel hopeless and scared, but I think resistance involves persistence,” Nuiry said. “It will get worse before it gets better … [Change] can be institutional like [Trump] is doing, but I believe that massive change happens on the individual, interactional and collective level, where smaller groups get together and create relationships across differences and build coalitions of solidarity.

“I find comfort in the groups he is uniting by trying to demonize and oppress them. The key is to show that when some of us don’t have power, none of us do.”

Election results discussed by Professor Jenny Holland

By Evan Walsh, Transcript Reporter

Whether you supported Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, the election results likely came as a surprise to you if you were paying attention to the polls.

Every major news network, from the conservative Fox to the more left-leaning MSNBC, predicted the Democratic nominee would win.

They were wrong.

Helping to make sense of the seemingly irreconcilable story the polls told leading up to the election and the election result was Jenny Holland, Ohio Wesleyan professor of politics and government.

Her lecture focused primarily on the distinction between the electoral and popular votes within certain states, voting demographics and potential aws in the polling methodology.

Senior Kevin Rossi said the topic piqued his interest.

“It was very stimulating and [Holland] made a lot of points that I have not heard talked about,” Rossi said.

Using a number of different exit polls from several different swing states, primarily in the Great Lakes region, she said the media failed in its predictions.

Of particular importance was the Clinton campaign’s failure to get former Obama voters from those states to vote for her.

Meanwhile, Trump’s campaign bene ted from only a marginal decrease and, in some cases, even an increase over Mitt Romney in those same places and among those same people from four years ago.

News networks, too, focused on data that had been collected, while data from 2012 did not consider that that voting trend might not come to fruition.

Senior Caroline Hamilton, a politics and government major who helped organize the talk, said she was impressed with how thorough Holland’s research was.

“It was interesting to hear the comparison between Obama to Hillary and Romney to Trump and that Trump actually kept a lot of Romney supporters from abandoning him,” Hamilton said.

Considering Trump’s position as a self-proclaimed “anti-establishment” Republican such support was unexpected.

On five separate occasions, and twice in the last 16 years, a candidate has won the popular vote but not the electoral college.

“Some may feel that ‘five out of 45 times is doing a good job,’” Holland said. “Others may feel that, ‘no, five times is just too many’ and we should make a change. The reality is that the process to amend is very difficult.”

But Holland said her major concern was with the media’s poll prediction problems she addressed in her talk.

“It is probably going to be difficult for people to trust those numbers in the future when most polls did not make the accurate prediction between just two candidates,” she said.

Post-election result raises questions

By Shamayeta Rahman, Transcript Reporter

ELECTION IS OVER: NOW WHAT?

On Nov.8, Donald J. Trump won the election with 290 electoral votes. A lot has happened in the one month since the controversial election. Here’s the breakdown of the few major issues:

Protests spread in large cities countrywide

Mass protests spread across cities like Portland, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, Chicago and more, drawing in thousands. Even in states that voted Republican saw protests in metropolitans like Dallas, Kansas City, Omaha, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Tampa and more. Most protesters gathered in front of Trump Towers or government offices.

People were initially peacefully protesting under the rallying cry “Not my president!” When things did get violent in some of the cities, tear gas, pepper sprays and flash-bang devices were used to subdue and disperse the crowd.

There were about a hundred arrests nationwide on the first day, with 65 in New York City.

In Portland, Oregon, when the protests turned violent on the third day, the local police categorized it as a riot and arrested 26 people for vandalism. In Oakland, California, three police officers were injured. Vandalism was widespread in some cities, and many burned effigies of Trump and the American flag in protest.

Initially, Trump condemned such behavior on Twitter by saying, “Professional protesters, incited by the media, are protesting. Very unfair!”

When reminded of the First Amendment and the right to peacefully assemble, he changed his mind two days later and posted, “Love the fact that the small groups of protesters last night have passion for our great country. We will all come together and be proud!”

Petitions

A petition on change.org requesting the electors to vote for Hillary Clinton has almost 4.7 million signatures as of now. Clinton won the popular vote by more than 2 million votes.

Petitions on change.org usually require 100,000 signatures within 30 days to get a response from the officials. Daniel Brezenoff of North Carolina started the petition the day after the election, and  itwas addressed to the electoral college.

The electoral college, with its 538 electorates, will be voting on Dec. 19. In 24 states, electors are bound legally to vote for the chosen party in their area and are fined if they do not follow. However, in 14 states (with close to 149 electors) there are no rules against it. The petition cites Alexander Hamilton and how he spoke of the electoral college as a balancing scale that would help to put someone who is not only popular but also fit to serve as president.

Part of the petition letter said:

“Casting your ballot for [Clinton] preserves majority rule – the “sense of the people” – and prevents the most unqualified candidate in history from taking office. Never in our Republic’s 240 years has our president had no previous experience in an office of public trust, be it elected or appointed, civilian or military. Never has a president admitted to sexual assaults. Never has a president encouraged violence at campaign events.”

While the Constitution does not say anything specifically on this point, which technically makes it legal, there have rarely been faithless electors, especially enough to turn the election.

Three electors have already come out saying that they will not be voting for Trump and that they would prefer a more experienced Republican candidate instead.

If neither of the candidates reach the 270 vote mark on Dec. 19, the House of Representatives will decide who the president will be. Considering the current House is Republican, this should play in Trump’s favor.

Recounts in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan

Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who won 1 percent of the national vote, started a fundraiser trying to raise $7 million to pay the legal costs and recount fees for the states of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan. They have raised $6.1 million of their goal.

The costs are outlined as $1.1 million for Wisconsin,  $0.5 million for Pennsylvania and $0.6 million for Michigan and about $2-3 million in attorney fees. As of now, they met their funding goals for Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and the petition is already in for the two states.

Clinton is 70,000 votes behind in Pennsylvania, about 20,000 votes behind in Wisconsin and 11,000 votes behind in Michigan. The recount initiative was taken up by the Green Party when rumors of hacking and voter fraud began.

Meeting with President Obama

Trump met with President Barack Obama at the White House Nov. 10. They had an hour-long meeting that Obama described as an “excellent and wide-ranging” conversation.

Despite the impolite things they’ve said about each other before the election, both men seemed pleased with the outcome of the meeting.

“My number one priority in the coming two months is to try to facilitate a transition that ensures our president-elect is successful,” Obama said.

Trump said, “I have great respect. The meeting lasted for almost an hour and a half, and it could’ve, as far as I’m concerned, it could’ve gone on for a lot longer.”

Melania Trump also met with First Lady Michelle Obama that day. Vice President-elect Mike Pence and Trump also met House Speaker Paul Ryan the same day.

Policies

There have been a lot of backtracking in terms of what Trump had promised before the election.

One of the main issues he intended to tackle on the first day of office was repealing ObamaCare, but he has now said that considering the expenses and feasibility of it, a reform might be much better suited.

On immigration and the famed “wall” that was promised to be paid by Mexico, Trump has only spoken about how it might be a “fence” in some parts to reduce the cost, but didn’t address whether the Mexican government will be funding it or not.

He has still been very outspoken about the deportation of millions of illegal immigrants, but is citing smaller numbers now.

Additionally, he has also taken down the anti-abortion messages from his website, and in his 60 Minutes interview said that gay marriages will remain legal as it is now the law of the land. These were both things that he had been very vocal about changing before the election.

As for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), despite Trump’s threats of leaving Europe to be, Obama has assured Europeans leaders that Trump will not be moving away from the commitment to NATO, saying he has spoken to the president-elect about it.

He has also said he will not be proceeding with the trials against Clinton and her email server case.

Cabinet

Hailed as a “knife fight,” Trump picking his cabinet has been a point of controversy throughout the last month. But the trends in his choices indicate he is rewarding people who have been loyal to him from the beginning.

His current choices are:

Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions has been nominated for attorney general. Sessions, who has been an outspoken Trump supporter from the beginning, previously failed to become a federal judge when he was deemed too controversial for the position.

Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney are currently the top runners for the position of secretary of state.

Giuliani’s nomination would be a lot more controversial due to his links with an Iranian group deemed to be terrorists by the Department of State. Romney had previously voiced his disdain for Trump, but Trump is still considering him for the role.

Mike Pompeo has been selected as the CIA director. Retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn has been named as the national security adviser.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus might possibly be given the role of chief of staff and campaign executive.

Steve Bannon, the editor of Breitbart, is getting the role of senior adviser or chief strategist. Bannon’s nomination has been riddled with a lot of controversy especially due to his anti-Semitic and occasionally racist comments. Newt Gingrich is also one of the contenders for a cabinet position.

Betsy DeVos has been nominated as Secretary of Education; she has been a top campaign donor and a school choice activist. Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina has been named the ambassador to the United Nations and Ben Carson has been named the secretary of housing and urban development.

Students and faculty voice fears about election results

By Liz Hardaway, Arts & Entertainment Editor

Just 48 hours after the election results were unveiled, Ohio Wesleyan held an open discussion among students and faculty to review the historic night.

In the second floor lounge of Smith Hall, around 40 people gathered, including staff from the Chaplain’s Office, six alumni and Jenny Holland, an assistant professor of politics and government. Sally Leber, the director of service learning, facilitated the discussion.

The night started with an introduction from Rock Jones, who celebrated how diverse the campus community is, which, in turn, provides a wide range of perspectives concerning different issues.

“We come here to learn with one another and to learn from one another,” Jones said.

Leber opened up the floor by asking attendees why that had come to the discussion. Many students voiced their fears and anger toward Donald Trump, president-elect, especially with many of the comments he made during his campaign trail.

Holland commented that this year’s election has been one of the most contentious elections in the modern era. With the polls mainly pointing to Clinton, many people felt shocked at the outcome.

Associate Chaplain Chad Johns discussed the term “othering,” or defining someone as “not like us,” either by cultural or personal factors. In the election cycle, Johns explained the liberals made the mistake of ‘othering’ many people in rural and working-class America.

“There was this assumption that no American could support Trump,” Johns said. “So we de-Americanized a whole swath of the population … we have two segments of our nation where we all claim the title ‘American’ that have ‘othered’ each other.”

Students mainly expressed fears concerning social issues, especially with the LGBT, Latino and Muslim communities. Even nationally, there was a record-breaking 300 calls made to the crisis hotline Trans Lifeline 24 hours after the election results, according to a statement made on its Facebook page.

There was also uncertainty among the group, one student even asking Holland what to expect to happen in the next four years with the new president-elect. Holland encouraged students to get involved, especially at the local level.

“Community is messy,” Leber said. “Community has problems, it has people coming from all different viewpoints and community works when people listen.”

With many heavy topics discussed, Jones ended the event on a lighter note, asking students to voice what they are hopeful for.

Obama exits tech-savvy term

By Sara Hollabaugh, Online Editor

Barack Obama is and was a technologically savvy president.

Recently appearing on the Snapchat political show “Good Luck America,” Peter Hamby had a series of interview segments with the president.

Talking about social media, Hamby said, “Obama really gets it.”

During the interview, Obama said how he wasn’t always up-to-date with technology.

“Look, when I ran for president in 2008, it wasn’t like I was up to speed on every aspect of what was then the really early stage of social media,” Obama said on Snapchat. “But I hired a bunch of 25 and 26 year-olds who were all into it.”

Hamby said, “Obama’s use of social media to talk directly to people was very strategic.”

“When I watch Sasha and Malia consume information, it is chopped up,” Obama said on Snapchat.

“Make sure that interest is peaked by something short,” Obama added. “Go to the links, read the articles, get informed.”

On Snapchat, which was prior to election day, Obama had a strong message for viewers.

“People, this is Barack Obama. If I can figure out how to Snapchat, you can figure out how to go vote,” Obama said as he recorded a front-facing Snapchat video.

According to the Washington Post, Obama’s presidency has set a standard for social media candidacies.

“However history judges Obama’s role in transforming the office, this first American presi- dent of the social media age has already established a standard for how politicians connect with a digitally savvy electorate,” Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post reporter wrote in an article published on May 16, 2016.

“Other chief executives did net- work TV; Obama is the streaming- video, Netflix president,” Eilperin added in her article.

In the same article, Nate Persily, a Stanford University law professor, addresses how Obama’s messaging goes directly to the people.

“With the new platforms, not only can President Obama speak

directly to ‘the people,’” Persily said in the article. “But he can also target particular messages to audiences that ordinarily would not be paying attention.”

The White House reaches Americans and the world through three Twitter accounts, four Facebook accounts, a Google Plus account, Instagram and two Tumblr accounts.

Obama’s success with social media can be attributed the world making technological strides since he came into office in 2008.

“These changes are simply part of the new reality of having come to power during the digital and social media revolution,” Persily wrote in his article, attributing White House officials.

When Obama leaves the White House in January 2017, he leaves behind the legacy with the first of many things as president. He was the first African-American president and he was the first president to utilize social media.

Farewell, Obama

By Shamayeta Rahman, Transcript Reporter

When he entered the Oval Office, Barack Obama, 47, the junior senator from Illinois had made history as the United States’ first African-American President. He was inaugurated into office on Jan. 29, 2008 with an economy on the verge of a recession, skyrocketing unemployment rates and two wars that were nowhere near ending.

Now, after eight years and two terms served in office, as he grows closer to the end of his presidency, it is time for a retrospective analysis of his successes and failures, and what he will be leaving behind for his successor.

When campaigning in 2008, Obama defeated then Republican nominee John McCain with a majority of 365 electoral votes. A media sensation and a symbol of hope and change, Obama spoke loudly of his opposition to the war in Iraq and his intentions to end it, eradicating weapons of mass destruction around the world, and strengthening ties with allies to finish the fight with the al-Qaida and the Taliban.

He has always been a spokesperson on equality and LGBTQA+ rights and has been clear about promoting equal rights for men and women. His tech-savviness and progressiveness made him well-liked among the younger generation, and his charismatic personality did the rest.

Within the first 100 days of his inauguration, Obama put out an order to shut down Guantanamo Bay, but the Congress did not let it go through and started developing plans to deploy the troops from Iraq. He was awarded a Noble Prize for his promise to end the war in Iraq.

Having been elected in the midst of the subprime mortgage crisis, Obama acted soon to sign the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a $787 billion economic stimulus geared to helping the economy recover from the terrible recession. By the end of his first term, the unemployment rate had come down from 10 percent to 7.7 percent. And today, eight years after the Great Recession, the unemployment rate is back at its natural level much to the credit of the policies taken up by the Federal Reserve and the Obama Administration.

No president has ever had all their decisions met without some dissent. Although a popular figure, Obama has faced scrutiny about some of his policy decisions over the years. In 2011, the Congress decided to not support the president’s “involvement” in Libya which he disregarded as military action started up under NATO operations. Some deemed it to be an unconstitutional act on his behalf.

Again in 2015, the decision to get involved in Syria in the overthrowing of President Bashar-Al-Assad and getting rid of their chemical weapons was seen by the U.S. public as unnecessary specially in light of the fact that President Vladimir Putin had extended his support to Assad, and engaging in Syria would mean a rise in tensions with Russia.

Despite that, Obama does also have many great political successes in terms of renegotiating relations with Cuba, being the first U.S. President to visit Hiroshima since World War II, succeeding in negotiating with Iran, leading the war on terror and ISIS and most notably the assignation of Osama bin Laden. Though some of his decisions over the years have been disappointing to the public, others have been equally lauded.

Obama worked relentlessly to make the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare a reality. It helped provide health insurances to over 20 million uninsured Americans and made health care a lot more accessible to those who are struggling with poverty.

However, there have been lots of criticisms of Obamacare as well, noting its huge fees for not having insurance and not providing insurance, the rising costs in insurance premiums and the underemployment due to the specificity of this mandate. The health care system will need to be improved whether it is repealed or not.

Donald Trump, the next president of the U.S., will have to figure out how to reduce national debt which is currently at 75 percent of the gross domestic product, make reforms in the health care system and immigrations process and take on the role of ending multiple involvements in the Middle East.

We have four years to see if Trump can fill Barack Obama’s shoes, who in the end of the day is a well-loved President who worked with the nation’s best interest in heart despite his many shortcomings.

Saturday Night Live covers elections

By Matt Maier, Transcript Reporter

What are three words that describe this year’s election? Now, think of the Saturday Night Live skits that have been done. Are your answers roughly similar?

This election has brought some of the funniest and most outrageous sketch performances in recent history.

The infamous SNL skits have been centerpieces of the elections for years now, and this election has not disappointed. Let’s take a look back and rank some from this year’s election.

The first debate gave SNL plenty of material, and SNL used the ammunition accordingly. The countless “sniffles” of Alec Baldwin’s Donald Trump truly brought up the is- sue many Americans were thinking and the style that Kate McKinnon’s Hillary Clinton entered was right on cue.

Walking in with a cane, as if the rumors of her health second best out of the three.

The town hall debate had one iconic moment that people have forever remembered: Ken Bone.
The man who asked a question during this debate found memes and images of himself all around the country the next day and the SNL skit didn’t fail to mention him.

When asked about setting a good example for children, McKinnon answered “yes,” while Baldwin simply said “no,” earning laughs. This debate sketch comes in at number three, however.

Finally, the third and last debate was one for the ages as guest moderator Tom Hanks played the part of Chris Wallace.

If the attention from that wasn’t enough, audiences loved the way that McKinnon’s Clinton opened up the debate with how she was planning to “feast” in her last debate. As for Baldwin’s Trump performance, none were as good. Over the years, many people have played Trump, but Baldwin stole the show.