Category: Politics

2016 Election Highlights

By John Bonus, Transcript Reporter

From start to finish, this election has been anything but ordinary. Since candidates first started announcing their campaigns, America has been on one of the wildest political roller coasters in history.

While there have been many surprising moments in this election, some stand out above the rest. These are the most memorable moments from the 2016 election.

Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president. Trump announced he would be running for president at Trump Tower in New York City last June. It began with a long escalator ride down to the stage, followed by the first controversial speech that started it all. In that speech, he first used the slogan, “Make America Great Again,” and made comments about Mexico bringing drugs and crime as well as introduced his idea to build a wall on the border.

Enough of the emails. At the first Democratic Primary Debate, Hillary Clinton was being ques- tioned about her emails when Bernie Sanders stepped in her defense. “The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails,” Sanders said. The comment came as a surprise as it’s not typical for candidates to defend their opponents on stage.

Trump covered “Hotline Bling.” In an awkward yet hilarious parody on Saturday Night Live, Trump showed off his dance moves while singing a few lines to Drake’s hit song “Hotline Bling.” Marco Rubio made comments about the size of Trumps hands. This moment really was surprising, as up to this point Trump had been the only one making risky remarks. At one of his rallies, Rubio said Trump had small hands.

“And you know what they say about men with small hands,” Rubio said. Trump responded to Rubio’s comments at his rally, assuring his supporters that there was, “no problem.”

Birdie Sanders. At a rally in Portland, a small bird landed on the podium while Sanders was giving a speech. Sanders stopped mid-speech and acknowledged the bird while the audience applauded.

The Clintons’ obsession with fireworks and balloons at the Democratic National Convention. After it was announced Clinton was the nominee, fireworks were launched and Clinton gave an expression as though she had never seen fireworks before. Bill Clinton also seemed to have an obsession with the balloons. After Hillary spoke, he continued to play with the balloons, while people took pictures of him, creating some hilarious candids.

Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner. At a fundraiser dinner in New York, both Clinton and rump had the opportunity to make comments in regard to the election.

It was an informal face-off between the candidates and the speeches were intended to be hu- morous. However, both candidates didn’t shy away from using the opportunity to throw some harsh jabs at each other.

Recording of Trump’s com- ments about women. A recording of Trump making vulgar com- ments about women in 2005 surfaced in early October and it was shocking even for Trump.

In the recording,Trump said things such as, “When you’re a star, they let you do it.”

Trump received heavy backlash for the audio clip, even from his supporters.

This election has been controversial from the start, with some moments being hilarious and oth- ers leaving people scratching their heads.

And now that the election is over, Americans may wonder where they will get their entertainment from in the future.

OWU’s mock vote falls flat

By Matt Maier, Transcript Reporter

Would it be Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump?

This was the question Ohio Wesleyan wanted to know when they held a mock vote Nov. 2.

The Student Involvement Office, located in the Hamilton-Williams Campus Center, held a mock presidential vote and the result was what the students on this campus would expect.

Clinton won the mock vote in an unsurprising victory. But in total, there were only 192 votes counted out of the roughly 1,600 students on campus.

Of these 192 votes, 122 went to Clinton while Trump received a mere 45 votes. Gary Johnson received nine votes, Jill Stein received one vote and 15 other write-ins were received.

“This mock vote was just a fun event for the students since it is an election year and we were just curious on how they were planning to vote in this election,” said Chloe Holmes, a student who works in the Student Involvement Office.

Would this mock vote correlate to the winner on Nov. 8? Students thought so.

“I think the students on campus here at OWU know exactly who is going to win,” said senior Kelly Schade. “It doesn’t surprise me at all that Hillary won the mock vote.”

Clinton won the mock vote, but Trump won the presidency.

Voting made easy on and off campus

By Michael Barr, Transcript Correspondent

Only once in one class’s college career does the occasion arise in which Ohio Wesleyan students can cast their vote and unsurprisingly, opinions become evident.

OWU holds consistent with the tradition of small liberal arts college cam- puses being predominately politically liberal, according to the recent campus-wide Mock Voting Results in which Hillary Clinton defeated Donald Trump 122-45. While only a small scale of students were represented in the Mock Vote, the results provide a thought-provoking perspective of campus life.

Losing by nearly three times as many votes, the question then becomes whether or not the campus is predominately liberal, underrepresented conservatively or that the campus has created a space in which conservative ideology is socially unacceptable.

Non partisan early voting shuttles were provided for jointly by the Politics and Government department and the Student Involvement Office at five different times to provide students transportation to and from the Delaware County Board of Elections.

One can frequently expect to see a plethora of various Clinton apparel strolling across campus, though countable on a single hand is an embroidered “Make America Great Again” slogan. But in regard to verbal support for Clinton, the same can be said.

While college campuses are hardly conservative, any showing of a right-leaning motion seems almost
taboo at OWU, with the overwhelming support for Clinton surely causing the opinions of campus Repub- licans to feel exhaustingly isolated.

As the college demographic represents a crucial portion of voters, registering while at OWU was made as simple as possible, due to a large presence of campaign volunteers.

The early voting process was an easier process for time-strapped students, allowing them the weekend to get to the polls.

103-year-old Dorothy Sellers votes for Hillary

By Areena Arora, Managing Editor

A 103-year-old lifelong Republican Dorothy Sellers voted for Hillary Clinton.

Sellers was born seven years before women were given the right to vote and has only seen men in the Oval Office.

Sellers studied as an English major at Ohio Wes- leyan University from 1932-33, but had to leave before graduating because of the Great Depression.

Originally from Pennsylvania, Sellers decided to join OWU and said she “really enjoyed it here.” She said, “After leaving OWU, I came to New York and took various courses at New York University, but never graduated.”

Since leaving OWU’s campus 83 years ago, Sellers has never been back, but would like to, she said.

“I’ve been a registered Republican, always … but I’m an Independent now … I voted for Roosevelt and Obama and now for Hillary.”

She said she did not care for George W. Bush. “I did not like the war … I did not like his office.” She said she believes firmly in the democratic power to express opinions through voting. “I was not a big political mover and shaker … I didn’t march or protest … I always just voted.”

Sellers said it is very exciting for a woman to be able to reach the nomination

“I have nothing against women being the president. They are just as smart as men … If she wins, it would turn the page.”

Despite being a Republican, Sellers chose Clinton because she said she thinks Clinton would make a bet- ter president. “For obvious reasons … Trump has no experience … all this sex business is not presidential … [Trump] would not make good decisions.”

Sellers voted on the morning of Nov. 8. “The polling place was not crowded when I went. Freeport, [New York] is a very integrated village … there’s all kinds of people here.”

If Trump does win, Sellers said she is unsure how she would react. “My reaction would be very upset.” But she added she is hopeful. “If we have to go forward, we will. We got out of the Great Depression … so we can get out of anything.”

Her time at Ohio Wesleyan was a difficult one. With the Great Depression setting in, she also had to deal with her father’s death and her family house burned down. But she said she would love to visit again given the opportunity.

Levy for mental health passes

By Gabe Linderman, Transcript Reporter

There were two Delaware, Ohio local levies, one charter amendment and an income tax increase up on the ballot this election day. Two were countywide levies, one was a local tax increase and the last issue was an amendment to the existing city charter. Both levies and the amendment passed, but the tax increase failed.

The first countywide levies will increase financial support of Delaware-Morrow Mental Health and Recovery Services, a bi-county organization that provides mental health and substance abuse treatment and prevention services.

The levy passed with 65.57 percent of residents for the levy and 34.43 percent against the levy.

It is a five-year levy that will generate an estimated $7.3 million every year for mental health and recovery services in Delaware and Morrow counties.

It will increase yearly property taxes in Delaware County to $29.09 for every $100,000 of property value.

The second countywide levy will renew and increase an existing levy supporting 911 emergency services. The levy passed with 58.95 percent of voters supporting the levy while 34.43 percent were against it.

The levy will increase from $13.18 per every $100,000 of property value to $19.48 per every $100,000 of property value. The additional $1.1 million will allow for continued operations of Delaware County 911 emergency services and expansion as the county continues to grow.

There was also an amendment to the city’s charter that passed. Every eight years, a review commission of nine elec- tors is formed to review and examine the charter.

This year, the commission recommended 34 changes to the charter. All of the changes either modernize the document (removed outdated provisions), clarify parts of the document (removed ambiguity from charter sections), or work to clean up the charter (made the document more readable and under table).

Finally on the ballot was a proposed municipal income tax increase. Voters in Delaware city proper have voted against an increase of their income tax rate from 1.85 percent to 2 percent.

The extra $2.2 million that would have been generated annually would’ve gone towards Moving Delaware Forward, a city project focused on “reducing congestion and improving the overall efficiency of our street network.” The project would have increased the rate at which streets are resurfaced, work on traffic signal timing issues, and increasing parking capacity, among other things.

Delaware County goes red again

By Leah Miza, Photo Editor

Delaware County has been a predominantly red county since 1861, and in this year’s election, so was the state of Ohio.

Delaware has been a republican party vote for around for 150 years, said Andrew Brenner, Ohio state representative. He added that the main issues include regulatory reforms and the Second Amendment.

The heavy agrarian history also played a major role in the patterns of the county.

“I only knew about Delaware County since 1988 when I moved here, but it strikes me that we are originally a farm community and German farmers, particularly in this end of the state of Ohio, based on research Germanic farmers tended to vote Republican since Abraham Lincoln,” said Ohio Wesleyan’s Chaplain Jon Powers.

Ed Helvey, chair of the Delaware County Democrats, said the democrats been losing these races for a long time. Delaware has not elected a democratic county official since 1976.

“He was the only democrat re-elected in more than 100 years,” he said. Brenner said, “We have a lot of good elected officials. Nobody has any complaints about them.”

Powers also noted the southern suburbs from Columbus that are moving north such as Powell, Dublin and Westerville tend to be professionals who also then tend to be republican.

Additionally, Delaware is one of the top 10 counties in the country of people under the age of 40 with an advanced degree, which is a factor that also contributes to the ongoing pattern, according to Helvey.

“We went from agrarian to a sophisticated community overnight,” he said.

President-elect Donald J. Trump’s Policies: National Debt

By Shamayeta Rahman, Transcript Reporter

Currently the U.S. has about $14 trillion in debt, which is about 75 percent of the gross domestic product.

This is projected to grow by almost 130 percent by 2040. Majority of the U.S. public spending goes into federal health care and Social Security costs.

High national debt hinders the economy greatly and often leads to great fiscal crises.

According to Gallup, 72 percent of Americans believe that reducing the federal budget deficit should be the elected candidate’s first priority.

Trump’s primary stand on the national debt issue has been the promise of reducing taxes for high wage earners to promote investment and growth in the economy.

He also intends to increase growth by tightening up trade by increasing tariffs on the international front and deregulating on the domestic front.

He believes that all of this will help drive the economy forward.

While cutting down on Obamacare and instead proposing a state-based block grant for Medicaid will save him about $500 billion, it will be spent in whatever health care reform that will be in place instead of Obamacare.

He proposed a “Penny Plan” which would allow massive budget cuts in the federal government even if it is by 1 percent a year (excluding defense, Social Security and federal health spending), but a majority of this saving will also be taken up by increased spending on defense and veteran care.

Trump has a lot of reforms in mind, but without a lot of information on how he plans to fund or sustain these programs.

He will be cutting down on income taxes which will cost the government about $4.5 trillion in revenue, leaving the country with about $5.3 trillion in federal deficit.

Under his policies, the U.S. could be looking at about 105 percent of the GDP in national debt.

President-elect Donald J. Trump’s Policies: Healthcare Act

By Areena Arora, Managing Editor

President Donald Trump plans to repeal and replace the Affordable Healthcare Act, commonly known as Obamacare.

According to Trump’s campaign website, his office “will work with Congress to create a patient-centered health care system that promotes choice, quality and affordability.”

In contrast, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign had promised to “defend and expand the Affordable Care Act which covers 20 million people.”

At different rallies throughout his campaign, Trump has said Obamacare has led to higher prices, fewer choices and lower quality. Earlier this year, in March, Trump proposed “for Congress to remove barriers to entry into free markets for drug providers that offer safe, reliable and cheaper products.”

According to the full proposal, “On day one of the Trump Administration, we will ask Congress to immediately deliver a full repeal of Obamacare.”

According to his campaign website, no person should be required to buy insurance unless he or she wants to.

Pro free market, Trump’s health care reform paper said, “We will work with Congress to make sure we have a series of reforms ready for implementation … By following free market principles and working together to create sound public policy that will broaden health care access, make health care more affordable and im-
prove the quality of the care available to all Americans.”

Abortion, too, was hotly debated.

At a debate in February 2016 at University of Houston, Trump declared that he is pro-life, whereas Clinton said, “Politicians have no business interfering with women’s personal health decisions.”

“If we were to simply enforce the current immigration laws and restrict the unbridled granting of visas to this country, we could relieve healthcare cost pressures on state and local governments.” Providing health care to illegal immigrants costs the country some $11 billion annually, according to Trump’s website.

Rob Portman wins reelection

By Gopika Nair, Chief Copy Editor and Liz Hardaway, Arts & Entertainment Editor

Republican senator Rob Portman won reelection for Ohio on election day.

Portman ran for his second term against democratic nominee and former Ohio governor Ted Strickland.

Portman won with 58.4 percent of the votes, with 36.9 percent going to Strickland.

In Delaware County, Strickland won with the majority, 67,500 votes out of the almost 100,000 voters, according to the New York Times Ohio U.S Senate results.

Nearly $50 million was spent by outside groups on this senate race, according to the Washington Post. Ads for Portman included his efforts to fight the growing opioid epidemic as well as combatting sex-trafficking in the state.

Republicans won the senate majority with 51 representatives elected. There are 47 democratic representatives in the senate.

The House majority is secured as well, with 235 republicans and 183 democrats, according to the New York Times.

Portman joins Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown to represent Ohio once again.

Brown has been a senator since 2006 and runs for reelection November 2018.

Where Portman’s stance on issues are concerned, Portman has said he doesn’t completely agree with President-elect Donald Trump’s views about immigration.

“I’ve supported immigration reform, but I have not supported the deportations of millions of non-citizens who are here because I don’t think it’s practical and I don’t think it would be humane for a lot of those families,” Portman was quoted as saying in an article by Karen Kasler for WOSU Public Media.

Portman said the right to keep and bear arms is a part of the Constitution and “our tradition in this country.”

Additionally, he said he believes that gun violence can be curbed by enforcing more stringent laws and conducting background checks.

On Sept. 27, Portman said on his Google page that he has been advocating to make college education more affordable for students.

“I’ve fought to make college more affordable by supporting the consolidation of student loan repayment programs and giving borrowers a choice between a fixed repayment schedule or an income-driven payment plan,” he said.

He also added that he believes if “two people are prepared to make a lifetime commitment to love and care for each other in good times and in bad, the government shouldn’t deny them the opportunity to get married.”

Introducing President-elect Donald J. Trump

By Courtney Dunne, Editor-in-Chief and Areena Arora, Managing Editor

The verdict is in. The 45th President-elect of the United States is business tycoon and tv personality Donald J Trump along with Vice President Mike Pence.

Defeating democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton by 61 electoral votes, Trump has emerged the winner. Swing states such as Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania emerged red effecting the electorate and skewing the results.

But he did not win by a landslide. Clinton walked away with the popular vote.

The final popular vote came in at Clinton 59,595,237 votes (47.7%) and 59,370,253 votes (47.5%) for Donald Trump, but in the voting system in the U.S., presidential candidates must win the majority of the electoral vote in order to win the election.

This historic election took an unexpected turn which brought Trump to the White House.

The country was looking for Trump to speak on the unity of the United States and in his acceptance speech early morning Nov. 9., Trump said, “Now it is time for America to bind the wounds of division.”

Despite the efforts of many students campaigning for Clinton at the foot of the JayWalk up until the election day, Delaware county voted for Trump.

Citizens waited around for hours waiting for Wisconsin, Michigan, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania went neck in neck for awhile with the vote sitting at 48.2 to 48.2, and in the end Trump won the state by 0.6 percent.

In Ohio, Trump won with 52.1 percent votes, while Hillary took 43.5 percent.

Trump kept the lead for the majority of the night, with Clinton pulling ahead taking the win in California, but it didn’t last for long. Swing states kept voters waiting into the early hours of the night.

The Republicans retained their majority in the House of Representatives and in the Senate, which will provide an ease for Trump that President Obama did not have in getting policy passed.

As the polls remained tight and Trump took the lead, investors began to pull their money out of the American markets. The Dow Jones industrial average plunged about 700 points throughout the election results.

Finally at 2:40 a.m. EST, Clinton called Trump saying she will concede the race, giving the country the president-elect.

Around 2:45 a.m., Trump delivered his acceptance speech opening with, “Thank you. Thank you very much, everybody. Sorry to keep you waiting. Complicated business. Complicated. Thank you very much. I’ve just received a call from Secretary Clinton. She congratulated us. It’s about us. On our victory, and I congratulated her and her family on a very, very hard-fought campaign.”

On Nov. 9 at 11:30 a.m. Secretary Hillary Clinton delivered her concession speech to the country, encouraging her voters to keep an open mind to the new president Trump.

She offered to work with him on behalf of the the country. She said she respects this peaceful transfer of power and reminded her voters that it is never wrong to fight for what is right.

“I feel pride and gratitude for this campaign that we built together.. You represent the best of America and being your candidate has been one of the greatest honors of my life,” said Clinton in her concession speech.

Trump is going into the presidency with over 50 percent approval ratings, which is historically high, according to CNN.

Shortly after Clinton delivered her concession speech President Barack Obama gave a speech from the White House Rose Garden.

Obama said he called Trump in the early morning hours of Nov. 9 to congratulate the new president-elect and to provide his support. Obama said he wants to honor the standing tradition of a peaceful transition, even with the man who challenged Obama’s birth rights of being a U.S. born citizen. Obama even invited Trump to the White House on Nov. 10 to start his peaceful transition.

Obama and Clinton urged their supporters to give trump the chance to lead the country, while Obama said he is doing his best to prepare Trump for the office, he said, “is bigger than anyone.”

There have been mixed reactions from students on OWU’s campus, and Obama tells us in his speech on Nov. 9 to stay positive and look to the bright side.

The inauguration day for Trump to take office is Jan. 20, 2017.