NOCTILUCA October 2016

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OPINIONS
Appleton, Wisconsin October 2016 Volume XXII Issue II Page 4
On Nov. 8, the nation faces one
of the most important decisions
— electing a new president. This
election is like none ever before.
Clearly, it is also capturing the at-
tention of the entire globe. With
big personalities like business-
man Donald Trump as one of
the candidates, media coverage
is bound to be widespread and
frequent.And though his election
can seem more like a fictional
TV show than the decision of the
United States’next president, it is
important to do your part by vot-
ing. Being aware of the platforms
and ideas of each candidate will
help provide you and voters with
the information necessary to cast
an educated ballot. Former Sec-
retary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton is the democratic can-
didate for this 2016 presidential
election, and she has plans to
help you.
Secretary Clinton is looking
out for the common working
class American and their fami-
lies. Like a compassionate politi-
cian should, she cares for her con-
stituents and wants to help them,
not big business. Hillary believes
in creating a fair tax system in
which big businesses and Wall
Street will pay their fair share.
While closing the loopholes on
Wall Street, Clinton has plans to
provide tax cuts to small busi-
ness. “It’s outrageous that multi-
millionaires and billionaires are
allowed to play by a different set
of rules than hardworking fami-
lies, especially when it comes to
paying their fair share of taxes,”
says Clinton. She very firmly
believes in keeping jobs here in
the United States and creating
jobs in communities. Clinton’s
five-point plan works to achieve
an economy that benefits all by
making debt free college avail-
able to everyone, rewriting the
rules so companies share their
profits with employees, and rais-
ing the national mini-
mum wage. Secretary
Clinton’s overall goal
is to provide relief and
higher income to the
everyday family, not to
favor big business.
It is very clear that
equality amongst all
people is still not a con-
stant factor. Women
only make about 80
cents to a man’s dol-
lar and do not have full
control of their repro-
ductive health. Mem-
bers of the LGBT com-
munity do not have the
same basic rights and respect as
cis-gendered and straight peo-
ple do in the workplace and the
community. Immigrants are dis-
criminated against and families
are torn apart through difficult
naturalization processes. Racial
profiling is active in the police
forces. To eliminate inequal-
ity, Clinton plans to stand with
Planned Parenthood; provide
paid work leave, including fam-
ily leave; give federal basic rights
to LGBT persons; and promote
naturalization of immigrant fami-
lies while keeping them together.
Every American deserves
health care, and Secretary Clin-
ton plans to provide greater ease
in healthcare. Clinton will defend
the Affordable Care Act, which
provides health care coverage
to over 20 million people, and
combine mental health care with
physical health care which will
provide psychiatric care to ev-
eryone. Clinton wants to launch
a National Suicide Prevention
initiative. Overall, Secretary
Clinton wants to provide health-
care to every American. No one
deserves to live with the unrest of
not having health coverage.
Secretary Clinton has big plans
for the country that will help pro-
vide a better current state and a
better future. She is looking to
protect every American’s rights.
She plans to raise the incomes
of American families. She will
protect and clean up the envi-
ronment. She will make sure all
Americans have access to health-
care. Hillary Clinton has goals;
she has lists of things she wants
to achieve, and she has plans on
how to achieve these goals in-
stead of simply stating she has
“big plans.” Hillary Clinton is
an experienced politician who
looks out for her constituents and
sees her constituents as people.
President Clinton will look out
for you.
Liberal expresses support for Democratic platform
Libertarian reflects frustration regarding candidates
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Editorial Staff
Senior Editor-In-Chief
Nora Ptacek
Junior Editor-In-Chief
Jake Zajkowski
Managing Editor
Kate Bennett
News Editor
Ally Price
Opinions Editor
Maeve Salm
Features Editor
Trinity Olson
Centerspread Editor
Salma Abdel-Azim
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Contributors
Ahmad Abdel-Azim
Salma Abdel-Azim
Fatima Ali
Nolan Arnold
Erik Bakken
Kate Bennett
Andrea Calzada
Maddie Clark
Sarah Fleming
Alex Laux
Sarah Lange
Kala Lones
Olivia Molter
Gabriel Noel
Shannon Obrien
Trinity Olson
Tiffany Palys
Sophie Plzak
Ally Price
Henry Ptacek
Nora Ptacek
Alok Ravel
Adithi Reddy
Maeve Salm
Maddy Schilling
Alex Wormley
By Alok Ravel
2016. When I hear that set
of numbers, I honestly do not
know what to think. There re-
ally is no label we can apply to
this year. Actually, there is one.
Confusing. It is confusing to me
because we have a vast amount
of social and economic issues
that have been unaddressed, not
to mention international turmoil.
Yet somehow, we have managed
to let two inane and incompetent
individuals run for the office
of the President of the United
States due to the hypocrisy of the
two-party system. For those of
you who do not know who I am
speaking of, those two people
are Hillary Clinton and Donald
Trump.
In terms of the upcoming elec-
tion, I honestly have been left
speechless by both candidates,
and not in a good way. On one
hand, you have Hillary Clinton,
who as far as I know, is not well-
liked by most Liberals due to
a variety of reasons. The main
concern I have with her becom-
ing our president is that she may
start World War Three. I say this
because of her past work as the
Secretary of State, including her
“removal” of internet-based files
that contained sensitive informa-
tion, such as SCI (above top se-
cret) and SIGMA 1 (which has
to do with nuclear energy and
weapons) classifications. Ad-
ditionally, Clinton’s statements
regarding the Russian Federa-
tion’s involvement in theMiddle
East seems to be a subliminal at-
tempt to prod the Russian Bear,
Vladimir Putin (a man I have
the utmost respect for). Yes, the
United States has a large and
well equipped military but Hill-
ary realizes to what limits the
Russians would go to act upon
insults.
On to everyone’s favorite busi-
nessman and newly-appointed
politician: Donald Trump!
Out of 17 Republican candi-
dates, some worse than others
*COUGH* Ben Carson, how
in the world did the party man-
age to let Trump be the frontrun-
ner? Anyway, it is a bit too late
to be asking that question, so
let’s cut to the chase. Last year
while I was doing some research
for a speech regarding Donald
Trump’s business, social, and
political life, I acquired more in-
formation about his opinions and
dealings. Donald’s ideas about
his foreign policy and econom-
ic ideals have been obscure to
most people, including myself.
From what I have been able to
discern, I think I agree with his
ideals of trickle-down econom-
ics and bringing industry and
business back to the States, but
still, I will not commit to sup-
porting him because he has been
inconsistent in his decisions. In
the past, Donald Trump has sup-
ported and endorsed candidates
from the Democratic and Green
Parties, and I respect others’
opinions and decisions, but to
have someone who has been all
over the political board does not
make them a trustworthy person
to run our country. Another sub-
ject that bothers me is Trump’s
thoughts on immigration. I can
see how he thinks it would be
good to detain people of cer-
tain ethnicities and religions,
but in my eyes, that is a very
unfair and unintelligent thing to
do. This particular aspect of the
Trump campaign is something
that is important to me because
although my siblings and I are
all natural born citizens and my
parents have been legal United
States citizens for a considerable
amount of time, I am still a per-
son of South Asian descent. To
single out people who believe in
a certain religion because of oth-
ers’ actions is simply unconstitu-
tional.After all of this immigrant
talk, I am compelled to give my
opinion on those who illegally
enter the country. As long as said
illegal alien is being a productive
member of society, is willing to
produce valid identification, and
takes the citizenship test, they
should be allowed to reside in
the United States as a document-
ed alien.
All in all, whoever you pick
at the end of the day, nobody re-
ally knows in what direction this
country is headed. I hopeAmeri-
cans will see past the political fa-
cade and vote for a better future
for our country, the United States
of America.
By Alex Laux
Comparing perspectives: The 2016 election
Alok Ravel comments on
the current election. Photo by
Maeve Salm
Alex Laux comments on Hilary Clin-
ton’s platform. Photo courtesy of Alex Laux