The Elephant in the Room (Part 2)

By Dashiell Sims and Ethan Ziv

With Biden and Trumps approval ratings in the low 40’s and high 30’s according to a poll by ABC News, it seems that Americans are looking for different candidates. This is most likely due to a series of upheavals surrounding both presidential candidates.   

One such upheaval happening in the Republican Party is the situation with presidential candidate Donald J. Trump’s impending trial. Specifically, all courts except for New York state have postponed trying Trump for his numerous charges - a whopping 97! 

7th grade ELA teacher Ms. Haft corroborated this by stating, “He’s in a lot of legal trouble; I know he’s in a criminal trial right now, and the jury’s being selected, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens.” 

What this could mean for America is that Trump could be elected president, then be convicted and serve his presidency from the Rectangular Cell in the Big House instead of the Oval Office in the White House. However, it is much more likely that Trump will simply pardon himself the moment he comes into power, despite this being unprecedented legal ground.

On the other hand, the current president Joe Biden, attempting to get reelected against the aforementioned Trump, has an image problem. According to a poll by The New York Times, 13 percent of Democratic voters have put in a protest vote in the Democratic primary, which is a vote for nobody or another candidate besides the one favored to win. The average protest vote is 7 percent.

At his current age of 81, people are bound to make mistakes, and when Biden does, it is immediately clipped and spread around social media. Interestingly, Trump, who is 77, is nearly as old as Biden and makes similar mistakes, but only 40 percent of people think he is too old to be president. The two are the oldest presidential candidates in history.If Biden wins, and fully serves out his term, he will be the oldest president in history. 

6th grade teacher Miss Davis brought up several issues about having old presidential candidates, citing dementia and other cognitive problems,  even going so far as to say, “Well, one of them could drop dead.” 

Thus, while experienced candidates might seem valuable, age can do more harm than good. So, who will rise from the rematch this November?