By Alec Liberman
Opinions Contributor
1855. No, I’m not referring to the year. That’s the number of people who filled out an FEC Form 2– otherwise known as a Statement of Candidacy. 1,855 people filled out a form in an attempt to become the next President of the United States.
Of course, not all of those people were serious about it. Among the names “Clinton, Hillary Rodham” and “Trump, Donald J” were pranksters such as “Balboa, Rocky” and “Schrute, Dwight K” (along with some other names not fit for publishing). If you’re so inclined, you can see the full list here.
Of course, a very, very small percentage of those that filled out a form were legally able to become a candidate, as they would have had to spend in excess of or receive contributions in excess of $5,000.
Thus, the real list of candidates was very quickly whittled down to a select few that were actually on the primary ballot: 12 Republicans, six Democrats, and a small number of independent or third party candidates. However, it quickly became clear that there were really only three Democratic candidates who stood a chance: Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, and Martin O’Malley.
12 Republicans and three Democrats. Actually, Martin O’Malley dropped out rather quickly, leaving our numbers at 12 and two. That enormous change in the size of the candidate pool is what gave the Democrats a large advantage, and that’s what gave the Republican party a huge setback.
For almost the entire election, Sanders and Clinton were duking it out, seeing who would get the most votes during the primaries, and they were decently close to each other. They both had similar goals, but while they had different methods and different styles of execution, they were both comparable to each other.
This was, unfortunately, not the case with the Republican Party.
This election was a tough one for me. I started out supporting Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, and even John Kasich– all of whom dropped out. Many, many Republican voters were in the same situation as myself. The Republican party was, and is, so incredibly divided that we could not focus on one viable candidate. The Republican election really was an counterexample to the idea of safety in numbers. The fanbase was so split that it was impossible to decide on one strong candidate, so we were left with Donald Trump.
The Democrats had two choices right from the start, and the competition was fierce. However, the Republican party’s attention was split between far too many candidates to stand a chance. This was not a process of elimination. This was a process of who could scream louder– and that contest’s winner was Donald Trump.
In politics, bigger is not always better. This election was a prime example of that. Instead of pulling together and supporting one or two candidates, Republicans split all their attention between 12 candidates, whereas the Democrats, up until the very end, were neck and neck between two.
This election really was just a shouting contest.
