Overall, how do you feel about this election? Did we, as a country, do everything right? Did the media handle this election well? If you could go back and change something, what would you change?

We blew it: We’re more divided as a country than we’ve ever been, that’s for sure. One part of the process that I think is interesting is that the Republican party can’t override the decision made during the primaries. The DNC didn’t like Bernie because he’s super left wing, so the super delegates didn’t vote for him because they didn’t have to. The Republican party didn’t have this choice, so they had to pick Trump. Trump is ripping them up from the inside. If they could go back in time, I bet they’d want to redo that.

-Joe Scanlon, Fifth Year Senior

They should have opened up the primaries to a wider array of people. I feel like the primaries are for seriously political people. If we could do the primaries again, I think they would definitely have a different outcome. At least, I’d hope so.

Brett Fuller, Freshman

I think if we could rewind back a year, everyone would take a look and say “Okay, definitely not these two, because they don’t know what they’re doing.” We’ve got a psychopath and someone who is very corrupt. I think this result was because people don’t pay attention to politics. Maybe because of this, they will pay attention. Hopefully.

Brandon Fuller, Sophomore

This out come was inevitable. We were headed down a shitty path from a long time ago. It didn’t start with Obama, its just been coming down the road and now shit’s hitting the fan. And There wasn’t so much a problem with the media itself but with how the candidates used the media. Donal Trump used twitter to say all these derogatory things and I think the media has done an okay job of showing the side of the bad things, honestly I think they’ve done an okay job since covering these things is their job. The media is always trying to get ratings up so they do the best they can to get people riled up, but people shouldn’t be buying into it. They should focus on what’s most important to them and their life.

Kegan Leckler, Sophomore

Other countries are laughing at who our two candidates are. If you look at the two candidates, one of those two are going to be our president. That’s the biggest flaw of this election season, is that we let this woman who’s being investigated by the FBI or this man who has sexual assault allegations against him. That’s who it is going to be.

Additionally, I don’t think the nasty, personal attacks will divide us after the election is over. If you’re a mean person, I think you’re going to continue to be mean. Myself, I have so many friends who are on the different political sides and we’re all still friends. Just because that’s the way politics is going now doesn’t mean that is how it has to influence me. Mean people will be mean regardless, but I don’t think the good people will stop being good. Its not like the majority of people want Clinton or Trump, which means that the vitriol in this campaign is largely coming from either extreme of the party sides and not the normal part of the population.

Sam Melcher, Senior

We did the right thing: We received no responses for this opinion.

Next week’s topic (11/9): This paper will come out exactly one day after election results are in. Instead of making a black and white topic about it, we are going to leave the topic open to all submissions and thoughts. We welcome any thoughts you have before, after, or during the election. Let us be your outlet of frustration, joy, or both as you watch election results pour in. Whether it is a sentence or a paragraph, whether it is election related or not, tell us how you’re feeling next week.