The final lap of this election season is approaching, and the American people are now less than 60 days away from electing a new president.
According to recent polls, one of the top issues for most voters is combating terrorism. This is no surprise when looking at current events — the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks has come and gone. It is a reminder that the United States cannot afford a weak response to global threats.
The next president will face many challenges from multiple enemies. We as Wisconsinites must vote for the right candidate who will embark on a foreign policy track, which guarantees American strength and protection of democratic values abroad. We have our whole lives ahead of us. Let’s make sure our future is secure.
Over the last eight years, our enemies have grown exponentially as the Obama Administration has mishandled numerous foreign policy crises. Military spending has declined from 4.6 percent of the country’s gross domestic product in 2010, to 3.3 percent in 2015. Vladimir Putin, president of the Russian Federation, controls an authoritarian state and has expanded his country’s borders. When his forces occupied Crimea, President Barack Obama failed to push him out. As the civil war in Syria raged on, Obama stated the Syrian government would face “enormous consequences” for using chemical weapons, and when they actually did, the president still did not utilize the American military. Instead, he resorted to diplomatic conferences and ceasefires that have failed to achieve anything. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria continues to engage in a brutal genocide that has killed thousands who don’t conform to their views.
Our next choice in commander-in-chief is critical. To prove their foreign policy credentials, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump have outlined two opposing strategies.
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Clinton has the advantage of decades of experience as a senator and secretary of state. Yet experience is no guarantee of a strong foreign policy. Former President James Buchanan, our 15th president who held similar experience to Clinton, proved to be indecisive at the onset of the American Civil War. Further, there is continuous scandal undermining her honesty. If we can’t trust Clinton to competently handle classified material, how can we trust her to make decisions on behalf of America on the global scale?
On the other side of the aisle, Trump lacks any foreign policy experience at all. He often claims he will take the advice of generals on how to execute a plan to defeat ISIS and other policy goals. He also speaks dangerously favorably of Putin, a concern for several of our closest allies, because it is dangerous to appease and befriend our enemies at the expense of our friends. Putin needs to be stopped, not encouraged, and the fact that a major contender for president does not understand this should concern each one of us.
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Clinton and Trump are two of the most unpopular candidates to run for office in history, but these are the two we are stuck with, as a third party is unlikely to win the White House. As the race approaches the finish line, they will both continue to expand on their foreign policy plans, which we can only hope will continue to develop. They will then clash at debates over their strategies, and it’s imperative we all watch closely to ensure our next president is prepared to make the world safer.
John M. Graber ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in history and political science.
