The 2016 presidential election will be a groundbreaking election no matter who gets elected. Voters on both sides of the aisle are angry with the current government and want change. Some people believe that the current administration isn’t doing enough to deal with our major problems; others believe they are overstepping their boundaries.
What are our major problems, you might ask? I’ve thought of three major problems the country is divided on: the situation in the Middle East, gun violence and immigration. All three of these topics relate to each other. The situation in the Middle East leads to terrorist attacks in other countries like France and Brussels, and on our own soil, like the San Bernardino shooting. If the situation in the Middle East is controlled and ISIS is stopped, terrorist attacks will become a lot rarer, and will not happen every other day.
Gun violence ties into this. Some want simple background checks and restrictions for certain people, some want assault weapons banned and confiscated, others call for a full ban on guns and ammunition, citing the fact that terrorists use guns and wouldn’t be able to if we banned them. The simple fact is, they would still get guns. The only way to protect ourselves against terrorist attacks and shootings is to shoot back. If a group of terrorists were to get a group of people in a crowded space and someone has a gun, the likelihood of the terrorists killing a mass number of people would drastically drop. Otherwise, they have all the time in the world while the police take 20 to 30 minutes to arrive and even longer to figure out a way to stop the attack.
Immigration is yet another topic that ties into the Middle East. Certain candidates in the race call for the removal of illegal immigrants. Others are perfectly fine with illegal immigrants serving in our military. That means giving undocumented and potentially dangerous people deadly weapons and combat training. We can’t have that.
All illegal immigrants need to be removed from the country and, if they want to come back, they need to enter legally. Immigrants should not be allowed to serve in the military or purchase guns until they have been thoroughly screened and have passed the naturalization test. Every day we have dozens of undocumented immigrants flooding in from the Middle East with possible connections to ISIS and they prove an immediate threat to our security. This needs to end.
We need another strong administration in charge, not another Obama administration. What we need is someone like Ronald Reagan, and I firmly believe that Ted Cruz is the closest candidate to Reagan. I have been to two of his rallies and have also taken a survey on www.istandwith.com and have found that I side with Cruz 82 percent of the time. With a strong leader like him, we can finally get back on the right track.
Daniel Campbell, 18, attends Conant High School.