Take a second and look at Americas current political situation

from the outside. We have an authoritarian rise on the right and a

socialist rise on the left. Two totally distinct and troubling movements
are continually captivating the attention of the American public. When
I see these loud movements I often ask myself the question of if this is
actually America. By that I mean, do these movements actually
represent who we are as Americans and how we actually think? I tend
to lean towards the answer of no.
The grand majority of Americans arent socialist. Either they just
dont understand what socialism entails or they are enthralled with the
rise of Bernie Sanders. I understand how likeable he is, he seems
genuine and caring to the every day individual, as a president should
be. But I question how much people actually agree with his policies,
they fall in love with who Senator Sanders is as a person and thus
share that to an annoyingly high degree on social media. But looking
directly at his policies on wealth distribution, it is inconceivable to me
that people would actually identify with them or believe that he
actually has a shot to implement them (no, we are not Denmark and
are too categorically different to even be compared to them). Sanders
seems to be a product of the current political situation, people are
angry with how Congress has acted (or not acted) and want a change.
Bernie represents that change and does so in a likeable way. This
makes it hard for younger people to pass up on him, even if they dont
totally understand what a Sanders presidency would entail.
The grand majority of Americans dont want an authoritarian
figure in the White House either. Trumps rise is drenched in his cult of
personality. Again, people are disenchanted by Congress and are
looking for a strong man to whip the government into shape, please
enter Mr. Trump. However troubling his rhetoric has become, people
just dont seem to care since he represents an outside influence that
could show Congress what the American people actually want, action.
With Trump comes the media attention that has propelled him to being
the front-runner of the Republican primary. But as we see with
Sanders, there is no way people actually believe in what Trump is
putting forth (no matter how many times he contradicts himself).
What does the grand majority of Americans want? The every day
American falls in the middle of the political spectrum, not the far right
or left. People tend to compromise on issues, not take hard line
stances. They believe that there should be some wealth distribution,
not a complete socialist system. They believe that people should come
into this country legally, but dont condone military vehicles driving
around and picking up all the illegals. Part of the reason why so few
moderates come into prominence is because of our political system.
Since we have only two parties, candidates fighting in primaries must
pander to the radical sides because like it or not, the radical sides are

the most active. This means cozying up the NRA on the Republican
side and taking favors from Unions on the Democratic side.
Im not saying that there arent any genuine supporters of the
aforementioned candidates, because there certainly are. I just believe
that these candidates are capitalizing off the political turmoil of our
time and are bringing along people that at a base level dont believe in
what the candidate is putting forward, they just see capability in the
candidate. Unfortunately this seems to be our reality until America
wakes up to the danger it poses. Until then, from the outside it will
perpetually seem like America is falling. Or at least it will seem like we
are in a continual bickering war with each other.