We live in a dog-eat-dog world where people take advantage of others.  With the heat and excitement of the election to become leader of the free world, candidates will take advantage of any flaws to get to the top. At formal debates, candidates have been known to bicker like children. 

“[The debates have been] very entertaining. [They] add more opportunity for competition,” says Whitman freshman Parker Keller.  This very well may be true, but I propose this question to you: Do you think this form of competition has gone too far?

Recent bickering occurred when Republican Marco Rubio attacked frontrunner Donald Trump.  During Rubio’s Dallas rally, he mocked Trump’s misspelled tweets and even his pants. Trump responded by calling Rubio a “choker,” “lightweight,” and “clown.” 

In this election season, candidates have gone so far to even compare and make fun of body feature to claim a win.  Where, according to Business Insider, Trump has mocked Rubio for his big ears while Rubio has claimed Trump is a guy “with the worst spray tan in America,” after Trump teased Rubio for wearing makeup. Also, more recently, Rubio taunts Trump by saying he has “small hands.”

This is interesting.  Think about the following.  In the dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the common people vote for president. Based on what, you may ask? The answer is looks.  Looks, which candidates today are mocking each other on to get a lead. For those that don’t know, Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel where firemen set fire to books, rather than put out fires.  The book was written in the 50s and was banned for some time.  Think of the following quote from the book: “I voted last election, same as everyone, and I laid it on the line for President Noble.  I think he’s one of the nicest looking man ever became president.” (Bradbury, 93).  So, are we similar to the highly imperfect world Bradbury had thought of?

In the exhilaration of the election, people can get fanatical and defensive, to say the least.  This statement is thoroughly defended by the candidates bickering and mocking each other.  Whitman freshman Andrew Ferreri says it is “immature” for the candidates to do so.  Consequently, we may be drawing closer to a world that uses looks as a factor when they decide on whom to vote.  So this begs the question, what do you think of the mocking and immature comments and do you think we are drawing closer to a dystopia?