Deciding How To Vote Might Be As Difficult As Who To Vote For In This Election

As this election starts to heat up, a random thought has taken center stage. This election has so many moving parts that it's become increasing difficult to decide why to cast your vote for a candidate. The philosophical views of the voter are going to come into play more than ever before because of the candidates, the parties, and their actions. Let's break it down:

On the one side, you have Donald Trump. He has been framed as the racist, misogynistic, hothead by members of the Democratic party. He has offended Women, Latinos, African Americans, Jews, and the Disabled during his run to the Republican nomination.

On the other hand, you have Hillary Clinton. She has been framed as completely dishonest and corrupt by the Republican Party. Well, not so much by them, as by her own idiocy in handling e-mails and with this recent Democratic National Party e-mail scandal.

The outliers are Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party and Jill Stein of the Green Party. Both are being framed as the not-the-major-party candidates.

There are likely to be some people that will vote for these candidates because of who they are. A name brand, per se. Some will rule them out because of those perceptions as well. The Not Trump movement or those who believe Hillary is too mired in scandal to elect are both picking up steam.

Many people are drawn to one of the candidates because the issues of the party they represent mirror their own values. Pro-Life voters will likely go for Trump, while Pro-Choice voters for Clinton. These voters will be able to ignore all the negatives about the candidates and just vote based on the party platform.

The opposite can be true too, as many voters might exclude a candidate based on the platform that their party has chosen to taken. For example, while Trump himself has been very amenable to LGBT rights, his party constructed a platform that was rigid in its stance against equal rights.

There are many issues in this election cycle where the parties, and the citizens, are miles apart. Some voters are certain to vote strictly based upon the issues that matter the most to them.

Many people are fed up with the way the government is operating. This is likely one of the biggest reasons for the ascension of Trump to the nomination. A lot of Americans have grown tired of the gridlock, pork spending, and cronyism that highlights politics that they are screaming for changes to be made.

The recent scandal where Debbie Wasserman Schultz had to resign from the Democratic National Party due to her bias towards Clinton has only fanned those flames. What once looked like a unified front on the liberal side has now become a brush fire that could obliterate any chance Clinton has to gaining the Presidency. Not since Lisabeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo have we seen someone thrown so much gasoline as when Hillary decided to bring Wasserman Schultz immediately onto her campaign staff. That was, literally, the definition of cronyism.

For a highly educated woman, Hillary certain does some truly idiotic things to undermine herself. All this has led to many Americans deciding to cast their vote for the candidate that exists outside the current system of government. That, of course, will favor Donald Trump.

Fear is going to play a huge part in this election. There's the fear that the GOP has tried to perpetuate in their recent convention speeches. Illegal immigrants want to kill you, ISIS wants to kill you, the Black Lives Movement wants to kill you. To them, it seems like the end of the world.

There's also the fear of what will happen if the other party's candidate gets control of the White House. The Democrats have played up this fear because of how volatile and thin-skinned Donald Trump has appeared to be. Would you trust this man with the nuclear codes was an early talking point of the election, not only by the Democrats, but by other Republicans.

For the Republicans, having an open Supreme Court seat and having just lost a very conservative Scalia has to be keeping Mitch McConnell up at night. Adding a few more liberal justices cannot bode well for their platform of traditional marriage, pro-life, and voter suppression laws.

Many people are going to be voting for a candidate to prevent the other party from being able to sway the direction of the country. The best way this was expressed was on Facebook recently when someone posted, 'Even if you must hold your nose and vote Hillary....'

As of today, many of the polls have the candidates swapping back and forth with the lead in the race. Trump got a bump after his convention and we'll see if Hillary can do the same. It's going to be an interesting Presidential election year, that's for sure.

When it comes time to vote, what's going to be the most important philosophy for you?