Many Americans are looking to see if third parties candidates can do more than just spoil the elections.The two major party nominees, Trump and Clinton, are disliked by many Americans and are the least popular presidential nominees in history. Polls showed that Clinton among registered voters was 42 percent favorable and 56 percent unfavorable. On the other hand,Trump was favorable at 37 percent and unfavorable at 62 percent . This means that voter turnout matters more than any other presidential election.

In John Oliver ‘s video about third parties in the election, he examines closely and showed that there isn’t a perfect third party candidate either. John Oliver discusses the third party nominees’ policies and views on important issues like student debt and climate change. I agreed with what John Oliver is saying because the nominees were just spouting simplistic views that are hard to implement.  And when you look deeper into them, most of them doesn’t make sense.

From the Green party, Jill Stein plans to cancel student’s debt by making the government pay for it like they did banks. While this may sound like a great plan, John Oliver points out that her plan is unachievable and cracks when analyzed deeper. Another candidate is Gary Johnson. His plan is to make the federal government as small as possible. His answer, regarding to having a smaller government, is to shut down important federal agencies like education, housing and urban development, and commerce. He also opposes establishing a minimum wage which is harmful to Americans in the middle and lower class. Their plans are going to hurt the American government more than before. An important point to make is that the video is disliked by at least 20k people because people commented that he is just spreading propaganda and misrepresenting Jill Stein’s plans. It is also interesting to see that the media plays an essential role in the presidential election.

We can conclude that there is no perfect candidate in this race. John Oliver says “When people say that we have to choose  lesser of two evils, they are right because we have to choose the lesser of 4”. Now, I realized that these third party candidates are not any better than Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/with-eight-days-before-presidential-election-a-barometer-of-where-things-stand/2016/10/30/d2eb8924-9eb2-11e6-b74c-603fd6bbc17f_story.html

I chose the ad, Donald Trump: America Soaring, because it had an interesting title and made me want to know how Donald trump is going to make that happen for America. The ad is using two modes of persuasion, logos and pathos. Logos is used when the ad says “Skilled craftsmen and trades people, and factory workers have seen the jobs they love shipped thousands of miles away.” This line is logical since it is statically correct in saying that American jobs are being outsourced to other countries. In addition, it emphasizes pathos because it is meant to evoke an emotional response in all Americans. Many American voters can usually relate to the video because it shows normal American people from different backgrounds working hard. Thus, this is advertised so it can convince American voters to vote for Trump and Pence because it wants to show that these two candidates can make America great again. The intended audience is most likely the working middle class because it shows the hardworking Americans at work, therefore it is relatable to their everyday life. The ad uses the word American a lot to show that Trump and Pence can create great jobs that will rebuild the country using goods and services provided by Americans. This word is supposed to convince everyday working people to vote for Trump and Pence because it shows them siding with American interests. The ad is pretty effective because it is not a hateful rant about the other candidates running for office. People mostly are used to seeing commercials stating the flaws of the other candidate. However, this one shows Americans the potential of this great country. I don’t think it is convincing to me since I already know the flaws of the candidates and as a result won’t change my opinion about them. The commercial is well put together though and shows different places in America so it can sway some voters because of its simplicity.

https://newrepublic.com/political-ad-database/donald-trump-america-soaring/OC8xLzE2OkFtZXJpY2EgU29hcmluZw

A democratic government is a system where power is given to the people, who can freely elect representatives to voice their concerns. It wasn’t as widespread as it is now.The article suggests that democracy has declined and have plateaued. After 1984, it seemed that the entire world was beginning to become more free but now it has plateaued. Only 46 percent of 195 countries was completely free and 28 percent was partly free. The other 26 percent is not free at all.The percentage of free countries in the Middle East is the lowest in the world with 13 countries(72% of the Middle East and North Africa region) being not free.

There are many factors hurting the democratization of the world but the most notably is the rise of terrorism. The Middle East region have been in turmoil, since the Iraq War or even earlier, and has allowed it to be the best environment for terrorist organizations to rise. This caused a domino effect that have caused the refugee crisis and have been a major topic for the presidential race.

In places like Syria, there is an increase in refugee migration. It has caused a long civil war which resulted from president Bashar al-Assad refusing to step down in 2011.Even though the West pressured him to step down, he refused causing a war that have displaced millions of lives around the region. Another conflict is the continued Boko Haram ‘s violence for 7 years in Northern Nigeria. It has displaced 2.6 million people, including 1.4 million children, and left 2.2 million trapped in areas under their control. Starvation and disease are rampant. These two conflicts will take more years to resolve.

Democracy isn’t deeply rooted in many countries around the world and we, as Americans, should not take it for granted. Democracy isn’t always easily achieved and it has to be maintained so that it can become strong enough to protect its countries’ people and their interest. Implementing or maintaining democracy isn’t always the easiest road for a country to move toward. There is always a big sacrifice when fighting for democracy.

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2015/01/28/report-democracy-in-decline

http://www.nytimes.com/ Article: Savaged by Boko Haram