Cody Knight

Since the election in 2020, there have been anxieties about choosing who is going to run our country. There has been a phrase that has been commonly thrown around, “choosing the lesser of two evils,” or “LOTE.” According to The Nation magazine, an article titled “The Wild History of ‘Lesser of Two Evils’ Voting” explains that “‘LOTE’ is a consequence of a two party system, which has existed in the US since its founding.” The election coming up in 2024 is no different.

As November grows closer with Donald Trump still on trial for criminal acts which include attempting to overturn the 2020 election, possessing government classified documents after having left the oval office, and illegally issuing hush money to an adult entertainment star prior to the 2016 election. The criminal charges can be found here: https://www.politico.com/interactives/2023/trump-criminal-investigations-cases-tracker-list/. Meanwhile, Joe Biden is showing constant signs of confusion and delayed responses. For example, CNN reported in a recent article titled, “Biden’s verbal slip-ups over dead European leaders put the focus on his most potent political weakness: His age,” Michal Williams states, “two examples came this week when Biden confused French president Emmanuel Macron with former French president Mitterrand – who died in 1996 – and he referenced Helmut Kohl, who was a chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998, when discussing a meeting at the G7 during his first year in office in 2020. Kohl died in 2017.”  Williams continues, “Biden twice referred to dead European leaders when talking about recent conversations he had had with his global counterparts, making for awkward moments that highlight the foremost concern about the president among his core supporters.” The country has these two candidates to count on to represent the United States of America. This slip-up can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fDrxXBIX1w. 

People in the local community have expressed their doubts. Christian Wagner, a Levittown resident, is anxious about the upcoming election. Wagner states, “turn on your TV and watch the news. You will see a man on trial for stealing government documents and causing a riot to storm the U.S Capitol building because he claimed the election was being stolen from him and was ‘unfair.’ The same election that had elected him four years prior. Change the news channel, and you will see a man being asked important questions about our country appearing lost and confused while mistakenly referring to an Egyptian leader as the ‘president of Mexico.'” This is a scary world we live in, but it is reality. Who do we vote for in this scenario? We…live in a dominated two party country so unfortunately, in a way, these two are our only options. It seems we are doomed,” he said with a sigh. 

Taylor Tate, a Penn State student, also expressed concerns. “Before the 2020 election, I had never experienced anxiety when voting. I feel that I’m mainly concerned with our economy, and what makes me anxious is whether or not this country is getting worse due to an unnecessary amount of political power on both sides. I’m worried about how these two candidates are going to affect this country in a negative way. It begs the questions, How is this election going to affect us as a country in years to come? How will we crawl out of the irreparable damage that either one of these candidates are bound to cause? It seems as though there are only two possible outcomes to this election. We will either experience a positive outcome- which is doubtful, or a severely negative impact that will cause significant pain as a country.”

Katie Prout, a Levittown resident, also shared opinions on the candidates. “In all the elections that I had voted in, I had never felt inclined to vote for one person only because they weren’t the other option- but these past two elections have cornered me into doing so.”

The election will be held on November 5, 2024, and the country will know its fate.