Strong opinions and no confidence.

A lot of people tend to share their opinions in private, but once their voices can be heard, they hesitate to speak out. 

The presidential election is right around the corner and has everyone anxious for the outcome. With this, the Kentucky senate election has been tossed aside regardless of how many ads each candidate puts out. Even with the strong opinions many people seem to have, no one is willing to share their opinion on the senate election. 

It is no surprise to me that everyone is caught up in the Presidential election, but a lot of people in Kentucky seem to skip researching about the Kentucky Senate candidates Mitch McConnell and Amy McGrath. The Republican candidate, Mitch McConnell, has been the Kentucky US Senator for thirty-five years and has helped Kentucky families, schools, and businesses with the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). In the future, he plans to help more families in Kentucky and “defend conservatism” as stated on his campaign site, teammitch.com. There, he talks about his achievements and decisions he helped make in the past. 

The Democratic candidate, Amy McGrath, announced that she was going to run against Mitch McConnell for Kentucky US Senate in July of 2019. She plans to stand up for veteran families and affordable healthcare as shown on her campaign site amymcgrath.com. On the site, she discusses her plan and background as a US Marine in depth.

Both candidates also have video and radio ads that play almost everywhere. I’ve seen them before YouTube videos, on television, and heard them on radio channels that have nothing to do with the election. My mom and dad even had text messages and calls from the Amy McGrath Campaign that would call in the middle of the day while my dad was sleeping for his third shift job. 

McGrath ads seem to be more thought-out than Mitch McConnell ads. She actually states what she plans to do after saying that Mitch McConnell has been in the senate for too long. McConnel ads tend to focus on telling people why you shouldn’t vote for Amy McGrath rather than stating any claims. I have found it difficult to find how he wants to tackle issues in the future and have only found things he has already done. 

Even with all these resources to learn about the candidates, very few people actually know which candidate they prefer. Mitch McConnel is a household name because of the many years he has been in office. This would make him a popular candidate since the ones who don’t research will pick the candidate they are most familiar with. On the other hand, Amy McGrath is a fresh face that is quickly gaining a following. 

People who know that they don’t want McConnell are way more likely to go for McGrath. While you can assume anything you want about each candidate, nothing is better than the facts about them. This is why you need to research your candidates. You shouldn’t go in blind and just pick the one that looks appealing to you, you need to do research so you don’t put someone in that could potentially go against what you actually believe in. 

If everyone were to do their research, fewer people would get defensive about their opinion. I have found that people who aren’t as educated on a topic tend to argue more about the few pieces of knowledge that they have. This goes for more than just elections as well. 

We have all seen people who argue in the comments section of a post about whether or not something happened, and, instead of looking it up, they just kept their own opinion. My own mother has banned politics as a topic of discussion in our house because my dad has gotten into fistfights with his friends over it. This could be a big reason why so many people don’t like to share their opinions in public. Violence is a quick and destructive response to fear, and as the saying goes, people fear what they don’t understand. 

We have been seeing non-stop rude and violent actions on television and in Facebook comments for a while now and I can see why it would make people wary of sharing their opinion. Educated voters see others getting berated by people who didn’t do their research could definitely prevent them from trying to educate others and show who they like more. 

I know that I would feel uncomfortable sharing who I’d vote for with someone I knew either didn’t agree with me or wasn’t nice enough to respectfully disagree. If people took the time to look into the candidates and how they line up with their personal beliefs, it could possibly reduce that anger and rudeness at little. I know that research won’t solve the problem completely, but it could help.