Deez Nuts’ momentum is a dangerous trend
If you have been on Twitter or Facebook in the last two or three weeks, it is likely that you have heard about the newest independent presidential candidate, Deez Nuts. The person behind Deez Nuts is a 15-year-old boy from Wallingford, Iowa, who registered with the Federal Election Commission and submitted an official filing statement to Public Policy Polling, which is how he got his name on the polls.
According to Reuters, Public Policy Polling found that 9 percent of 600 registered voters questioned in the statewide survey in North Carolina said they would vote for Nuts as an independent in a three-way race against Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, who polled at 38 percent, and Republican front-runner Donald Trump, who polled at 40 percent. The margin of error on the Public Policy Polling was plus or minus 3.2 percent.
Deez Nuts secured eight percent of the polls in Iowa a week earlier than the North Carolina poll and seven percent the week before that in Minnesota.
NPR stated that Deez Nuts has secured his first public endorsement from the Rent Is Too Damn High party.
Jim Williams, polling analyst, told Reuters that acknowledging the Nuts polling was done as a lark, and Tom Jensen, director of the Public Policy Polling, admitted to the New York Times that he added Deez Nuts to the survey because “the name makes people laugh and it’s a long presidential election.”
The fact that the members of the Federal Election Committee think that it is acceptable to let fictional characters become registered and run for president is ludicrous. It portrays America as a weak nation and sends a message that we don’t take our own government seriously.
America is the poster child of the first world, and the example that we are setting for countries that are trying to learn how to run a democracy in the wake of totalitarianism is nothing short of insulting.
Not only that, but it sends a message to terror groups across the globe that we have a weakness festering within our nation which only increases the chances of attacks.
In many ways, this incident speaks to the involvement of the younger generation in politics, but it sends the message in a negative way. It shows that our generation thinks politics are a joke. We should be striving to find a fitting leader, but that hardly seems to be the case.
We strongly urge you, as young voters, to make mature decisions when it comes to matters as important as a presidential election. You may think your voice is insignificant, but the quick rise of the ‘Nuts’ campaign is proof that young voters can make a huge difference in the outcome of a political race.
