When it was announced that Barack Hussein Obama II was going to be the 44th President of the United States and the first black president, I was petrified with fear. I distinctly remember sitting on my parents bed watching one of the hundreds of news networks covering the historic event; random strings of words crossing over vivid graphics signifying one of the greatest cultural validations of modern times.

But I was not cheering. The girl from down the street had told me Obama was a Muslim who didn’t believe in God and would let all the terrorists into America. Obviously now, with more than half of a high school education under my belt, I can see how ridiculous these claims were (especially the one about a Muslim who didn’t believe in God, even in ‘08 I should have known how blatantly wrong this was). As a fifth-grade boy though, these were undeniable truths.

I spent the rest of the night in my room covered in fatalistic anxiety for where our country must be destined to go. I created hundreds of apocalyptic scenarios of future Obama-controlled America.

Now, in ‘16, at the end of Obama’s reign, my views are wildly different. I watched the State of the Union address with actual positive emotions (something that’s become more and more difficult for younger generations, especially in current politics).

Disclaimer: I am trying desperately to keep my own political views out of this article but as any reader knows, this is near impossible. So I will say that this is not intended as a pitch for democratic/liberal ideologies. This is a pitch for clean, pure and true politics.

The debates amongst this year’s presidential candidates have been more argumentative than informative in regards to their stances on issues. The constant denouncing of each other breaks down the truly bashful candidates to flat, stereotypical and over-sized character types. Cruz becomes the Canadian who absolutely loves Jesus but is shrouded in illegitimacy questions. Carson becomes possibly the most boring candidate to ever run even with controversial quotations like his notorious “Attack the gunman” interview. Sanders becomes the old Jewish neighbor from the upstairs apartment who still holds on to outdated socialist ideas. Clinton is Clinton’s wife, only with a different kind of controversy. Trump, in all honesty, is not belittled by the arguments, it seems as if he actually thrives off of them and gets better polls.

The real issue with this is that no one wants to vote for these one-dimensional phonies. The younger voters already struggle with being involved in politics so all these lies from Clinton (either one) or the girl down the street only discourage the youth more.

All I ask, from writer to reader, is to base your political view off of cold, hard, boring facts that you, yourself, not any outside source who spoon feeds you, interpret and digest. And with that thought process we may truly make America great again.