UNITED STATES—Well, it’s a given we have our candidates from the Republican Party (Donald Trump) and the Democratic Party (Hillary Clinton) for the race to The White House in November 2016. The Republican Convention is now underway in Cleveland, Ohio, and after news arose this past week that Trump has selected Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his Vice Presidential choice things are heating up.

I must admit, I’m eager to find out who Hillary Clinton will select as her Vice President and next week we have the Democratic Convention taking place. Will the big announcement happen at the convention or a few days before the Democrats converge on Philadelphia to rally their base, like the Republicans are currently doing.

However, the big discussion that has been echoed by so many people I know, both Democrats and Republicans are the unfavorable ratings that both Clinton and Trump are getting from Americans and voters alike. This is a race where, I seriously think it’s a question of who is the lesser of two evils.

On one side, you have Trump, who is quite blunt in his rhetoric; he doesn’t back down to saying what he wants to say even if he offends people at times and his lack of political experience has many concerned. On the other hand, there is Hillary, who many are questioning rather she was covering up something with that server/email scandal, and if she can truly be trusted. So is there anything that Trump and Clinton can do to reel in more voters or people to be on their side compared to their opponent?

I think honesty is the apparent answer. Yes, politicians can find a way to be honest, but conveying honesty and actually showing it are two different things. Politics has a way of making people put on a mask and giving the people what they ‘think’ they want versus actually delivering to the people ‘what’ they want. We want politicians who will lay out the agenda on the table and not sit around and skirt the issue. This is something that hasn’t fully occurred from either candidate in my opinion. Rumors are already running rampant that this could be one of the most contentious and negative elections of all-time.

Yes, both Trump and Clinton will likely take shots at one another and they’ve actually already started to say the least. My biggest concern is you have candidates of opposite parties where more than 50 percent of those recently polled are disapproving of both candidates. Can those numbers be turned around in less than 3-4 months? I honestly do not think so. Comments made in the public sphere don’t help, but I think the biggest issue is a fear of not knowing precisely what Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton would do if they were elected in office.

People have a sense of uncertainty with both candidates, and I think that is something that is vital. Why? No one is comfortable selecting a candidate, where the mindset could waver from one extreme to another extreme. Trust might be the biggest issue delivering such a high unfavorable rating. It looks more like this election is a battle between I dislike this candidate SO MUCH, that I’m going to vote for this person and vice versa. However, my frustration with that is that voters are not really voting for a candidate based on the issues at hands and policies they plan to enact; its I don’t like this person so I’m going to vote for the opponent perhaps out of spite.

Where have we gone wrong as a nation, where people choose to vote for candidates in the political arena on likeability solely? Let’s get back to the notion of voting for candidates based on their rhetoric and discussing the issues at hand that matter most to them. While those poll numbers may not be accurate, I’ve talked to quite a few friends on both political sides who have echoed the sentiment that so many others are talking about, neither candidate is fully discussed in a manner where one has an edge over the other. It leaves me wondering is that a good thing or is that a bad thing that we have an election where the excitement for either candidate is mildly acceptable, and I’m being generous with that assertion.