BY GRACE MONTGOMERY (’16)

Right now people across this nation are deciding who to vote for the nation’s leader and unless infatuated in their respective parties, those in between are quite torn and perplexed. Often I hear people saying “Who do I hate the least?” or “If you had to choose between Hilary and Trump, who would you pick?” and the response is similar to someone throwing up or cringing at awkward middle school pictures. I believe there is a third choice that will provide mixes of Democratic and Republican and will give hope to the voters. Here are reasons why I believe Michael Bloomberg would be an excellent presidential candidate:

1. He doesn’t yell to get his points across. Honestly when I hear there are presidential debates coming up I know I will be met with shouting matches and offensive digs. When I turned 18, I was so excited to vote, but now when all I hear on the news is the grating voice of Hilary Clinton or the sexist comments of Donald Trump, I don’t envision going to the polls.

2. He has been both a Republican and a Democrat. So rather than having to choose between two extremes, he has a mix of both views. Today it is so difficult to find a candidate willing to go across the aisle, so having a candidate knowing both sides to an issue and is willing to compromise is key to passing legislation and moving forward.

3. He was the mayor just weeks after 9/11 happened. He has experience in foreign policy and dealing with terrorism. Interestingly enough Mr. Bloomberg is vying for the building of a mosque blocks away from the World Trade Center Memorial. While many are outraged at this act, it’s a sign that we must not act prejudiced towards all those who are of Islamic faith. Just as the racism heats up in this nation if a young black man is shot by a white police officer, we can’t assume every Muslim in this country is evil. The only reason why we are plagued in this battle with ISIS is the fact that we are so disrespectful to their religion. The women behind the building of the mosque said to the New York Times that “there is no place in the city for Muslims to share their faith with their Jewish and Christian friends.” We preach the 1st amendment of freedom of religion, yet when the term Islam comes up its like people stiffen up. We can’t dictate by fear how we decide our future, which is why Michael Bloomberg is working to preserve one of the core elements of our country:  freedom of expression.

4. Bloomberg believes in fixing the immigration policy by being inclusive rather than building a wall and consequently separating families. He believes in the power of the immigrant population on our economy, but even more so he sees that “we will not remain a global superpower if we continue to close our doors to people who want to come here to work hard, start businesses, and pursue the American dream. The American dream cannot survive if we keep telling the dreamers to go elsewhere,” he said from a speech he delivered to the Council of Foreign Relations. Our ancestors traveled to this country with this same dream in mind and to this day our most coveted duty is to make sure we still offer the same opportunities.

5. He cares about the youth of America. According to the American Conservative, Bloomberg has “outlawed smoking in New York bars, restaurants, and public places” as well as “prohibited the sale of cigarettes to anyone under 21, forbade trans-fats in restaurants, sodas larger than 16 ounces, chain restaurant menus without calorie counts” and even “cellphones in school.” Bloomberg understands that youth are the helmsmen of the future’s course and he makes it his duty to entrust youth with a healthy and stable society.

6. He is financially competent. He doesn’t flaunt his money like some individuals. *He has worked his way up by having to overcome being Jewish in the area he lived in which did not accept minority groups. He furthered his education by enrolling into John Hopkins University and later attending Harvard Business School. Afterwards, he went up the corporate chain by first working as a trading room clerk on Wall Street. Years later he started his own computer services called “Bloomberg L.P.” According to Encyclopedia of World Biography, he supplied members on Wall Street “with Bloomberg Terminals, computers that provided access to current market prices and allowed users to execute on-the-spot trades. With more and more Wall Street firms using the terminals, and monthly user fees for each one that soared to $1,500 per month, Bloomberg became a millionaire several times over with his privately held company.”

* What’s interesting is Trump loves to pronounce how much money he makes and how he can just buy whatever he wants in an effort to “fix” our problems. Trump is only worth 4.5 billion, yet Bloomberg has a net worth of 35.5 billion, according to Time, but we don’t see him flaunting his money around.

In a speech on the 5-year anniversary of 9/11, Bloomberg mentioned the rising economy in the Big Apple. He noted, “we faced back-to-back budget shortfalls of $5 billion and $6.5 billion–a product of the national recession, and of the tremendous economic impact of 9/11. But today, because of a surging economy and sound fiscal management at City Hall, we’ve closed the fiscal year that just ended in June with a $3.75 billion surplus.”

Now just as a quick note before I finish my spiel,  if you are wondering why I have not mentioned Bernie Sanders or Ted Cruz or Rubio (Ben Carson at this point seems unaware he is still in the race) it is because they aren’t the extremes of Hilary and Trump. Those two represent the heightened image of the party they represent and therefore do not seem comprisable to meet in the middle. Bloomberg acts as the perfect liaison to the parties that make up our country. Overall I believe Michael Bloomberg should run for president because he is striving to create a stable future by keeping in mind the principles we founded our country on as well as working to hear the pleas and calls to action that our nation so desperately wants to be heard.

Visit his website to get more information about his views and his projects he has implemented.