--- title: Campaign 2016 Is a Battle of Pessimists Versus Optimists description: The political battle of optimists versus pessimists, how free trade could help the environment and more. canonical: https://time.com/4101622/campaign-2016-is-a-battle-of-pessimists-versus-optimists/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-05T17:02:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:01:02.321Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Campaign 2016 Is a Battle of Pessimists Versus Optimists og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4101622/campaign-2016-is-a-battle-of-pessimists-versus-optimists/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Campaign 2016 Is a Battle of Pessimists Versus Optimists twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Campaign 2016 Is a Battle of Pessimists Versus Optimists by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Nov 5, 2015 5:02 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Nov 5, 2015 5:02 PM UTC **1\.** [**The 2016 campaign is shaping up as a battle between pessimists and optimists.**](http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-1105-lyubomirsky-optimism-politics-20151105-story.html) By Sonja Lyubomirsky in the Los Angeles Times **2\.** [**Free trade could actually help the environment.**](http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/11/05/pass-trans-pacific-partnership-safeguard-environment-sustainability-column/75151722/) By Bruce Babbitt and Ken Salazar in USA today **3\.** [**Here’s why President Obama’s national security strategy isn’t that different from President Bush’s.**](http://time.com/4098014/matthew-waxman-charlie-savage-power-wars/) By Matthew C. Waxman in Time **4\.** [**Forget the drone arms race. Welcome to the anti-drone arms race.**](http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/29/9631208/drone-defender-regulation-iacp) By Russell Brandom in the Verge **5\.** [**These undergrads hacked Minecraft to teach chemistry.**](http://www2.hull.ac.uk/science/chemistry/news/minecraft.aspx) By the University of Hull  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4101622/campaign-2016-is-a-battle-of-pessimists-versus-optimists/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4101622/campaign-2016-is-a-battle-of-pessimists-versus-optimists/"},"headline":"Campaign 2016 Is a Battle of Pessimists Versus Optimists","datePublished":"2015-11-05T17:02:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:01:02.321Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4101622/campaign-2016-is-a-battle-of-pessimists-versus-optimists/","keywords":["Innovation","Minecraft","9/11","Drones","free-trade","presidential campaign"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4101622/campaign-2016-is-a-battle-of-pessimists-versus-optimists/","name":"Campaign 2016 Is a Battle of Pessimists Versus Optimists"}}]}] ```