On Election Day this Tuesday (or maybe it already happened depending upon when this gets published), I’m voting for Hillary Clinton for president of the United States.
For the three people who’ve read anything I’ve written or know anything about me in person, I don’t like Donald Trump. At all. He’s been endorsed by the Klu Klux Klan. He’s going on trial for fraud not even three weeks after the election in regards to Trump University. He’s going on trial next month for raping a girl when she was 13 years old. He spent weeks bullying the parents of a deceased veteran for criticizing him at the Democratic National Convention. He mocked a disabled reporter. He bragged about sexually assaulting women. He wants to ban all Muslims, almost a quarter of the world’s population, from entering the United States. He wants to build a wall and forbid anyone from south of the United States’s border with Mexico from entering (he says “Build the wall and make Mexico pay for it”, but we all know he really is talking about all those brown people). He encourages and incites violence at his rallies. He is so dangerous that over 3,000 therapists signed a document declaring him to be a blight on mental health. He has given voice and legitimacy to issues this country moved beyond or was working toward being better than. He is a spoiled, immature, petulant man-child incapable of handling criticism or recognizing people aren’t just things he can use until he’s done with them. He’s a sad, pathetic excuse for a human. He’s an affront to all things that are decent in society. Basically, I do not believe there are adequate enough words in the human language to accurately express how reprehensible, disgusting, despicable, amoral, repugnant, and horrifying I find Donald Trump.
In short, I would vote for pretty much anyone Donald Trump him for the pure reason that I simply think he is the worst and most dangerous person to run for the office of President of the United States in certainly my lifetime and likely the lifetimes of many others. Barring the exception of, say, Hitler Reincarnate or Putin (though Trump appears to be a puppet of Putin, but I digress), I imagine myself voting for anyone purely because they aren’t Donald Trump.
Here’s the thing, though: on Tuesday, I’m happily voting for Hillary Clinton for so many reasons other than that she isn't Donald Trump. Proudly.
Having said that, I feel like decent humans many people spend so much talking about how vile Donald Trump is that we don’t talk about how cool Hillary Clinton is. First, though, a forewarning: She is a very flawed candidate. She has, at best, questionable ties to Wall Street. She can, occasionally, be so concerned with pandering and appearing appealing to everyone that the real Hillary gets lost within that. Her handling of the investigation into the private email server, while far from illegal, due signify some problems with intragovernmental accountability and lack of transparency with the citizens. She has changed positions over time, and, while I understand that it is entirely possible for an individual to develop new feelings on positions based upon new information (I know I’ve done it), I sometimes feel it has less to do with an evolution in thought and more to do with political convenience and public perception.
HOWEVER, every candidate is flawed. Every candidate has issues. No one single candidate is going to swoop in without fail and save all the days and get rid of all the problems and make all the people feel all the happiness – though that’s what Donald Trump tells people, as if he’s God (which, funnily enough, he may honestly think: Trump once claimed to be Batman, and, for a period in the comics, Batman was literally a god, known as, I kid thee not, Bat-God).
Look, Hillary Clinton has flaws. I get it. Flaws are frustrating, but flaws are also tolerable in spite of so many other positive qualities.
And Hillary Clinton has a literal crap-ton of positive qualities. I’d list her positive qualities, but we’d be here until the 2020 Republican Presidential Debate featuring Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul, Mike Pence, Darth Vader, the Joker, and the Breitbart mascot. Instead of that, I’m going to focus on the two most important to me.
First up, Hillary Clinton gets sh*t done. She has been fighting the good fight since her early adulthood in the 60s. She has worked tirelessly in order to aid, assist, and improve the lives of either those living within the United States or those living on this silly thing we call planet Earth. Many, many things have been said about Hillary Clinton, but not working tirelessly will never be one of them. However, this hasn’t always been an easy road for her – as she herself admitted at her acceptance speech, when it comes to public service, she has always struggled much more with the public part than with the service part. Despite this, her service record speaks to the more important reasons why I’m proud to vote for her: She genuinely believes we are stronger together. She pushes this message of the country coming together and working together to help one another. Sure, “Stronger Together” is the slogan she’s been running with for several months now, but it doesn’t feel like some trite and meaningless slogan; it feels like a doctrine dictating what she believes America to be like. We all have to come together to help each other, and doing so makes us a better people for it. I honestly, unironically believe that, and Hillary seems feel the same way.
To me, here’s what it comes down to: When I try to determine whom I’m voting for, I ask myself one, simple question.
Who understands that we need to work together to help each other?
In 2016, one man doesn’t get that, but one woman does.
So, yeah. I’m beyond proud to say that I’m with her.