Something that I never thought I would say occurred just this past week. For months I denied what I would eventually decide upon. After much time deciding, it has never been more apparent that it is more important to elect Hillary Clinton into office. Now for some this just seems like common sense, but for others, this is very unpopular. It was for me but my realization that we need a strong leader in office in such a tumultuous campaign season being more important than voting for more favorable policies came in a week of insanity for the Trump campaign. I would like to recognize that throughout the election season I have been appalled by what Donald Trump has said and what policy ideas he has put forward if he were to be elected as our next President. I do not mean to convince anyone of who to vote for, but I would like to delve into some reasoning behind why we need a strong leader in Hillary Clinton as our 45th President.
I originally started off this election with a huge following for Bernie Sanders. His honesty attracted a young voter like me who was interested in progressive policies all across the board. He was the main inspiration behind my love of politics and I truly believe he has instilled the millennial generation with policies that will soon shape our nation's future. Though I wanted to give my endless support to Bernie, I understood very quickly in the summer that his time was soon coming to an end. His media absence during the summer months would soon result in his endorsement of Hillary Clinton. His endorsement came in July, and at this moment I was left in a state of confusion. Do I continue to fight for policies that accurately reflected my political views or do I trust the man I followed for so long and vote for his previous competitor? I chose to continue to fight for what I believed in by switching my vote over to Jill Stein. To me, the Stein campaign was an attractive offer. The Green Party had established a decent following for a third party and had policies that reflected my beliefs almost entirely. This way I could continue to express my concerns with Hillary Clinton while supporting a candidate that was still in the race.
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My support for Jill Stein continued into college. Despite my joining the College Democrats on campus, I still supported her with a general dissatisfaction towards Clinton. I was more than willing to help out in supporting and campaigning for down-ballot Democrats, but I just couldn't come to the eventual decision to transfer my support to the Democratic Presidential nominee. Then the first debate came around.
As the somewhat political geek that I am, I decided to take notes as I watched the debate as a person voting for a third-party candidate. I kept track of many of Donald's ludicrous statements and noted whenever I felt Hillary had deliberately lied. The problem though was that my three pages of notes were filled with false statements from Trump and rather well spoken, policy driven remarks from Clinton. I decided to sleep on my thoughts of the debate and think about it the next day with an open mind towards Clinton.
I remember sitting down for dinner one night and my friends came up and were speaking very excitedly about how I could now "vote my conscience". I wondered why they suddenly were behind me voting for a third-party candidate when they told me to read the news. I spent ten minutes reading different stories all with the same message: Donald Trump had overstepped his bounds in leaked audio footage of him talking about a woman in a very degrading way. Normally this wouldn't be something new except that this time he had no way out of this one. What we heard in that video were his words and he had no excuse to try and sugarcoat his atrocious comments. It was finally the sweet, sweet fall for Donald Trump.
So now what? Despite many believing that the Trump plague was over, he still had empowered millions of voters who were ready to back this man until the end. All signs pointed towards Hillary but Trump was still ready to bring the final decision to Election Day. More than ever though I viewed Trump as more unqualified than ever before and this wasn't some sudden realization, it was just something that should be known to a voting public. His political experience was about as much as 140 characters allowed on Twitter. Thinking more on how unqualified Trump was to be President made me start to wonder, what are the qualifications of my candidate? Sure she ran as a presidential candidate before, but this was her first time being so high profiled. She was also the co-chair for the Green-Rainbow Party of Massachusetts between 2010 and 2011 and also served on the Lexington Town Meeting, but as far as that goes it is more accurate to view her as an advocate. At this point, it may be best that this is the path that she continues.
Don't get me wrong, Jill Stein as a President would be a huge victory for progressive policies and voters like me who would consider themselves more left-wing. The problem is that her political experience would leave her shorthanded in a government that is extremely polarized and has a Congress that seemingly can't solve any major problems (depending on your perspective). We need someone who has experience all over the political board and can hold up to the task of steering a ship that is figuratively close to sinking. I don't always agree with Clinton, but it is without a doubt that she makes for a great leader while others just don't live up to what the job demands of the position.
Jill Stein does, however, make for a great advocate for progressive issues and that is hard to argue, especially with her being engaged in situations such as the Dakota Access Pipeline protests.
So I now put my full support behind Hillary Clinton for President of the United States. It is time to start thinking logically and uniting in the battle against a candidate who has been deemed more unqualified than anyone before him. In support of people that are black, Hispanic, American Indian, gay, transgender, undocumented, or women, I will vote to ensure that we are all treated as equals in this country. Everyone deserves an equal opportunity without feeling at risk over their well being because we chose to let a demagogue segment our nation.
I want to leave with a statement for other progressives that may be in a similar situation to what I was in.
Hillary Clinton does not mean the death of progressive values. Sure, Bernie ran on an obviously more progressive platform than that of Clinton, but it seems she is starting to take notice of his efforts in exciting the millennial voter base. Even in a Clinton presidency, there are 435 seats up for grabs in the House of Representatives (if you didn't know, this is every single seat). Focus on more than just the President, there are many different options for voting down ballot come November. These positions might ultimately be more important in how the filled roles will affect you. I don't want to have to be the one that advocates for "voting for the lesser of two evils", but it is time to really start looking at what is at stake and not to believe everything you hear about a candidate. Vote upon your own conscience this November.
