Why “I’m With Her,” and why I should have been sooner

The burn of Sanders’ campaign has faded, Clinton has become the obvious choice in these final weeks

I vividly recall my location during this year’s Super Tuesday.  I was on a treadmill in the grand city of San Francisco with CNN muted in the background, trying to contain my excitement and anticipation while awaiting the results.  After months of speculation, the Super Tuesday broadcast was to finally reveal whether Senator Bernie Sanders could run a legitimately threatening campaign against Secretary Hillary Clinton.  Additionally, it was to be a reassuring hoist of the Republican Party into a more positive light, firmly exhibiting that their party had yet to lower itself to the ranks of a candidate like Donald Trump.

As the results zipped across the screen, I was crushed.  Clinton had essentially swept the opening competition, as had Trump.  Cruz, Rubio and Sanders had each received a smattering of delegates, but it was clear who the two main candidates would be.  I felt simultaneous sadness for both parties and the general American public.  At that point, the Trump-Clinton race was essentially inevitable.

I had been dazzled by the grandeur of Sanders’ words, as many of us young adults were.  However, his lack of legitimacy in presidential candidacy was gravely overlooked amid his utopian proclamations of equality. An overall misunderstanding occurred from both parties on what a presidential candidate should embody and promise to citizens.  I regret enormously my inability to see past the fantasy of a Sanders presidency.  Moreover, I regret not actively examining the promising and far more realistic pathway that a Clinton presidency offered.

Before finally establishing both trust and confidence in Clinton, I even briefly considered a Trump presidency through a personal abstention from voting.  However, the maddeningly dark nature of the man was truly too problematic for me to simply turn my head and refrain from voting.  Too many lives were threatened by the divisive mantra of Trump.

I will not vote for Trump because he has no legitimate weight within the political world.  Just as you do not see me performing brain surgery or President Obama singing opera, Trump’s lack of even an inkling of leadership is laughable, but in a depressing manner.  

This is not to say a career politician is the ideal candidate for president, but the leader of the free world ought to have at least a basic understanding of how the world itself operates.  Trump does not.  Frankly, Trump is a failure in even his own business-related realm, a con man and a scammer.  For those defending his non-existent economic policy, a six-times bankrupt, 3,500-times-sued businessman has about as much knowledge of economic success as a feral cat might of quantum physics.

I will not vote for Trump because he not only denies climate change, but has promised to take active steps in furthering the destruction of our planet.  Trump has stated he will remove the United States from the recently ratified Paris Agreement — the single greatest environmental achievement the human race has experienced in combatting climate change — because he claims it will be harmful to business.  Such a proclamation merely confirms his own abhorrent greediness and willingness to destroy the world to make money.  Without a planet to build your lackluster hotels upon, Donald, there won’t be any money to make.

I will not vote for Trump because his view of women is perhaps the most troubling facet about him.  Supporters may argue that Donald’s blatant sexism has no effect upon his leadership skills, but no sound leader would so haughtily overlook an entire half of his nation’s population.  When Trump speaks of women, he speaks of my mother and sister; he speaks of my grandmothers, aunts and cousins.  He degrades them and he degrades yours too.  Think of the women in your own life when casting your vote this November.  Moreover, think of your future daughters, nieces and granddaughters.  If you are ready to perpetuate a system that belittles them to the point of animalistic property, parading their bodies around for others to sexually misuse and abuse, please cast your vote for Trump, and be prepared to accept the groping of all women.

Similarly to Trump, one may look at Clinton and quickly spout off a career’s worth of mistakes.  Her support of the Iraq War, the fuzziness of her stance on LGBT+ rights pre-2013 and her status as a friend to Wall Street must all be examined.  However, one must not confuse the hearsay around various events in Clinton’s life with the facts.  Subsequently, one might instead choose to focus on Clinton’s career in politics: one of constant and whole-hearted service to American citizens.

Four years under a Trump presidency simply cannot happen.  My belief is that it will not. However, regardless of my opinion, you must vote.  Do not stay home this November, and PLEASE, for the love of all that remains sacred on this planet, do not waste your vote on a clearly irrelevant third-party candidate.  It would be worse to vote for a third-party candidate than to vote for Trump.

I will cast my vote for Hillary Clinton with incredible pride knowing that I have selected the most apt, worthy, professional and dedicated presidential candidate offered on the ballot.