Why Hillary Clinton makes me angrier than Donald Trump…and why I’m voting for her anyway. ~ A special blog written by my son!

After reading my son's thoughts on this year's election, I thought it was tremendously important for others to see how so many of us view the 2016 Presidential election.  I hope you take the time to read this beautifully written essay written by Michael~

This has been a strange election year for a number of reasons, mostly due to the absurdity of candidates that the Republicans have put forward, but also due to the rise of Bernie Sanders. I started following Bernie around June of last year, and my first thought was, “I’m so glad Clinton won’t run unopposed! A primary challenger will make her a stronger candidate to run against the Republicans.” Then, something amazing happened. I started listening to Bernie Sanders speak…and I heard everything I’ve wanted to hear for my entire adult life which I thought was impossible to say in American politics: We should have single payer healthcare, tuition free public college, a livable minimum wage, guaranteed sick and family leave, etc…I could go on for pages. I always thought that the things I believed in would never gain traction in this country, in a sense, I felt alone. Then Bernie came along, and with millions of followers together, I didn’t feel alone anymore. There is a sizable group of people in America that do believe what I believe, and it feels great. In short, I have known since the first time I went to Europe in 2008 that America is not the shining city on the hill that we were taught about in school. We are not the greatest country in the world, but WE CAN BE! We can provide the things that Europeans consider to be basic human rights. The only thing stopping us is our own pessimism. So I fell in love with Bernie’s policies, talked about him to people I knew and spread the word, donated (Maybe a bit too much for someone who makes what I make) to his campaign. 

There is another side to this however: Hillary Clinton. I grew up thinking (And still do think) that Bill Clinton was one of the best Presidents of the modern era. His wife, however, is someone I have never been a fan of. Back in 2008, I was originally a supporter of John Edwards. Despite what he has done since, he was the first one on the national stage to be talking about income inequality, what he called “Two Americas” in 2008. I supported him in my first ever Presidential campaign, but he was a fringe candidate and didn’t last long. Luckily for me, when he dropped out, there was another candidate that I had an enormous amount of respect and admiration for, a young senator named Barack Obama. I had no trouble switching to the Obama campaign in 2008, because I loved him just as much as Edwards. I was not a sore loser, I did not withhold my vote, and I happily campaigned for Obama in 2008 and 2012. If I could accept the fact that my candidate lost in the primaries in 2008 and get behind another Democrat when I was just a kid, I don’t think my reservations about doing it now are about being pouty, spoiled, or having a temper tantrum. It’s democracy, the one with the most votes wins, and Hillary is going to win the primary. The truth is, now that we are down to Hillary Clinton vs. Republicans, I realize that for the first time, there is no candidate that I can turn to and think “I respect and admire this person”.

Why do I not admire Hillary Clinton? I’m a Democrat and so is she. I’m a feminist, and so is she. I’m an environmentalist, and so is she. I do believe that she has faced an unprecedented amount of criticism and scrutiny, much of it being due to the fact that she is a woman. I want to see the first woman President. I think that would be an enormous step forward for the country on a cultural level. However, I want the first woman President to be someone I admire, respect, and believe in. Unfortunately, no matter how much I try to convince myself, that woman is not Hillary Clinton. Hillary was not with us in the fight against the Patriot Act and the Iraq war, until they were proven disastrous. She was not with us in the fight for LGBT rights, until it was already popular nationwide. She was not with us in the fight against trade deals like TPP, until polls came out saying Democrats didn’t want it. She was not with us in the fight against the Keystone pipeline, until the left pushed her to be. All of this adds together to make a disturbing trend of things that progressives hold dear that Hillary has fought against, only to come around as soon as it is politically favorable. The honest truth is that I WANT to believe her when she says she’s a progressive, but when she says in front of a different group of people that she is a centrist, it’s hard to believe her. I WANT to believe in her, but I don’t.  

This is where I get to the meat of my rant. If Hillary Clinton votes with Bernie Sanders 93% of the time, it should be a no-brainer for me in this election. Unfortunately, it’s more complicated than that. Like George Takei said in his fantastic video I posted to my facebook, the fight between Bernie and Hillary is like a family squabble. The problem is, that’s why it’s so hard for me to come over to her. When your enemy does something to spite you, nothing changes: you still hate them, they still hate you, and none of your previous misconceptions have been challenged. However, when someone of your own family, a friend, or a loved one betrays you, it cuts much deeper. It’s much harder to forget, and it hurts a lot more. This is why I dislike Hillary Clinton so much. It hurts to see a DEMOCRAT up there saying we can’t make the minimum wage a livable salary, that we can’t change anything about the horrendous prices of university, that we can’t change the campaign finance system destroyed by citizen’s united in 2010, that we can’t ban fracking, and that the Iraq war was just a whoopsie-daisy rather than a complete bastardization of everything America claims to be. These are all progressive liberal staples, and ones that progressives should be champions of, not giving up before the fight begins. So yes, Hillary Clinton is not my enemy, she’s family, which is why it hurts so much when she betrays me.

So if I think of Hillary Clinton as a person who personally betrayed me and my ideals, how could I vote for her? I won’t lie, it’s hard, but there are two words that should get everyone to the voting booth in November: Donald Trump. Donald Trump is a con man, racist, misogynist, xenophobe, narcissist, sociopath. Donald Trump is the absolute personification of everything that’s wrong with America. He’s a pseudointellectual bully who would not hesitate to use force to get his way. I feel dirty for even mentioning his name, but that’s how far gone the Republican party is. I don’t even need to get into specifics here. If I need to list reasons to you why Trump is a national disgrace, you’re already a lost cause.  

Overall, I’m left with a choice: Do I vote for someone who I’ve despised for my entire life, and is the worst of America incarnate? Do I vote for someone who I feel has betrayed the very people who helped elevate her to the position she’s in now? Do I abstain from voting? Vote for a 3^rd party candidate for some misguided “Protest vote” that no one will ever see or care about? The truth is, there is no good option for me, or any of the progressives out there who truly want America to join the EU in the 21^st century.

Welcome to the 2016 general election America. It’s rotten, it’s a disgrace, it’s a betrayal of most of the ideals I hold dear, and it will inevitably be a small (Or large) step backwards in the ongoing fight for America’s progression forward. It’s a terrible decision to make, but sit down and take your medicine progressives. It tastes bitter as hell…Hillary 2016.