Go ahead and tell people to vote for Hillary Clinton.
Just keep telling them. Repeat it over and over until you’re breathless.
If you don’t vote for Hillary, Donald Trump will be President. Oh no, you must do your civic duty and not let that happen.
But here’s the deal: You can’t fucking tell young people what to do without giving them a damn good reason — and Donald Trump is not enough.
If we didn’t have any reasons to dislike Hillary, sure, “just do it” would probably be enough. We’re smart enough to know we don’t like Donald Trump at all. He would be a dangerous President. “A very bad man,” in his own words. But in the eyes of young progressive types, these are the same statements that have been said of every republican candidate for the last two decades. Bush, Romney, Cheney, McCain, all would be disasters to progressive ideas like Universal Healthcare, fair taxation, or equal pay for equal work.
Every republican during our lifetime would be an unmitigated disaster — this isn’t anything new about Donald Trump. But young people are smarter than you give them credit for, and they still remember the negatives of a Clinton.
- From 1999 to at least 2007, Hillary Clinton opposed same-sex marriage. Members of the LGBTQ community weren’t equal to her. There’s video proof, it’s not some conspiracy.
- In 1964 she stood behind a candidate known as “Mr. Conservative,” Barry Goldwater, a republican. A man who voted against the Civil Rights Act.
- Republicans will be hell bent on stopping her: Emailgate, Whitewater, Benghazi, Lewinsky are constantly on the tips of their tongue with Clinton.
- And of course, minorities get locked up under Clinton administrations.
If this were any other year, these issues might be easily brushed aside, but we are stuck on an idea — that there was a candidate with NONE of these problems, and you could have picked him. There was a candidate who fought for equal rights since Martin Luther King Jr. There was a candidate who eschewed donations from big banks for donations “from the people.”
We still believe we had a chance to have a real battle of ideas in America. Donald Trump would not be able to explain why “equal pay for women” did not need guaranteed. Donald Trump would not be able to argue against the fact that single-payer healthcare would actually save every family thousands a year. Donald Trump’s simplistic fear mongering would hit a brick wall against the inspiring candidate the democratic party COULD have had.
See, we actually believe that the majority of this country is pretty smart. That those ideals would resonate with the average person.
But ever since Donald Trump’s nomination, Hillary’s campaign has had only one message: “We must defeat Trump.” However, fresh off the ideals of Sanders and hope-inspired for bigger change, it’s not enough to move young people.
Young people don’t get up to go vote against someone.
We’re not leaving our houses, going through the silly process of having to register to vote (we have a Driver’s License, why the hell aren’t we already automatically registered?) for someone we don’t believe in, just because “there will be hell” if we don’t.
If you want smart, progressive young people to vote for your candidate, stop telling them what to do, and start telling them why.
Donald Trump isn’t enough.