As a feminist and young woman, I look at Hillary Clinton and admire her running for president. I love that she is making women who come from women’s colleges—as she did herself from Wellesley College—look amazing. I love that she graduated from the Yale school of Law and I am more than impressed that she has made a career for herself in American politics, as she has been both a senator as well as the Secretary of State during President Obama’s first term as president. As a woman, I look up to her and want to be just like her in many ways. She’s independent, strong and incredibly successful, just like I want to be in my field. However, as a college student and a person who is suddenly able and willing to vote, there is no way I am voting for Hillary Clinton.
Of course, when looking at many of the GOP candidates, I believe that over half of them run on ridiculous grounds. I have no idea why Donald Trump is running for president and I don’t really know how Carly Fiorina thinks she would be a good president. Ben Carson has absolutely no political experience and is trained as a neurosurgeon, so I’m extremely confused as to how he got the idea to run for president at all. With all of that information being known, my political decision boiled down to Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, but prior to learning anything about Sanders, I was ready for Clinton 2016.
I believe a lot of college-aged people agree with me, especially young women. Before they knew that Bernie Sanders was running for president, before they knew how beneficial his political views were, these women were ready for Hillary Clinton to become the next president of the United States simply because we didn’t think we had any better options. Hillary Clinton believes in amazing things that I believe in. She has voted for smaller classroom sizes and more teachers, she bravely fought for Plan B to be on the market and supports marriage equality. However, there are a few unsettling points about Hillary Clinton that fail to make her the best option as presidential candidate. For example, Clinton is very pro-war and plans do nothing in terms of gun control.
Guns kill thousands of people in the United States annually. I would want my president to readily desire to do something to stop that. I also do not believe that war can resolve all of our problems and believe it should be avoided, if it would be less damaging to do so. War kills civilians, it ruins families and it causes irreversible damage. Wars are between politicians, not between civilians.
It would be nice to see a woman in office. It would be wonderful to see a part of my identity in the person that leads our country. It would be wonderful to see young women able to look up to the president of the United States. However, on some of the positions that are important to me, Hillary Clinton and I happen to fundamentally disagree. When we have Bernie Sanders as a candidate, she is not the president for us.
