I felt the Bern, not I’m with her

By Maxwell Barille ’18

I am an unapologetic liberal; I am an idealist; I am a dreamer. But, in a weird way, I am also a pragmatist.

In the 2016 presidential primaries, I voted for Senator Bernie Sanders because I felt drawn to his campaign’s message. I, like many of my fellow millennials, was then bitter in defeat of Hillary Clinton landing a spot on the Democratic ticket—and for a split second, I had even considered a protest vote for Jill Stein of the Green Party. I went into the week of the Republican National Convention with my mind still not made up as to whom I was voting for, be it Stein or Clinton, but what transpired during the RNC in Cleveland and at the DNC right here in Philadelphia, set me straight. After those two weeks this past summer, my pragmatic side won.

The convention weeks made me recognize the importance of electing Hillary Clinton as our next president. For me, Donald Trump represented all that was wrong with our country: a serial misogynist and racist, an advocate of violence towards protesters and generally towards people who disagreed with him, and a promulgator of an exclusive narrative of who exactly belonged in our great country. I vehemently disagree with Donald Trump on almost every one of his policy proposals and I can make arguments against all of them, but that’s not where my disgust with his candidacy lies. I can agree to disagree on things like big versus small government and policy issues; however, I cannot simply agree to disagree once a campaign or candidate openly embraces something like racism, sexism, or homo/transphobia.

I am a firm believer in an America that is for all of its citizens, not just those who fit someone’s simple definition of who an “American” should be. I am afraid of handing unimaginable powers to a man who can be provoked into pettiness and childish behavior by a tweet.

I am voting for Hillary Clinton because I believe in her message that we are “Stronger Together.” I believe in her vision of America. I believe that we must keep moving forward or risk being left behind. I strongly identify with Secretary Clinton’s message that we all do better when the least among us does better. I am voting for Clinton because I believe she is qualified to be president through her years of experience as First Lady, as my Senator, and as my Secretary of State. Simply put, I have not known a year where Hillary Clinton has not represented me in one way or another.

I would be remiss to not mention that I do have my qualms about Secretary Clinton because no candidate is perfect. For example, I fear she may be too pro-interventional on foreign policy as evidenced by her support for U.S. military interventions in Libya, Syria, and Iraq.  I also fear that she may be too friendly with the big banks and Wall Street as evidenced by her numerous speaking engagements with said banks.  My main concerns with her are in the policy arena where a voter naturally has to make concessions once a nominee is chosen, especially since Clinton is much more politically moderate than I am.

However, my concerns with Trump lie in the fundamentally hopeless way he sees my country as evidenced by his constant iteration that America is not currently great. In the way he refuses to admit whether he will accept the elections results if he loses; in the way he constantly undermines American democratic institutions by stating that the election is rigged; in the way he treats women through the numerous comments and tweets demeaning women, the groping and sexual assault/harassment allegations levied at him; in the way his campaign marginalizes Muslims, by proposing a ban on entrance to all of those of the Muslim faith, and Latino/as,  with his comments concerning Mexican immigrants “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people”, war heroes, as apparent in his statement on Senator John McCain “I like people who weren’t captured”, and disabled people, in his mocking of reporter Serge Kovaleski; and in the fact that he has zero legislative experience.

I believe there is a reason why respected magazines such as The Atlantic (their third ever presidential endorsement) and Foreign Policy (their first ever presidential endorsement) have endorsed Clinton over Trump. I believe there is a reason that several prominent Republicans such as Colin Powell, George H.W. Bush, Robert Kagan, and Meg Whitman have said they will vote for or have endorsed Clinton.

I believe in my heart that despite my policy disagreements with Secretary Clinton, she is far and away more fit to run this great country of ours than Donald Trump, and that is why she will have my vote in November.