Why I Support Hillary Clinton

  I am a teenager. I support Hillary Clinton. I probably shouldn’t exist.

  Based on the results of our own article last week about how seniors plan to vote, I’m in the minority of young liberals. Unlike many who seek to detract her, I actually like Clinton. She’s been involved in politics for decades, serving most recently as Secretary of State under President Obama. If you open your mind and weigh the options, you just may come to the same conclusion that I did: Hillary Clinton deserves your vote this year.

  For as long as she has been involved in national politics, some people have hated Hillary Clinton. People claim she’s distant or complain that she only supports issues if they have been endlessly focus-grouped. She even famously flip-flopped on the issue of gay marriage, moving from opposing it to endorsing it fully. However, her political oeuvre is anything but scandalous. People’s positions on issues change, especially after being elected to office, where politics are constantly being challenged. Clinton’s views evolved. That’s par for the course.

  Clinton is and has been an ardent supporter of human rights and liberal reform. She can rally voters and fill stadiums. She virtually tied with Bernie Sanders in Iowa and won with a healthy margin in Nevada, and elsewhere, she’s leading in the polls. In fact, Clinton garners more support from minorities and women than does Sanders.

   Clinton’s track record of reform alone should be enough to convince young people of her ability to run the country. Her platform supports human rights, women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights, college finance reform, paid leave and voting rights expansions, among other issues. She lines up with Sanders on most of his campaign’s finer points.

  It’s very easy to get swept away in the incessant support for Sanders. He, despite all odds, has turned 2016 into a race to the left, energizing young voters who have never felt included in the political process before. It might be fun to imagine a world where Sanders could actually be president, but let’s be honest — it would never work in real life. Take, for example, Sanders’s push to raise the national minimum wage to $15 an hour. Even liberal economists who support an increase in wages have found issues with this plan, which could end up doing more harm than good to workers.

  Far more people in this country are right of Sanders’s views than those that would support him. If he becomes president, the likely Republican-led Congress will block whatever he tries to accomplish, as opposed to Clinton’s more likely universal support.

  Still, Clinton might not seem like an exciting choice over Sanders. This perception needs to change. Demi Lovato, Lena Dunham, John Legend, Jesse Eisenberg, Salma Hayek, Uzo Aduba, Jennifer Lopez, Olivia Wilde, Kerry Washington, Snoop Dogg and, yes, even Beyoncé have all campaigned for, donated to, or publicly endorsed Clinton.

Clinton’s detractors use a well-worn set of talking points and snap judgments to delegitimize her presidential bid, but they fall apart under scrutiny.

  The Benghazi scandal is the most-echoed reason for conservatives not to support Clinton. She became the scapegoat of the Obama administration for Washington Republicans. By attacking her credibility over deleted emails, they attempted to mar both President Obama and a potential Clinton presidential run. Even a Republican-led committee that investigated the attacks cleared Clinton of any wrongdoing, putting to rest any lingering accusations against her.

  Hillary Clinton is the best chance the Democratic Party has at the White House. She’s more centrist than Sanders, but she’s still about as liberal as President Obama, if not more. Most importantly, against an establishment Republican candidate, she could win, not alienate independents like Sanders might. As the 2016 election draws closer, I urge you to take another look at the candidates. Hillary Clinton needs your vote to do more in the White House than Bernie Sanders ever could.