For many college students, Nov. 8 will be the first time they cast a vote for the President of the United States. Who we elect will say a lot about this country’s values and a lot about where this country is headed. It is up to us to elect someone who reflects the positives of America, not the negatives. This is why The Rocket is endorsing Hillary Clinton this election cycle.
Hillary Clinton has run her campaign focusing on what we believe makes America so special: diversity, freedom, strength in unity and the idea that if someone works hard enough, they can achieve anything they want.
Donald Trump, in contrast, has run his campaign focusing on what he views as wrong with America as opposed to focusing on how to make it better. Anything which Trump deems un-American he wants to get rid of, whether it be diverse populations, rights of minoritized groups or bits in the Constitution he simply doesn’t really like.
Hillary has been in public services for the better part of 30 years. She has served as a lawyer, the first lady of Arkansas, the first lady of the United States, a United States senator and the secretary of state under President Barack Obama. At each stop along the way, Hillary helped as many people as she could and left each position better than she found it.
As the first lady of Arkansas, Hillary helped reform public schooling in Arkansas and co-founded a non-profit children and family advocacy organization. As first lady of the United States, she helped children across the country get health insurance, advocated to improve adoption, family safety and foster care and emphatically stated at a United Nation summit that “human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights.” As the first female New York senator, she helped address the health issues of the 9/11 first responders and voted against George Bush tax cuts and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. While serving as secretary of state under President Obama, Hillary was faced with the complex issues in the Middle East and on several occasions helped to find diplomatic solutions to counteract aggression from countries like Iran and Libya.
Now as the first female candidate for president of one of the two major parties, Hillary is running on a platform that focuses on making America a more fair and inclusive country for everyone. Her primary goals are making improvements to the Affordable Care Act so that healthcare in America can become a right for everyone, not a privilege for few; reforming the campaign finance system and Wall street; allowing pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants; expanding and protecting LGBTQ and women’s rights; supporting families through paid parental leave from work; and universal public schooling.
Despite Hillary’s impressive resume, she, like anyone running for public office, is not a perfect candidate, nor does she have a perfect record. She has accepted large campaign donations from millionaires on Wall Street, she is seen as untrustworthy by some and her judgment has been called into question on several different occasions. However, when compared to her opponent, Hillary is the clear choice for who should be the next president of the United States.
For the last 18 months of his campaign, Donald Trump has called on the fears of the American people, isolated and vilified large groups of people both in America and around the world and has shown a grave disrespect for anyone that disagrees with him. On several occasions, Trump has belittled and attacked people based on their looks, abilities, gender identity, sexual orientation, skin color, religion, background and social standing. He has spent most of his life taking advantage of people he believes he is better than, and as president, there is little reason to believe this would change.
Many high-ranking members of his own party have stood against him (John McCain, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Mitt Romney) because they do not believe Trump’s America would be a good one. Hillary, on the other hand, has received support from virtually all Democrats in public office (Bernie Sanders, Barack and Michelle Obama, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker) because they believe Hillary will lead America in the right direction as president.
In the end, no matter who becomes President, The Rocket believes that your vote matters and just by taking part in the democratic process, you are making your voice heard and strengthening our country.
