I can only speak for myself regarding why I support Hillary Clinton, because as Tim Kaine noted when he was here last Thursday, Democrats are a “motley pirate crew” with lots of different pieces of the puzzle. There are so many different reasons to support Hillary — from electing our first woman president, to keeping Donald Trump from the White House, to electing a president with one of the most progressive platforms in our history.  This is a platform that includes tuition-free public college for families making under $125,000 a year, expansions on social security, and calls for an increase in the minimum wage to $15.

I support Hillary Clinton because, to put it simply, she gets it. Although she admits she is removed from her days growing up in a working class family, she still understands the problems that everyday Americans are facing. After she was sick with pneumonia this fall, she said, “I certainly feel lucky when I’m under the weather. I can certainly afford to take a few days off.  Millions of Americans can’t. They either go to work sick or they lose a paycheck.”  Yes, Hillary is privileged, but she recognizes her privilege and will work tirelessly for the American people.  She has never stopped fighting for families and children. She has worked for the Children’s Defense Fund, a non-profit dedicated to child advocacy and research, helped eight million children receive health insurance and used her position in the State Department to ensure transgender folks could have passports that reflected their true gender identity.  

Writing this piece, I felt conflicted. As someone who has been an ardent supporter of Hillary for many years, I have been accused many times of blindly following her and not recognizing her faults. That’s a bunch of malarkey. She’s too far to the right on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and having a private email server was not the best move (even though there was precedent and she has recognized her mistake).  Thanks to journalists eager for a story, there is now a false equivalence between her and her opponent, which is why I have to waste a chunk of this piece defending her rather than extolling her virtues.  As Bernie Sanders has said, “Hillary Clinton will be an infinitely better candidate and President than the Republican candidate on his best day.”

Let’s not forget the history we would be making by electing Hillary to the presidency.  Obviously, no woman has had the honor of serving as our Commander-in-Chief.  I’d like to point out the hardships that not only Hillary has faced in her run for the presidency, but all the double standards women on the campaign trail have faced – questions about who’s taking care of the children while she’s campaigning, being told to smile more (and then told to tone it down), being told she’s too ambitious, or being called a nasty woman in front of an audience of millions.  

Let me finish by calling out to all the nasty women and bad hombres out there, to get out on Nov. 8 and crack the highest, toughest glass ceiling.  

Nathaniel Rosenberg ’18 is a Religious Studies major from Lancaster, PA. Contact him at rosenbergn@kenyon.edu.