Hello all,

I am using this space today to formally and wholeheartedly endorse Hillary Rodham Clinton for President of the United States. I know, it’s shocking.

In all seriousness, I am aware that very few people would look at my shaven-head, feminist club-starting, rainbow flag-waving self and assume that I would support any candidate besides Clinton. With a day to go before Election Day, Clinton continues to lead the in the polls and according to FiveThirtyEight, has a predicted 65% chance of winning. In deeply liberal Massachusetts, there is virtually no possibility of the former Secretary of State not receiving a vast majority of the vote. In the past few weeks, major publications, from the New York Times to Variety magazine, have endorsed Clinton. Perhaps even more tellingly, traditionally conservative newspapers like the Arizona Republican, who endorsed a Democrat for the first time in their 126-year history, have followed suit. Even as supposed scandals pile up behind her, there is a general consensus among most professionals that Clinton is going to become the first woman President of America. Also, I can’t vote yet.

Given all this, it seems that there is not much of a reason for me to officially endorse Clinton or defend my choice in an editorial. And yet, I drive past seventeen Trump signs in the twenty-five miles it takes me to get to school each morning. I hear classmates who express a general apathy towards the election because “we don’t live in a swing state” and “both candidates are awful.” I think about the penetrating fear I feel when I imagine having as president a man who would judge me on nothing but my body. 

I do not know if I can sway anyone’s opinion, but I know that in an election year such as this one, where the very principles of my country have been called into question, to not make my feelings explicit would betray everything that I stand for. I have no superlative political knowledge, and every analysis I would make has already been made by someone much more qualified. So I am speaking simply as a person, as a citizen of the United States, as a young woman who has been beaten down by the hate which has been encouraged by Donald Trump over the past year.

To me, and so many other people, this election is not a choice between the lesser of two evils. The fact that Clinton, a former Secretary of State with thirty-plus years of political experience under her belt, has had to seriously debate with and campaign against Trump, a businessman and reality television star, is offensive and demeaning to Clinton’s capabilities. To complain that she is not perfect is to conveniently forget that no U.S. president has ever been so. For all that Trump is supposedly the honest candidate, Clinton is the one who brings with her legitimate knowledge and experience which presents a truthful picture of what is necessary in politics. And it is important to remember that the President of the United States is a job, one which, like any other, requires preparation and skill.

To those who plan to withhold their votes entirely, I only ask that you consider what exactly is going to happen. There is no outcome in which enough ballots support neither major party candidate that one of them does not become president. To throw away your vote is to stand on an idealistic soapbox which conveniently ignores the millions of people whose rights are at stake.

As one of those people, I can promise you that this election has taken its toll. To hear insinuations of sexual assault from the mouth of a candidate, to watch that same man insult immigrants, Muslims, disabled people, LGBTQ people, women, all more truly American than he could ever hope to be, is to be reminded of the strides we have yet to make. I cannot guarantee that Clinton will make all of those strides. But I can promise you that Trump’s rhetoric will not be watered down if he is in office. He will continue to harm the best of our nation.

I believe that the majority of Trump supporters are not inherently despicable, and I think that the economic concerns many of them have need to be dealt with. But the validity of their concerns does not negate the fact that their candidate has no place in this election.

Trump has blown open any delusions we still had about being post-discrimination. America is a diverse, aching, unfinished symphony of a country. To elect this man would be a death sentence on hopes of growing and rebuilding.

For me, and so many others who can not vote, I just ask that you have faith in the possibility of this nation, have faith in the capabilities of Hillary Clinton, and consider what we still want to become.

Thank you.

-Cassidy Polga

Note: This editorial does not reflect the opinion of The Magnet as a whole.