By Hannah Schaefer | Contributor
I am voting for Hillary Clinton because I recognize I am not merely voting for myself. I am not only voting on behalf of my own rights but also for the rights of those who cannot vote-those whose votes are made illegitimate by restrictive voting laws and those who do not have American citizenship. I vote for my international friends at Taylor, who worry about what this election will mean if they want to get jobs in America after college. I vote for my friends of color who tell me they have never been more afraid to live in the U.S. I vote for people around the world who do not get a say in who our president becomes but will be forced to deal with the consequences. I vote to condemn systemic racism and those who are now seeking elected positions so they can enforce it. I am voting for Hillary because I want to sleep at night knowing I've done all I can to protect God's people-members of the body of Christ-and to keep them safe from violence and oppression.
I am voting for Hillary because I do not believe I can fulfill that responsibility by voting for anyone else. Donald Trump mocks disabled reporters, believes black men should not work with money and shows no compassion for anyone who is not like him. His hatred and fear of the other repulses me. I cannot vote for him with a clear conscience. Not if I love and care for those whom Jesus called us to love and care for the most: the widows and orphans, the poor and sick. Gary Johnson shows an apathy for those who cannot pull themselves up by their bootstraps, believing we should completely dismantle our federal Department of Education. Jill Stein's self-righteous anger does not translate to the kind of results that Hillary is known to produce.
I don't believe Hillary is a saint. She has made many mistakes, and I have no interest in excusing them. She needs to apologize and make reparations. But I don't believe Hillary's faux pas (her mistakes) compare to the number of people Donald Trump has hurt. She still has more political experience than all three of her competitors, and she is highly intelligent. But she is not a woman of change, and while I wish we could see more improvement in the next four years than what she promises, not all change is good change. Being the president of the United States is a job. It's not the same as being a fashion or entertainment icon, and I believe she takes her work seriously and doesn't make promises she won't keep. Policy isn't sexy, and she knows that. You can't turn immigration or education reform into an elevator pitch.
There are a lot of reasons why I'm voting for Hillary Clinton, and if I'm honest, most of them are about why I'm not voting for the other candidates. I know a lot of people who are angry about that, and there's some legitimacy to that anger, but there are too many people in America who have spent their entire lives voting for the lesser of two (or three or four) evils, and their pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
We cannot afford to turn this election into self-sabotage, because the first people to be collateral damage are the people who need us most. So I plan to vote quietly and without complaining. We made our bed, and now it's time to lie in it.
