Recently, on her Instagram page, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said this in regards to the upcoming presidential election: “Voting for Joe Biden is not about whether you agree with him. It’s a vote to let our democracy live another day...Because no one politician is the answer. No one president is the answer. [Voters] are the answer...millions of people are the answer”.
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After giving it some thought, I was left wondering two things. Firstly why would Miss Ocasio-Cortez insinuate that we would “disagree” with Joe Biden? And taking it further, did she use the term “agree” loosely for something far more concerning? The reason why I’m zeroing in on this small word is that, in my opinion, Miss Ocasio-Cortez is trying to frame her message in which she implores the audience to overlook whatever “disagreement” and personal issues voters might have with Biden. However, I will say Miss Ocasio-Cortez was correct when she said there’s no single answer for politicians nor presidents. But at the same rate, that doesn’t mean we should have to feel a sense of mistrust and suspicion about the person responsible for running an entire country. That sense of mistrust and suspicion is what thousands of young voters, including myself, have been paying great attention to.
The idea of replacing Trump with Biden sounds exciting on paper, yet ends up counterintuitive in fruition. To put it simply: you’d essentially be getting rid of one creepy, sexist, white man for another. Biden still has several allegations of inappropriate behavior towards young women and even one sexual assault allegation. None of these cases have been confirmed nor updated, but that infamous ‘shoulder squeeze’ viral video would definitely not support his case. Plenty of younger, left-leaning, democratic, and/or liberal voters are more likely to consider serious sexual harassment allegations as a dealbreaker in terms of support and endorsement.
Credit image: BBC
When it comes to who these same young voters want to vote for, it’s such a shock no one wants to see Trump for the next four torturous years. Let’s pick back up the previous point of inappropriate behavior towards women. Trump has never been ambiguous about his beliefs on anything, let alone women. His “honesty” is the sole reason he has mass supporters in the first place (such “honesty” has not aged well...ahem the recent Woodward tapes). Keep in mind, this isn’t the first time Trump’s grotesque sexism has been the topic of conversation. Really, these conversations were the most amplified at the beginning of and during the 2016 presidential election where all hell broke loose.
When it was first announced that Trump was going to run for president, this seemed to be the year where everyone started making highly political content in a way I hadn’t ever paid attention to previously. There was a line drawn in the mud with a thin wooden stick: you were either pro-feminist and anti-Trump, or pro-conservative and anti-Clinton. It was when I started taking note of how mostly feminists were so excited to finally have the first female president of the United States. Which I too would’ve been excited for...had it been any other woman other than Hillary Clinton. I suddenly became more skeptical and untrusting. Something wasn't quite right about her.
Spoiler alert: it wasn’t because she was a woman!
Rather I was confused as to how exactly we knew she’d be able to handle certain issues and crises any better than Trump. For the most part, I got that she was less misogynist than Trump. That’s good, but that seemed to be about it. Another reason I couldn’t take Clinton seriously anymore was because of her endless and distracting campaign, desperately trying to sell to the young voters in hopes they “Pokemon-Go to the polls”. On top of that, thousands of high-caliber celebrities endorsed the hell out of Clinton in the spirit of feminism, equal rights, and good publicity. I honestly got the impression that everyone’s dying love for Clinton wouldn’t last long after several years in office. Hypocritically though after the internal back-and-forth, I still would’ve voted for Clinton anyway. Simply because I couldn’t bring myself to vote for Trump. It’s fascinating. The differences between me and everyone else that voted only in opposition of Trump were that I couldn’t vote nor could I ignore the disingenuous vibes from Clinton.
Who would’ve thought many of us would end up here today, going through the same predicament only four years later? We could’ve only hoped for a much better candidate for the next election. But alas, it doesn’t seem to be the case. I can’t stand that those who aren’t singing the highest praises for Biden and/or Clinton and going as far as to criticize them are labeled Trump supporters. It truly doesn’t make sense. At the end of the day, I would’ve been a Clinton “supporter” and am going to “support” Biden simply by giving them a vote on my ballot. But I cannot support them to the fullest because I will not ignore serious sexual harassment allegations nor the terrible dabbing on Ellen.
Credit image: nbcnews.com
Written by Veronica Nicole
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