I am not a political pundit or expert, which makes me extremely qualified to write about the presidential election. I am biased because I believe in what I am writing. Elections of this size are all about individuals, opinions, beliefs and the people who show up to vote. I typically like to stay in my lane of writing about business, technology and marketing. However, I can not stay quiet on this topic. For the sake of my three year old daughter and the son I am about to bring into the world, the stakes are far too high.
I realized recently that it is not enough for me to just share some Hillary graphics on Facebook and vote and hope that she wins. If you are already on the team Hillary bus, we all need to reach deep and think about how we can individually have an impact on this campaign. Sometimes it means volunteering your time at a phone bank making calls on behalf of the campaign, or donating $5 or $10 so that they can compete with the massive amount of free media that Trump is getting or going door to door, or rallying your like minded friends to not sit this one out and to motivate their friends and families to vote. For me my best tool is writing. I am proud that I am voting for Hillary Clinton and it has always been easy for me to write about things that I am proud about.
Today, the New York Times editorial staff endorsed Hillary Clinton for president.
“Running down the other guy won’t suffice to make that argument. The best case for Hillary Clinton cannot be, and is not, that she isn’t Donald Trump,” stated the endorsement.
I believe there is only one person capable of tackling the tough issues facing our Nation and that is why I am also endorsing Hillary Clinton for President of the United States of America.
Reprogramming the Programing
After a few paragraphs, you could dismiss me as another liberal writer, but I beg you to take a deeper look. I am a former Republican, white male, 2nd generation American born—by way of Scotland, a husband and soon to be parent of two kids, a home-owner and small business owner, marketing director, and member of the middle class. I worked in the healthcare industry for close to a decade. I love America, our outstanding military and all that it stands for and I take the bad with the good and realize that we are far from a perfect nation.
I was raised in a Republican household, under the influence of the Reagan presidency. My late father was a hardcore republican.
He dropped out of college in the late 60s to work on the campaign for Nelson Rockefeller in his run for Governor of the state of New York. He returned to school after the job was finished and graduated with an Engineering degree from one of the top schools in the country.
During the first two elections that I could vote, I cast votes for George W. Bush.
Just days before the re-election of George W, myself and my family attended a rally in a field in Pennsylvania where the President flew in on a helicopter.
But then something shifted in my politics.
Enter My Wife and Barack Obama In That Order
In 2004 I started dating my wife. She loves to take credit for my switchover to the Democratic party, but there were a lot of things that made me open my eyes. I graduated college in the year 2000 with a degree in journalism and advertising. I watched as my career turned into a roulette wheel of chance. I experienced layoff on top of layoffs and then firings as I watched horrible executives destroy morale within companies and abuse their employees and continuously get away with it. This greatly affected my personal view on politics and life. I saw company leaders taking huge bonuses, while they laid off their employees. I proudly voted Obama twice despite my parents best efforts to talk me out of it at every family gathering.
The war in Iraq was also a major changing point for me. When the truth came out about the rush into an unnecessary war in that country, I lost faith in the leadership of the Republican party. I just couldn’t come to terms with the fact that the Republican administration lead the push to send our amazing military into harms way for unproven reasons.
The Days After 911
I was born on Long Island and my family has a strong history in the city of New York.
The tragic events of September 11th left a great impact on me. A kid from my graduating class was murdered in one of the twin towers, a friend’s brother in law was taken from his family that day, all for just showing up to work as a flight attendant on one of the hijacked planes that hit the towers. I had family members on the NYPD and others working in lower Manhattan. In the days after this event like many in our country my primal instincts were fear based. I wanted revenge on the scum of the earth who did this to us. But common sense prevailed in myself and many others. I remember the way that politicians worked together in those early days, putting aside any partisan agendas to work on healing America.
Since then the country is more divided than ever. I don’t want to sit here and bash the Republican party. I believe that there are great Republicans out there including most members of my family. What I do want to spend my time doing, is pointing out that fear mongering has failed us in the past and it will fail us in the future.
The other candidate in this race is not a Republican, he is an opportunist taking advantage of the country being more divided than ever and capitalizing on fear.
A Leader, Not Just A Woman
Hillary Clinton is the smarter choice. We are not electing a dictator or king, we are electing someone who can work with members of both sides of the aisle to enable change. As former President George H. Bush has stated that he plans on voting for Mrs. Clinton, I believe that makes her case stronger. Hillary Clinton has proven experience working within government as a Senator and Secretary of State.
As the father of a three year old girl, I am extremely proud that our next President may be the first female president. However, this has very little to do with why I am voting for her. She has a lifelong record of working to help people, to make changes to a broken healthcare system, which I know well, and she is a tough leader.
Nothing good is ever accomplished with a foundation of hate and exclusion.
Hillary Clinton does not want to build walls and capitalize on our primal fears. She wants to build a stronger unified nation. Her campaign slogan is Stronger Together. The other candidates slogan is Make America Great Again. Those two slogans could not be more polar opposites if you tried.
I don’t believe that the top 1% in this country deserve more tax breaks and loopholes. I believe that Hillary will be a bigger change agent on this issue than the other candidate, based on their individual histories.
Why We Can’t Sit This One Out
Hillary should be leading this opposition by double and triple digits. I was never a huge Bernie fan, but from my perspective Hillary needs to do a better job in the days remaining at engaging Bernie Sanders and the people of the revolution, which he inspired. I would encourage Clinton to ensure that Bernie Sanders has a firm position on her team moving forward and do so in a vocal and transparent way to ensure that these people do not all disengage with the voting process.
I wish to remind everyone that this presidential election will come down to you and me. We are the not so silent majority. It is not enough to vote, we must be vocal. A poor voter turnout could change the course of this country and the world in a very negative direction. Get involved today at HilaryClinton.com
Finally, if you disagree with me I respect your right to your individual opinion but I do not subscribe to it.