If you’re a young liberal or a former Bernie Sanders supporter and you aren’t voting for Hillary Clinton, you’re fooling yourself. And there are a lot of you out there; for voters ages 18-24, Barack Obama’s net approval rating is positive 32 points and Clinton’s margin of lead over Donald Trump is positive 13 points. If you don’t speak pollster, this means that a large number of young voters who do approve of Obama would not vote for Clinton. In all other age groups, those who approve of Obama are much more likely to vote for Clinton.
In a recent Quinnipiac University poll, 29 percent of voters aged 18 to 34 said they would vote for Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate. If you’re one of these people, and you’re trying to make a statement with your vote, or you’re not voting at all in protest, the only message you’re relaying is that you’ll put personal distaste over your liberal principles.
I have criticized Clinton many times in this section, and will almost definitely continue to do so in my time as a columnist here. I wish she were a better candidate — but playtime is over. The election is less than two months away and without a serious effort on the part of anti-Trump voters, he will win the presidency.
Trump, overall, is losing the vote of young people, and badly. If all the young voters who are casting a ballot for third parties or are not voting were forced to choose between Clinton and Trump, most of them would choose Clinton.
By this point, it is clear that it is almost impossible for Johnson to win the presidency. By his own campaign’s admission, his path to victory involves denying 270 electoral votes to both Clinton and Trump, thereby throwing the election into the House of Representatives and praying for a miracle. Essentially, his young voters are saying that it does not matter, really, who makes it to the White House. “Trump or Clinton,” they say. “What’s really the difference?”
I may disagree strongly with Trump supporters on many matters of policy and on their assessment of the man himself, but I can imagine voting for him were I to hold their views. What I cannot imagine — what seems actually impossible — is the notion that a young liberal or center-leftist could look at the two major candidates and deem them equal.
Protest voters and non-voters of this sort occupy a policy space in my mind which is not only hypocritical, but also downright irresponsible. If they truly cared about the things they say they care about, there is no conceivable reason to cast a protest vote when the other guy on the ballot is the living embodiment of a renunciation of their values.
Clinton has crafted one of the most progressive platforms in the history of a major party candidate. Trump has vowed to deport 11 million illegal immigrants, presumably at gunpoint. Trump has also assembled a team of right-wing, supply-side economists who would make any self-respecting progressive sweat at the thought of them having the ear of the president.
Clinton is not the perfect candidate; she might even be a bad candidate. Even though the prospect of voting against someone rather than for someone may make you nauseous, that’s what being an adult is all about: making tough decisions, making uncomfortable decisions.
To cast my vote for Clinton, I have had to swallow some tough pills. In this section, I have ridiculed her foreign policy stances that I believe are inherently destabilizing. In a perfect world, my preferred candidate would have a foreign policy I admire and respect. But this isn’t a perfect world; it’s complex and ugly, and sometimes you have to swallow your pride and do things you don’t want to do for the sake of long-term goals and practicality.
So take this as a warning: If you’re a young liberal and you sit at home or cast a protest vote, and Trump wins the presidency in November, it won’t be because of the establishment. It won’t be because of campaign financing or biased media, or the rigged system or shadowy elites. It will be because of you.
Aaron Bondar is a sophomore double-majoring in economics and political science.