Every day I feel as if there is something and new and outrageous going on, especially when the President speaks or tweets. I cannot stand hearing about it or even talking about, so I am going to write about it. In my Women and Authorities class, at the University of Scranton, we analyzed Hillary Clinton’s Speech in India in the spring of 2018. She analyzed the election campaign of her components, as well as herself. Now, here is what I have formulated about this speech.
Hillary Clinton delivered an interesting speech to a receptive crowd in India. CNN captured her speech, in an article written by Eli Watkins, and the contents that she spoke about. Mrs. Clinton spoke on behalf of America, saying America does not deserve President Trump as their leader. She called a bluff on Mr. Trump’s campaign, calling him a “reality TV candidate.” The funny thing about this is that the “reality star” won the election. Personally, never in a million years did I or some of the nation think that he would be the president; and neither did Hillary Clinton. There were specific things that went wrong with Mrs. Clinton’s campaign. One of the main reasons was she did not speak to the people that had been “ignored” during the past eight years. Hillary generally targeted groups like college educated women, the LGBTQ community, immigrants, minority groups etc. Her message was to move forwards not backwards, “I won the places that represent two-thirds of America’s gross domestic product, so I won the places that are optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving forward. And his whole campaign, ‘Make America Great Again,’ was looking backwards,” Clinton proclaimed (Watkins CNN).
President Trump’s campaign was very dark and pessimistic; to some people at least. The crowd that he appealed to ate his campaign slogan right up. The idea of “Making America Great Again,” really triggered people in a certain way. People were feeling hopeless with their jobs, the economy, and many other factors. So the fact that a fresh face that was not a politician ran, gave the people hope. This effected a lot of the people that live in NEPA because this area used to be a coal dominated economy that provided income for their families. I can say for my family, both of my great-grandfathers were coal miners, and that income was so vital to keep their families a float. The Rust Belt of America is active and alive, due to President Trump’s campaign. In essence, he also gave these people a voice; which in most cases today have been used negatively. Words and actions have been put into place, and people think it is okay to act this way because they are just following in the footsteps of our president. Hillary Clinton is right, Americans do not deserve this.
Recently, in the news or online, all kinds of people have been talking about voting patterns amongst women in the United States over the years. Most of the time women are considered “Swing Voters” because depending on what policies each candidate talks about implementing for their presidency, women will vote which way they see fit. In the years where President Obama was running African-American women had historic voting numbers, turnouts, and percentages obviously voting towards the left. Most of the time college educated women vote Democratic, single women vote Democratic, older, richer married women vote Republican, and uneducated women vote Republican as well. A lot of it has to do with socio-economic status. Even though a lot of women did not vote, it could have been because of their ability and having the resources to vote; like money or transportation. There are so many factors when it comes to voting and how it can determine an election. Women who did not vote during this past election, are owning up to their actions. I feel as if in the next election a lot of these women will be active about voting and having their voices heard.
I also feel like this article is very relevant because in the upcoming months Americans will be voting for the 2018 House and Senate elections. If anybody wants change, now is the time to vote. Now is the time for change, there can be no more sitting back and watching. I cannot physically, mentally, or emotionally handle the news of another school being shot up, legislation being passed about women’s reproductive rights by elderly white men, or another phony taking a White House position and destroying everything we have worked so hard for and came so far from. It is now time to take action for the sake of this country, that in my book has always been great.