I’m a millennial who can’t stand Clinton — but vote for her anyway

I heavily dislike Hillary Clinton. Her policy proposals don’t go far enough. She’s shady. Four years of Clinton promises four years of gridlock. She’s a faux liberal. She’s arrogant.

I get it.

But this is a rousing call to you, my fellow millennials who live in battleground states, to vote for her.

I live in Louisiana, and I already protest voted for Gary Johnson. But that’s because Louisiana isn’t a swing state, and my vote doesn’t matter.

{mosads}If I still lived where I was raised, however, I would vote for Clinton. I grew up in Cary, N.C. — a bellwether city in a bellwether state that’s gotten shout outs in recent weeks from NPR, Politico, Bloomberg, and other media outlets because of its strategic importance this election cycle.

Yesterday, a family member and two friends who can’t stand Clinton told me they voted for her. Had her opponent been anyone except Donald J. Trump (or Ted Cruz), they likely would have voted for the GOP nominee.

Listen to me: You need to follow their example.

If you live in a battleground state and are on the fence about voting for Hillary, or are considering not voting at all, I get it. My first election was 2008. I got to vote for President Obama the first time around. The night before the election, he spoke in Charlotte. I attended the speech and watched him weep as he spoke of the grandmother who helped raise him, who passed away that day. The rain fell, and it felt like history. It was history.

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This time, my younger comrades, you’re faced with spoiled milk and a rotting pickle, and you want neither.

But Trump cannot become president. It’s not just about him, and it’s not just about you — or me.

It’s about the black church in Mississippi that was lit on fire this week with pro-Trump graffiti spray painted on its side.

It’s about ex-KKK scumbag David Duke, a Trump supporter, who just called for Hillary to get the electric chair, and Trump’s reluctance to immediately disavow him earlier this year.

It’s about the immigrant families who might be ripped apart. It’s about the Muslims who feel threatened by Trump’s rhetoric.

One of my closest friends died of cancer at the age of 28 six weeks ago. He was a Muslim. And the last time we spoke, we discussed Trump. I think of him as I write this to you.

When I attended his funeral, I watched his parents weep. They are people. Mexicans are people. Gays are people. We are all people. This is America, and you, young people, hold in your hands its future.

Despite your reservations about Hillary, she is not Trump. So buck up, get off your ass, and go vote for her. And more importantly, convince one or two people you know to do the same. 

Walczak is a New Orleans-based journalist and the author of “Four Gone,” an in-depth investigation into the 1972 disappearance of Congressmen Hale Boggs and Nick Begich.

The views of Contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.