Duke Staff
On Sunday a woman announced her presidential candidacy for the second time in her political career.
From millennials to baby boomers, Saturday Night Live to Buzzfeed, Americans everywhere are reacting to Hillary Clinton running for president in 2016. One editor at The Duke remarked jokingly that the only person who could beat her was the current first lady herself. With all the talk around Clinton, newspaper headlines are reading more like a coronation than a campaign.
However, with over a year until the votes are actually cast and counted, the hill Clinton will have to climb will be much longer and harder than what the media is portraying.
If Hillary Clinton is elected, the United States would be electing a woman who already knows her way around the White House. Previously a senator, a First Lady and a secretary of state, voters have proof of what Clinton is capable of and has done in the past. Regardless of what her campaign says, we are fortunate enough to be able to look at her actions thus far too.
Action is the basis of how one should cast a vote. Not by gender, not by party and not by race. At the end of the day, a president should be elected by what they stand for and how they stand for it.
In a world where the same company, Unilever, can own an empowering brand like Dove and also own the misogynistic brand Axe, businesses are using heartstrings to control customers like puppets.
Political candidates, much like brands, can do the same.
Taking to the road, Clinton’s first stretch of her campaign included a five day drive via van through New York and Iowa with stops at gas stations, trips to Chipotle and a community college on Monday. She’s just like us, right? Wrong. Clinton has been in the White House since 1993 as First Lady and hasn’t driven herself in over 25 years according to The Atlantic.
From Obama to JFK smart voters have had to ask themselves, “Does the product work or does the advertising?”
If you’re voting for Hillary come 2016, it’s because you believe in her plans of repealing Bush era tax cuts, her plans for a regulated economy, support for repealing the Social Security tax cap and stances on human rights.
It’s not because Amy Poehler does a fantastic impression of the woman on Saturday Night Live.
While yes, she did look great in that dress, it’s irrelevant to her foreign policy.
The presidential campaign is about issues, not identities.
