As a young female thirsting for opportunity, striving to succeed in a male dominated field, I believe in several feminist values. I see myself as quite independent in my personal life as well as my career. I advocate women's independence, equal salary/wages for equal jobs, and equal education. I frown upon (as most everyone) violence against women, women who feel their purpose in life is to marry and pop out kids, etcetera, etcetera. You all know the spiel. So upon first glance, most would say I'm a Hillary Clinton worshiping femi-nazi.
Truth be told, I detest Hillary Clinton. Yes, she is making history, running for president and being a female and all. But I think of Clinton and feel...nothing. I browsed her campaign website, HillaryClinton.com, and read article after article of her experiences and articles about who she advocates and who she has helped. But it all just feels disassociated from the people, from the public. Her persona feels as dry and crusty as all the other countless old white men that have run for Commander in Chief over the last two hundred years.
I feel she leaves so much to be desired. I feel completely uninspired, dispassionate, uninvolved. But, there is a candidate who does inspire me, as you may have guessed, Barack Obama. Why? I have asked myself this very question countless times. Why would a middle-aged, African- American, married, father inspire me? In search of answers, I browsed over Obama's campaign site, BarackObama.com. I found myself rereading over Obama's stance on several issues I felt were important; education, rural america, healthcare and taxes. I read several of his speeches and I noticed, in all of them, he does not speak of his dreams, the dreams of our children, the dreams and hopes of the elderly, the dreams of this ethnic group or that, but of OUR dreams. The dream of the American people. He speaks of not "the" future, but our future. Obama may be just another politician, but he makes his audience, supporters and opposers feel apart of a whole. Not separated by political association, wealth, poverty, education, or professions. His experience is not a list of publicity stunts to show he helped this group or this individual, but a collaboration of acts driven by his desire to"unite" the United States again.
Now no one can say whether he will follow through, but Obama has something the American people want. Whether it's vivacity, values, the desire for progress and true equality, the hope for opportunity, that drives this "middled-aged, African American, married, father", this man is something special. And I can only hope he follows through. He has surely gotten my hopes up that I can live in the America I want to live in. He makes me care. At this point, what more can a young voter, much less the American people ask for?
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