Schultz Has My Vote Because…
The independent Starbucks CEO runner has everyone terrified except me.
The first election I was legally able to vote on was the 2016 Presidential Campaign of Donald J. Trump against the infamous Hillary Clinton. At the time I was a fresh eighteen year old teenager, that was consistently pitched to fill out a form to register in time for elections. As an multi-racial bisexual young women whom grew up in New York City Housing Authorities (NYCHA) residence housing, I was an expected Democrat vote in the making. Growing up in New York City, a highly diverse city, with a democratic voting mother, and a family that voted for Obama both terms, I felt I needed to be a Democrat.
“I mean everyone around me was… so I must be too. “
As a young teen in high school, I was heavily involved in policy, leadership, and academics. I went to a public school that only taught me about two parties, Democrat and Republicans. I was taught to hate candidates like Trump, because it was against the values of the environment and location in which I was raised in.
When I arrived at my small liberal arts college in Washington, PA, I not only experienced a minor culture shock, but a perspective shock. I always knew everyone experiences, traumas, and childhood created different experiences and knowledge from others. That our knowledge when we were younger, grows us to have different perspective. And in areas in which their is a lack of diversity, they may not know how to treat an individual like myself.
People with my skin complexion for some, was just an image seen on a Television screen, a Hip Hop, Rap or R&B musician that said the N word they weren’t allowed to project. The people who were my complexion were tired of explaining their color, culture and ways of life to people whom were different to us.
I remember when the 2016 Presidential Campaign started, I was sitting with my colleagues in one of the dorm room communal living space on campus. The TV hanged on the wall. There was numerous couches and chairs all around the room like an auditorium. We would watch Clinton and Trump bicker back and forth on policy and their political or economical past. There were students from international countries, people with MAGA hats, people of color, with various of party representation all together. It was a time where inclusion was still celebrated. We had our political differences, but it was a civil conversation. We all respected each other. We even had a Canadian student to help solve issues if anything occurred.
The young people in this space had multiple political views. Few were independents, some were libertarians, some were democrat, and a few had no idea what they were. It was the first time I heard about the libertarian party. It was interesting to hear people whom had different perspectives, and different reasons they wanted to vote for Trump. I undoubtedly believe that without college I would never had the platform to see beyond the two dimensional perspective.
When the election results came out, some of campus was beyond devastated and some were proud. I reached out to some colleagues whom opened up about their vote to Trump, and told them I would still talk to them, and not treat them differently. Meanwhile, all over the country, individuals took the news harshly. Some relationships ended due to whom they voted for. Some people lost employment because of their political views. In New York, there were marches in the streets for weeks. Articles of both physical and mental violence out breaking.
“All I remembered from that day is the beginning knot of pain I endured when I saw this country breaking apart. It was like the wall was already psychologically built between two parties. We had declared the first war on our own nation. The new form of discrimination was born in this country. “
Since that day, I have seen numerous of memes, images, social media, and different forms of media profiting over the division of this country. Facebook would use its algorithms to show content to its users that best favored their political view, to help promote the hatred in our country. Businesses were forced to take a public political stance and CEOs who didn’t have Democrat views, when their consumers were democrats, lost business.
Trump entered the presidency wanting to terminate all policies and laws implemented by Democrats. The phrase “liberals,” the “lefts” became a marketing strategy to get his voters to hate a group of individuals and make it a fight for what party implemented the best policy, rather than working together to create the best policies for this country.
During the 2018 Congressional elections, the Democrat party was so angered by Trump’s win into office, they teamed up with celebrities, influencers, and created a youth friendly campaign to introduce young people to get in the voting booth to vote for any democrat into office.
“At this point becoming a politician whether it be President, House of Representative, or Senate, was not about being the best leader for this country, but the tag attached to your collar. People were not voting for who was going to be the best candidate but voting to get their party to get a seat. It started to seem like these two parties grasp so much power that we now had the same two candidates to vote for the last 200 years. It was the loophole to the perfect tyranny. So perfect, that the system does not know how to run without them. The only way to win is to reform a party. But can we really trust them? Probably not.”
In this upcoming 2020 Presidential campaigns, the same influencers that told young people all over the States, to hit the booth, is enforcing hatred on third party candidates. I watch interviews of Democratic voters of celebrities and influencers inform their audience they can not run as third party candidates. That running means you want to allow Trump, or the other party to win. That if you want to run, you have to do it the right way, and join the Democratic party, get selected in the primaries, and run. Or this overall concept, that only career politicians have the right to run in this country. Not business owners, or everyday normal people, whom are the true representation of the States vote.
Below is actor, and activist Yvette Nicole Brown that thinks that anyone who wants to vote for a third party candidate does not have any love for this country. That running third-party is simply cheating yourself out of our current political system for this upcoming election.
The reality is anyone with a platform has the ability to influence peoples decisions and how others live their lives. When people take advantage of their platforms to make individuals feel their choices are not the best, because it’s not what majority wants, we truly allow ourselves to be okay with a one perspective way of life.
“We are taught it is wrong to tell an POC they cannot run for anything, because of their color. We are taught we cannot tell a female she cannot run, because she’s a women. That we cannot tell a member of LGBQT that their voices doesn’t matter because we are different. But it is now acceptable, to tell someone whom has a different perspective of the direction of a country that they cannot run, because no one will vote for you. That your position is wrong. That your perspective is not valid and unfair. It’s as if we took ten steps forward, only to move one hundred steps back. “
As a person who has seen an inclusive country divide, and blame one man, I realized the only reason they have to blame that man, is to have a scapegoat for their behavior. Truthfully we all experience hardships, trauma, and pain, but it’s how we react to it, that shows what kind of person we are. It’s the reason Dr. Martin Luther King Jr preached the concept of loving people whom caused us pain. To not let them tears us down, but sadly America is torn down to pieces.
Being almost a fully legal adult, deciding my morals, beliefs, and perspectives is an important aspect of growing up. I decided, I didn’t want to support a party that wanted to take over the seats of all political positions, to completely control decisions made. I didn’t want to vote and represent a party that spreads hatred as much as some members of the Republican Party. I didn’t want to vote for candidates that simply was going to continue to vote for the removal of policy simply because they won’t get the credit. I want to support a candidate that was not among the two parties. That wanted to do good by the people, not just have a step forward because of their parent members. And that person is Howard Schultz.
Howard Schultz, felt rejected from a party that was too progressive for his current views. He had an idea more right then the perspective of others. He knew Democrats would not vote for him in primaries. But knew individuals like myself, do not believe in their views. That our voices deserve to be heard. Whether Donald J Trump wins or not, is in the hands of the majority. I respect everyone’s perspectives. But, I do not want to vote for a candidate because one worse then the other. I want to vote for the candidate that best matches my views and perspective of this country. I want to follow my personal intentions, instead of peer pressure into media demand. It’s not about if we win, it’s about if we are representative.
That’s the America, I want to love, and live in.
