More than a Leader

Hillary Clinton is a phenomenon, and I don’t mean that in a good way.\nAccording to data released Monday by the American Research Group, Clinton holds the lead in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, with 39 percent of expected Democratic primary voters declaring their support. Illinois Sen. Barrack Obama is second at 22 percent, 17 points behind Clinton and Sen. John Edwards takes third at 19 percent.\nThe same study shows her numbers have risen since March, when they were at 34 percent, while Obama fell from 31 percent. \nBut contrary to these statistics, I know only one or two Clintonites out of all my politically-charged friends, and I’m not entirely sure they aren’t joking.\nFacebook says I’m not imagining things: When I typed “Hillary Clinton” into a group search, the first five pages of Hillary-titled groups yielded 37 anti-Hillary groups and 7 pro-Hillary groups, with the latter generally claiming far fewer members. The opposite results proved true for Obama and Edwards: There were anti-candidate groups for both, but far more pro-candidate groups. \nApparently, the people making Hillary’s numbers rise are our elders.\nThe problem isn’t that Clinton isn’t paying attention to the 18-24 age group. She has pledged to use her presidency to make college more affordable and pull American troops out of Iraq. She’s taking advantage of MySpace and YouTube, and her campaign Web site has a service that sends campaign updates via text message.\nBut she has been flip-flopping on issues for as long as we’ve been old enough to pay attention to politics. Her attempts to prove she’s knowledgeable about the composition of her audience have ended in disaster (see: Southern accent fiasco), and she hasn’t convinced us she’s able to stand on her own without a husband we’ve seen mostly as a gripping speaker and the butt of a lot of late-night TV sex jokes.\nOur elders, by contrast, remember more about her as a first lady and have a longer memory of her workings under the public eye. To them, she has established herself over time as an intelligent and strong leader.\nBut I’m not saying their experience justifies their support any more than our lack of experience justifies our position.\nOlder generations may be swayed by her abilities to stand above expectations in terms of her political role and consider her ability to influence a significant amount of political change while maintaining a commanding presence in the media as outstanding qualifications for president. But our generation, the most culturally prominent force in America, needs more.\nWe want a leader who’s genuine, who is interested in us on a more intimate level than through dispassionate research and calculated statistics. No one doubts that we are technologically savvy, but that’s not enough. We want a leader who understands our concerns beyond obvious issues like our not having $100,000 right out of high school and wanting our friends in the armed forces back alive. \nHillary Clinton may win the Democratic nomination and she may even win the presidency, but if we keep up our demand for genuineness in government officers, our generation may revolutionize politics. Keep up the good work.