The conservative strategy

    As I stood in line at my voting precinct, license and voter registration in hand, I overheard a conversation taking place behind me between a group of older men. They discussed how they were voting in the Democratic primary during this election, even though they were “diehard conservatives” who would not dare vote blue during the general election.

    The group of men then went on to discuss how clever their strategy was because since they pretty much knew McCain would be the Republican nominee, they needed to make sure that a woman never had the chance to make it into the white house.

    So, regretfully, I bit my tongue and waited my turn to perform the quintessential civic duty. What happened to voting for the person you want in office? Apparently preventing a female opponent from being elected means more than casting your vote for the person you believe is most qualified.

    I can tell you that the men’s discussion was not convincing enough to get me to switch over to vote for Huckabee.

    Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh came out and encouraged his listeners to go out and vote for Hillary, not because he believes that she is the better candidate, but rather to sabotage the Democratic Party because he believes Hillary is the more beatable Democrat. Is this because she is a woman?

    Quite simply, yes it is. Rush Limbaugh decided to put some faith into the group of voters who he knows would never vote for a woman.  

    Personally, I think it is disgraceful that gender is a determining factor when it comes to casting a vote. This election is shining light on those who have not moved on since the 19th Amendment.

    It is hard for me to muster anything resembling respect for someone who refuses to talk about the former first lady without some sort of sexist remark. The absolutely degrading remarks and criticisms about something as irrelevant as gender are a sign that some people will never have the ability to process rational thoughts.  

    This is the twenty-first century, and people need to get over the fact that, although our pay scales do not reflect it (women make 77 cents for every dollar that a man makes), women are just as capable as men.

    Clinton is just as qualified as the other candidates, if not more so. Most of the people who are so passionately against her cannot even create a cohesive argument against her without bringing in some sort of ignorant comment that has nothing to do with her political agenda.

    This is not meant to be an argument encouraging you to vote for Hillary Clinton, but I am encouraging you to look beyond gender and race, and instead look at the political views of the candidate.

    The comments being made are in the worst form of bad taste.

    Stop thinking about the best strategy and instead think about how you can support your candidate without bringing in such dirty and ignorant tactics.