by Carmen Garcia
Just three days ago, on October 24, early voting started in the State of Texas. With my voter registration and identification card on my hand, I showed up to the voting site at Doctor’s Hospital located on Springfield and Calle del Norte.
Opposed to the past election, the voter turnout on the first day of early voting was quite significant, even more so by millennials and women. Back in 2008 I casted my first ballot as an 18-year-old collegiate, and the voting site was permeated chiefly by older suffragettes.
However, there is a shift in this year’s election: more women and millennials are showing up to the polls. Out of the 57 people at Doctor’s Hospital that morning, I was able to count 28 women and 19 young adults. Some represented both groups, such as I did. This might come as the result of the vague statements made by the Republican candidate, as they constantly remind us that this is not a typical election.
We are all familiar with the multiple Trump’s sexist accounts—some dating decades back—, such as the documents, testimonies, audio and video recordings, and lawsuits. He also has more than one rape allegation against him, including one from his first wife Ivana. So, the Republican’s new tape, which was leaked by The Washington Post, comes as no surprise. What does is the response from many in the media who are minimizing it, calling it “locker room talk.”
In spite of the political climate regarding women, many have reprimanded the misogynist messages. Firstly, his contender Hillary Clinton has launched all-girls videos: one depicting body-shamed girls looking at themselves in mirrors while Trump’s comments echo in the back, and a second one of young girls reading their hand-written letter to Hillary. “44 boys is too many,” says one.
Other leaders, such as current FLOTUS Michelle Obama have become vocal for feminism and the end of patriarchy. Senator Elizabeth Warren—the American scholar and politician, who is also serving as the first Senator from Massachusetts—made an appearance at a New Hampshire rally on Monday, dipping into the comment made by the Republican candidate in the final debate, when he called rival Hillary Clinton “a nasty woman”. “On November 8th, we nasty women are going to march our nasty feet to cast our nasty votes, to get you out of our lives forever,” she said.
The Democratic National Committee has requested a judge to block the alleged efforts of the Republican Party to demobilize minorities, amongst them women. The DNC believes that Trump’s messages are seeking to manipulate voters and divide the nation.
The republicans’ agenda to discourage the African-American, young women and liberal vote was explained to Bloomberg News by a high-rank officer in Trump’s campaign as a “big, three operations to suppress the voting power of developing groups.”
The RNC wants to increase the non-voting tendency in African Americans, especially in Florida, to send a message to Hillary from a comment she made back in 1996, who claimed that black men were “super predators.” For young women the strategy is, although ineffective, the disclosure of testimonies by the alleged sexually assaulted women by Bill Clinton, which are said to be silenced by Hillary herself. Lastly, to persuade liberals using the Clinton emails and her encouragement for the failed Trans-Pacific Partnership.
The democratic group assures that the scheme works against the agreements made to prevent the intimidation of any group of voters and that it could be a setback for minority clusters.
The Rolling Stones is calling 2016 “The Year of the Women” in an article titled the same. In it, the author deems Trump as “barbaric” and misogynist, and claims that that alone will cost him the White House.
