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Read This if You're a Panicked Hillary Supporter
This election has been so stressful for so many people that psychologists have literally coined a term for it: Election Stress Disorder. If you've follow the news this election, you may already be familiar with the symptoms of Election Stress Disorder: difficulty sleeping, anxiety, internal conflict, and so on. On Tuesday evening, it will all be over, at which point you'll either be relaxed and relieved or even more worried, depending, of course, on who wins.
Usually, it's in a political campaign's best interest to make their candidate's victory sound like a sealed deal. People don't want to donate money to or volunteer (or sometimes vote) for a shoo-in, it seems. As a result, tons of campaign messaging is fear-driven. If you receive emails from either of the major candidates for president, you've probably seen subject lines like "How we could lose" (Clinton campaign, Nov. 2) or just plain "terrifying" (Trump campaign, Oct. 31).
So, what to do if you're losing sleep over the prospect of a President Trump? I'm the first to admit that I tend to be more April Ludgate than Chris Traeger, but I really believe that the best thing to do these last few days is to stay as positive as possible, and I'm here to help with that.
1. Todrick Hall Flash Mobs For Hillary
Todrick Hall is talented and hilarious. His eyes look like flecks of the sun. Watching him put on a flash mob performance to convince an undecided voter to support Hillary made me want to cast my ballot 20 more times, which I would have, except that that's fraud. Oops. Moving on...
2. "Let Me Remind You F*ckers Who I Am"
This is literally why we have a representative government. I know you don’t want to read long, boring things. So I do it for you, and I ask a bunch of smart people, and we come up with sh*t that works.
Some genius Medium user runs a Hillary Clinton parody account, and they used it to talk about her history of making big, successful changes and how prepared she is to be president. Also, it's the funniest thing I've read all year. As the title indicates, you probably shouldn't read it at work.
3. Power Throuple: Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, And Pharrell
Why did this happen? I would give my life savings to know what the three of them talked about in the green room before their campaign event. My only regret about this picture is that Pharrell is not wearing his famous Grammy hat, the greatest clothing item of our time. Maybe it's already in the Smithsonian.
4. Ilana Glazer And Abbi Jacobson Show You The Light
This is roughly how I think I would act if I met any of the three women in this video, and it is also how I reacted when I saw a woman's name for president on my ballot. (Like many Broad City clips, this one is also not totally safe for work.)
5. The Other Revelation From Clinton's Emails
... is that she's a savvy, caring person. Read these emails, selected by the Huffington Post, and get pumped to vote for the woman who's always looking for ways to make things better for everyone.
6. Watch These Women Vote For The First Female President And Remember What That Means
Ruline Steininger, a 103-year-old Iowan, remembers when women did not have the right to vote and was so excited to vote for a female president that she voted early. Steininger told CNN she never imagined she would be able to vote for a woman for president.
Montana mom Vickie Wilkinson was so moved by the experience of voting for a woman that she cried in her car afterwards. Wilkinson later explained her emotional reaction to the Huffington Post:
My mother couldn’t get credit. She couldn’t buy a car without a male signature. She couldn’t get an apartment without a male signature.
After she turned in her ballot, Wilkinson, who was thinking of her own mother said she was struck with emotion. She said:
It hit me how important this was. I’m 60 years old and this is the first time in my life, and anybody’s life here, that we’ve actually had a viable woman candidate for president of the United States. And she has a good shot at winning! To think about how far we’ve come. The fight and struggle just to vote for an intelligent, qualified, viable woman ― it was just sort of overwhelming to me on that morning. And I was thanking God that I was able to do this.
Clinton supporters have often been criticized for only voting for her because she's a woman. While that is a inaccurate, blanket assumption, I believe that it is hugely significant and wonderful that we finally have a female candidate for president from a major party. Hillary Clinton's fitness for the presidency has nothing to do with her gender, but having a woman in the White House would still be a cause for celebration.