We keep hearing older voters being characterized as somehow more politically conscious than younger – feminists, in particular, attack young women as they speak admiringly of the struggles that Hillary has faced, saying that they, too, experienced them and that women who don’t support her betray feminism. Younger women are depicted as shallower, just going where the boys are, and deserving of hell for rejecting the “older and wiser” sisterhood. Younger people, in general, are depicted as less practical, idealistic dreamers who don’t know the realities of politics and the importance of “getting things done.”
But just as likely, if not more likely, an explanation for all of this Hillary love by the older generation, particularly by Democratic women, is that Hillary is more like the Khloe Kardashian of their generation.
The celebrity culture we live in means that the older generation has seen Hillary constantly on television, even if it was to be dragged through the soap opera of a cheating husband, or her Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous that began with White House dinners and continued onward with glimpses of her getting on and off planes and meeting with royalty in exotic lands. The same kind of wealth and drama that attracts us to other reality TV Star, from The Housewives of Beverly Hills, to that man who fired people on The Apprentice.
Absorption in this decades-long reality tv series is not something that has affected younger voters. Sure, they’ve heard her name before, and recognize her face, but this campaign may be the first one where they’ve actually heard her speak. They meet both Hillary and Bernie on fairly equal terms, unlike the older generation, the paparazzi of the Clintons, like the loyal fan base of that favorite band still hawking its past hits decades after their music is no longer in style.
It is the younger voters who don’t simply buy into a celebrity-based reality tv culture, but evaluate the two candidates based on their issues and records. These are the rational voters in this nominating process – not those who come in as fans of the Hillary or Trump shows. It is the young voters with no prior biases, who have grown up using the internet to inform them, instead of relying on television, who are the thinking people in this election. Ironically, it is the older voters who, despite the seriousness of choosing a president, are nothing more than fangirls and fanboys, unwilling to hear anything against their celebrity crushes.