I Voted and I’m With Her

I just turned my ballot in this morning, and #I’mWithHer. I voted for Hillary Clinton.

While I have misgivings about the political family dynasty dynamics at work here, she’s one of the most qualified presidential candidates in our country’s history, and is well-prepared to ably serve our country as President. Today I voted with my conscience.

If you’re reading this and are considering not voting, or voting for a 3rd party candidate, I implore you to reconsider and vote for Hillary. Given how close this election is likely to be, if you do not want Donald Trump to be our president, then please get out and vote for Hillary, as any other action (or inaction) is tantamount to helping elect the most dangerous presidential candidate in our lifetimes.

This post could go on forever, but others have documented how fundamentally unfit Trump is to be our president. My friend and colleague Mark Suster does a fantastic job making the argument against Trump in his post, as does my partner Brad Feld in his. And a Canadian newspaper documents nearly 500 lies told by Trump in just the past seven weeks.

In reflecting on this seemingly endless campaign, I’m mindful of how much stress and sleeplessness Trump’s rise as a candidate has caused me.

Fundamentally, it comes down to the fact that this man is a dangerous demagogue and bully who has built a campaign based on fear, hate, and violence, is temperamentally unfit to lead our country, is a racist, a sexist, a science and climate-change denier, a disaster as a businessman, a serial liar, has no regard for facts, expertise, or the intricacies and subtleties of government, and has no respect for the constitution or the ideals and values upon which our country was founded.

Trump as President opens the doors to the possibility of a negative black swan event with odds far higher than anyone should be willing to accept.

Ultimately, at my core I am an optimist, and I believe in progress and the potential of humanity, and that we can move towards an ever better world and society in the future, which is perhaps a mandatory attribute for someone who does what I do for a living.

I am deeply disconcerted and, frankly, confused and confounded by the authoritarian, nihilistic, fear-driven, backward-looking and deeply cynical worldview embodied by Donald Trump and his campaign, as he pretty much represents the polar opposite of my worldview and my hopes for the future.

I pray this man does not get elected tomorrow, and that we as Americans rise to our better natures as we make this monumental decision. (The fact that I am resorting to prayer as an atheist is also an indicator of just how upset I am about this election.)

While I hope anyone reading this will vote for Hillary, I encourage everyone to get out and fulfil their civic duty and VOTE!