Hillary Clinton and the Associated Press have declared that Hillary Clinton is the Democratic president nominee. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders hasn’t given up, but it would take several miracles for him to become the nominee at this point.
So why aren’t millennial women excited by the prospect of seeing the first female president in our lifetime? Precisely because the woman who might take that honor is Hillary Clinton.
“Maybe my cohort is caught up in the moment of Donald Trump: Millennial liberals may think it’s more vital to ward off an age of authoritarianism than to usher in a new era for feminism,” wrote Molly Roberts at the Washington Post. “Certainly, we’ve been distracted by Bernie Sanders: For idealistic young voters, a rabble-rousing revolutionary feels more alluring than a political pragmatist, even one with two X chromosomes.”
Roberts also argues that just being a woman isn’t enough anymore for college-aged millennials obsessed with the idea of “intersectionality.” The short explanation of what this word means is that Clinton may be a woman, but she’s also white, straight and rich — all turn-offs to today’s social-justice crowd. (And never mind that Sanders is a white, straight, rich man, he’s fighting for revolution).
Here’s the thing: Clinton appears to be fighting the battles of her generation of women, not today’s. She still tells stories of past sexism (or questionable accounts of current sexism) that just don’t appeal to many young women today. We get it, women had it tough in the past, but today we’re making progress (without government interference) and don’t have to keep whining about the bad old days of “Mad Men”-style offices.
Roberts notes the transformation Clinton has made within the Democratic party. When she was first lady, she was seen as too liberal, but now, against Sanders, she’s seen as not liberal enough.
And while that was enough to take Sanders this far, it obviously wasn’t enough to secure him the nomination. He may have pulled Clinton and the Democratic Party to the Left, but not enough to make him their nominee.
Clinton, as “establishment” as she may be, seemed like the more pragmatic option, especially when Republicans selected New York businessman Donald Trump as their nominee. But that decision came mostly from older Democrats, as millennials voted for Sanders by wide margins.
Not just millennial men, but millennial women as well. It made it difficult for Clinton to constantly play the “woman card,” because it didn’t need to be said and the prospect of the first woman president doesn’t seem like something necessary to advance women in America.
Clinton just isn’t that inspirational, even if she does check one box for presidential diversity, and millennials — outside of the most stalwart outrage feminists — see that. She’s going to have to do a lot more than constantly remind people she’s a woman to win the rest of the millennials over.
Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
