Young Girls Love Hillary

The big national news story is Hillary Clinton's securing the Democratic presidential nomination. The significance of this nomination has been commented on by all sorts of news and opinion outlets, with coverage both sympathetic and hostile. In the midst of this welter of coverage, I'm just going to comment on something I have observed firsthand. Yeah, I know the plural of anecdote isn't data, but this is something that has been apparent to me for months... young girls have a fascination with Hillary Clinton, and the very idea that she may become the first woman president of the United States is very appealing to them.

In April, I actually had to tell a bunch of eight-year old girls to move outside of the 100-foot 'no-electioneering' limit of our worksite polling place before resuming their chant of "Hillary! Hillary!" A week later, I was peppered with questions by the six year old daughter of an old friend regarding my vote... she would not let me evade her questions until I gave her my assurance that I would support Hillary in the general election. I've heard girls talking up Hillary while walking by the school across the street from my home.

Hillary fever is a real thing for young girls. Their imaginations are fired by the prospects of her winning the election. These girls are too young to vote, but their attitudes will be shaped to a large extent by the things that they observe at this age. I know that Bernie Sanders has run a great campaign that has appealed to teenagers and twenty-somethings, but there's something about Hillary that fascinates the pre-teen set. I sure hope that these girls continue to be politically astute and, when they are old enough to do so, to be politically active.