First-time voters deserve better

This past weekend, Harry Potter super fans celebrated the release of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” the script of the original stage play with the same name. The play is performed in two parts at the Palace Theatre in London and has been so popular that tickets are currently sold out. It was released on July 31, Harry’s birthday. Birthdays are a thing to be celebrated, and this year my younger brother celebrates a major milestone. My not-so-little brother is turning 18 in September, and he can now legally partake in a variety of vices. This big birthday also brings a big responsibility — he will be voting in his first election ever, and this one is a doozy. Come November, liberal and conservative voters will be faced with monsters far more terrifying than dementors, basilisks, and three-headed dogs.

The 2016 election is the definition of the “lesser of the two evils” scenario. Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton? Only 9 percent of the nation voted for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, and their favorability is the lowest for any frontrunner for any party in more than 30 years. Trump’s favorability is a mere 24 percent, and Hillary barely inches past him with 31 percent. Millennials have a higher opinion of Lord Voldemort than they do of Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. The Harry Potter generation has spoken, and we’re not happy.

My brother, Austin, is one of the kindest human beings I have ever met. His heart is too big for his own good, and I dread the day that I see it broken. He’s mild mannered and always the first to lend a hand to someone, anyone, in need. While he will technically be an adult in about two months, he is still quite impressionable, as many people his age are. Austin and I both grew up in a conservative, but not necessarily political home. We would gripe when our parents would wake us up early for church, and when my mother would finally give up on trying to have dinner without the television on, it was always Fox News in the background.

When I started college, I was a bleeding heart liberal. I didn’t know any better. That’s when mom banned politics at the dinner table for good. She couldn’t take the bickering between my constitutionalist father and I. Eventually, I saw the light and realized that I was actually a closeted conservative all along. Perhaps these many taboo conversations at the dinner table influenced Austin over the years. While he was never an outwardly political person like I was, he became excited during the 2016 election cycle to finally exercise his right to vote.

A few months ago when America wasn’t pigeonholed into choosing between the lesser of two evils, I was thrilled that Austin would finally get to cast a vote come November. My hope was that he would get to fill in a bubble next to the name of a person who was actually conservative. In 2012, when I was awkwardly coming to terms with the fact that I didn’t politically align with what felt like virtually everyone on my campus, I convinced myself that it was a good compromise to vote for Gary Johnson.