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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Jackson Care Connect invests $487K in behavioral health ... Culture of Peace Commission: Compiling Ashland's 'Community Peacebuilders' network ... Improving investigations ... Jackson Care Connect invests $487K in behavioral health ... Culture of Peace Commission: Compiling Ashland's 'Community Peacebuilders' network ... Improving investigations ... COMMENTARY Jeffrey Gillespie: Failure to launch Comment DailyTidings.com Writer Posted Jul. 15, 2016 at 12:01 AM Posted Jul. 15, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Social News My, my, the incredulity of liberals of a certain age when confronted by the peculiar and persistent fact that the kids are still for Bernie. How could it be so? What possible logic is there for such an illogical decision? Don't these whippersnappers realize that if they don't vote for Hillary, Trump will win? How could they be so reckless? So go the platitudes, delivered from a comfy chair, bought and paid for. The fact is, if you've been paying attention, especially on social media — to be fair, there aren't a lot of people in Hillary Clinton's age group who are daily divers into Snapchat, Facebook or Instagram — you'd be significantly less surprised by this supposedly scandalous development. In fact, it's less of a development than a hearty dose of reality. Millennials know that the jig is up, and despite the protestations of their older countrymen (the cortege that ditched the economy with such unmitigated glee once they had stocked up on their real estate and cash positions) they have little if any interest in perpetuating a system that they see as fundamentally flawed. To them, Trump and Hillary are basically the same person; never mind the fact that Clinton has "more experience" or "a better temperament" when it comes to governing. For the average 20-something — and, increasingly, for the average 30- and 40-something who aren't a part of the landed gentry — the two choices for the presidency live and breathe in exactly the same environment, and while Trump's persistent bankruptcies and unrelenting bloviating are cause for concern, so too is that Clintonian modus operandi, polished political stonewalling, which, while not making her technically guilty, still smacks of dishonesty for 67 percent of American voters, according to the latest New York Times/CBS poll. More compelling, at least in terms of where this election might end up, is the meme currently trending around cyberspace that shows a composite photo of Hillary Clinton's face with Donald Trump's hair floating above it, with the damning subtitle, "Clump." That, in a nutshell, is the reason why young people and the anti-establishment crowd will abstain from voting for Clinton, no matter what the consequences might be. As a 20-something friend said to me recently: "What else can they do to us? We've been living in a recession my whole adult life. I can't afford rent. I can't pay my school loans. And nobody is hiring. At this point, I almost feel as though Trump would be better, because he will burn it all down and we can press the reset button faster." This from an avowed leftist. The chilling truth of the current election cycle is that Trump may win not only because of a group of ignorant xenophobes who see him as a redeemer, but also because of a well-informed, well-educated young electorate who, while abhorring the racism and sexism that Trump represents, are more contemptuous of the rampant class warfare that is being waged against most of the American electorate by their bought-and-paid-for representatives in Washington. To them, Hillary is the queen of dirty tricks, with her unreleased Goldman Sachs transcripts and the $153 million in speaking fees that she and her husband have raked in from 2001 until her 2016 campaign as glaring proof of her cynicism. Young people making $10 an hour are rightly livid about such unbridled hypocrisy. They'd rather see chaos in Washington than another eight years of lip service. And as far as they're concerned, your 401(k) and real estate portfolio can drown in a bathtub along with the rest of the haute bourgeoisie comforts to which Generation Clinton have become so accustomed. So it goes. Ashland resident Jeffrey Gillespie is a Daily Tidings columnist, arts reviewer and freelance writer. Email him at gillespie.jeffrey @gmail.com. 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