Feminist author, activist Gloria Steinem talks elections and used cars

Gloria Steinem, feminist author and activist, visited the North Carolina Coordinated Campaign Office of Orange County in Carrboro on Saturday as part of an official event for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Addressing a small crowd of volunteers and supporters, Steinem discussed the upcoming election and the importance of voting.

Steinem praised the work of the volunteers, who have increased phone banking and voter registration efforts as the Nov. 8 election nears.

“You are doing the single most important thing on earth,” she said, “which is reminding people that the only place where the most powerful and the least powerful are equal is in the voting booth.”

Orange County voters have historically voted more liberally than the rest of North Carolina’s electorate. According to Politico, in the 2012 presidential election, 70.4 percent of Orange County voters voted for Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, in comparison to just 48.4 percent of North Carolina voters.

Clinton volunteer and Chapel Hill Town Council member Nancy Oates said such ideological differences make voter turnout important.

“I think it’s really important for people in Chapel Hill and Carrboro to make a strong showing,” she said. “We do have perhaps a different view from the state elected officials and it’s important to make sure that voice is heard.”

Samantha Farley, a UNC junior, attended the event. She agreed that Orange County’s demographics have affected her perception of the election.

“Chapel Hill is such a liberal bubble and there are so many Bernie bros,” Farley said. “It’s been disorienting just because I feel like a lot of progressive people don’t support Hillary, and a lot of it is pretty sexist.”

While urging volunteers to stay on task during the chaos of the election cycle, Steinem acknowledged North Carolina’s political importance.

“Don’t feel disempowered from all the shit that’s coming from out there,” she said. “You are it. You are totally it. This is a state that no Republican has entered the White House without since the year I graduated from college, 1956.”

North Carolina joins 10 other states as battleground regions with close public polling averages between Clinton and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Steinem stressed the importance of voter turnout several times. According to the Pew Research Center, just 53.6 percent of the U.S. eligible voting age population voted in 2012, trailing most developed countries.

As a volunteer, Oates has worked to register more voters in Orange County. She said that the act of voting is an important duty as a citizen.

“To not vote is to turn your power over to somebody else,” she said.

Steinem ended her speech by calling Trump’s business skills into question.

“Would you buy a used car from Trump? Hell no. The main reason for his support is that people say he is a successful businessman. From the bottom of my New York heart, I want to say he is not a successful businessman,” she said.

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