Faced with plummeting poll and favorability ratings (plus the FBI seizing her server), Hillary Clinton's campaign is trying out a hip new way to promote her student debt plan to recent college grads: emojis.
How does your student loan debt make you feel? Tell us in 3 emojis or less.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 12, 2015
First of all, the grammatically correct way of phrasing that tweet is "three emojis or fewer," but I digress.
The majority of responses have been what one would expect: angry faces, the skull, sad faces, and the "money flying away" symbol.
@HillaryClinton ????????
— Amanda (@nytomars) August 12, 2015?????? https://t.co/q4k4bakmZE
— Shas Falcons (@onestarr23) August 12, 2015@HillaryClinton ??????
— Remy boy E (@erintighe_) August 12, 2015I contributed the following:
¯\_(?)_/¯ ?? ?? https://t.co/wcWjxA9Nzp
— Christine Rousselle (@crousselle) August 12, 2015Like many people my age, I have a considerable* (but manageable) amount of student loan debt. This is my fault--I chose an expensive school over cheaper alternatives. I knew going in to college that I would be leaving school with loans that would need to be repaid--it's not like it was a surprise. So yeah, throwing money at my loans each month isn't exactly a happy fun time, but it's something that needs to be done.
Student debt is a huge problem that's only going to get worse. There needs to be a real conversation about how to prevent the bubble from popping. Asking recent college graduates to reduce their feelings on a very serious topic to a series of pictures is not an appropriate way to have this conversation.
*For the record, about one-tenth of Hillary Clinton's honorarium to speak at a college would pay off the entirety of my student loan debt. But remember, she's just like us.