OFF TOPIC: The Hillary Thing

I’m a Liberal. I think I was born Liberal. I certainly plan to die Liberal and make no apologies for it and just laugh at all those weaklings who sling the term around as though they think they’re saying “Child molester” or “Rapist”. I wear it proudly. Wouldn’t be anything else, as I have a brain and I’m not at all shy about using it.

BUT…

This presidential primary campaign has handed me a real dilemma and I can’t just wave it off. I’ve wanted to see a woman in the White House ever since that day in 1960, when I asked my Mom why presidents are always men. In my rural South, men like to think they’re in charge but anybody who’s paying attention at all knows damned well that women run the show – the WHOLE show. I didn’t get why, when women are obviously so much smarter and more rational, no woman had ever been president.

And now, we’ve got one as the presumptive nominee…

And I’m not convinced.

I was asked – finally, just this morning, after two solid weeks of trying to provoke Clinton supporters enough to get any of them to tell me why I should trust Hillary R. Clinton – what it is that bothers me about her. Being forced to think about it, I wrote back with what’s below. I want to thank my Facebook and  University of Washington friend, Jerry Pierson, who FINALLY became that person who understands what it means, in our democratic process, to have to try to persuade Undecideds to come around to their candidate. Good personal friends, whom I know and love, had utterly failed at it, choosing to whine about “Yes, we all know you hate Hillary. Just give it a rest!” and not even trying to tell me why I’m wrong. This is long and I’m not going to try too hard to stick in graphics, so if you don’t want to devote the time to read it, I completely understand. But I felt like I owed a LOT of people an answer…so here it is…

“I’ve irritated quite a few of my FB friends who are all giddy about Hillary Clinton’s nomination and, honestly, I don’t blame them for being thrilled. This is a HUGE moment for American politics AND gender equality. But I have doubts about her and have TRIED – mightily – to provoke a response to my dozens upon dozens of questions about what, exactly, they like about Hillary, apart from her being a woman…and I got NOTHING. Not a damned word except resentment that I was spoiling their party. This morning, a FB friend of mine here in Sea-patch, FINALLY gave me that answer. Jerry Pierson, BLESS YOU. You get it about what’s required in the democratic process to win the votes of those still Undecided. He provided me with a virtual book on HRC’s accomplishments, listed by one of his FB friends and it’s MIGHTY impressive. My response is this…And yes, it’s LONG, so if you don’t want to read it, I understand but those who think I’m just a sour-grapes Bernie fan should get THAT out of their heads, right now. THIS is why I have doubts about Hillary…”

Disgruntled, Undecided American Voter

“…I don’t question at all her committment to children and veterans. Her record is totally admirable in those areas. And she’s aces at foreign affairs. She damned well should be, having been a SecState. SO…I would think that a person with all that resume ammo behind her could manage, somehow, to stand toe-to-toe with Wall Street and Big Banking and tell them there’s a new sheriff in town and their free ride is over and not worry about the ramifications. A person with all that behind her SHOULD be able to advocate for single-payer health care and not worry about the blowback. A person like that – FAR more to the point – SHOULD be able to look around her and understand, without having it pointed out to her, that what’s threatening to reduce America’s standing in the world is not questions about our bloated and curiously feckless military but the FACT that our educational system is HUGELY dysfunctional and currently under attack in a way we’ve never seen in our history.

The wave of anti-science and anti-education sentiment in this country has reached epic proportions and it never occurs to assholes like Cruz and Trump and Fiorina that the ONLY reason they have an economy that allows them to amass huge person fortunes and pays for that cash-hog of a military they’re all so moist for is because we’ve always had SMART, WELL-EDUCATED PEOPLE WHO KNOW HOW TO GET SHIT DONE! There is this current implication of “Well, we’re AMERICANS and we’ve just better than everybody else! We don’t need all that fancy book-larnin’. Just give us the reins and we’ll show them foreigners a thing or two!“…and all those foreigners are giving their kids free college educations and healthcare and racing past us like cheetahs in a turtle derby. THIS is the urgent, immediate stuff, not how we get along with Tonga and NOT the spectre of terrorism. And Hillary has been so terrified of losing a potential donor or alienating some fat cat who wields influence that she’s practically mum on those vital domestic issues.

If she’s thinking, “Well, just let me get into office and then I can institute my REAL plans!” that may backfire on her. That out-of-kilter domestic agenda is EXACTLY what Bernie Sanders was fighting for. Income inequality, health care, education…If only the job of president was all about veterans and women and children and foreign affairs, she’d be a shoo-in, even for me. But it’s a LOT larger than that and she’s SO out of step with what the Bernie Revolution has tapped into, I fear she’ll never even really understand it, much less address it. THAT is my doubt about Hillary Clinton; that and the undeniable FACT that she’s just too slick by half. Where’s the fire, the passion, the ability to inspire people? She seems engaged on ONE issue: Can I get elected? That’s what I see in HRC. I’m just as impressed as anyone else by all that glowing resume. What I’m NOT seeing is pretty much everything that matters to ME, a single, undecided American voter.“