I wrote this as comment in another thread, but it was a Bernie thread (so I’m sure it was dismissed) and I decided to share it with Hillary supporters. I wrote it because I wanted to get clear in my own head why exactly I was not only a supporter, but an enthusiastic supporter, of Hillary Clinton. Here goes--
I am a Marxist feminist. I was an Obama supporter in 2008 (over Hillary) because I believed and still believe he was the best candidate. I do not regret my choice and would do the same thing over again today. I would love to support a Socialist who has 21st century ideas and has a clear path for getting them done. I did not start out as a Hillary supporter; I was neutral. Bernie has simply not impressed me as a person who can effectively implement what he (and we) believe. I still love him, and I think he is a truly gracious and good man. But his plans aren’t detailed and his ideas are too simplistic and he’s too often short-tempered and he always gives the same speech no matter what the topic and he’s made some serious missteps that have frankly alienated me.
For example:
1. The pocketbook is important, but it just isn’t all about the pocketbook.
“In an interview broadcast Sunday, the Democratic presidential candidate said he could win over the supporters of none other than Donald Trump, the current GOP frontrunner.
“Look, many of Trump’s supporters are working-class people, and they’re angry,” Mr. Sanders said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “And they’re angry because they’re working longer hours for lower wages. They’re angry because their jobs have left this country and gone to China or other low-wage countries…."For his [Trump’s] working-class and middle-class support," Sanders said, "we can make the case that if we really want to address the issues that people are concerned about ... we need policies that bring us together, that take on the greed of Wall Street, the greed of corporate America, and create a middle class that works for all of us rather than an economy that works just for a few." canmua.net/...
We humans are more complex than that. And no, Bernie, I don’t believe that it is understandable that some working class white men beat up women and hate immigrants and Muslims and African Americans and belong to the KKK and are vicious and evil because they are simply “angry because their jobs have left this country….” and they can be convinced to see the light and vote their pocketbook and begin to love immigrants and minorities and see women as equals instead of as the people that took away “their” rights. (Talk about throwing the Democratic base under the bus!) These men (not all men) are going to stay hateful (as they have for centuries). They will not become Democrats because of Bernie and socialism. They will continue to resent and blame women and minorities for losing whatever paltry white male privilege they had (have) and they will vote for Trump. Period. I know this because there are plenty of RICH white men in this country who beat up women and hate immigrants and Muslims and African Americans and belong to the KKK and are vicious and evil. And there are, on the other hand, plenty of POOR white (and African American, and immigrant, and Muslim) men who are loving and kind and giving and do not become vicious and hateful and resentful. So it’s not simply the frustration of poverty and powerlessness that makes people into misogynist, racist xenophobes. It was wrong of Bernie to make excuses for these people.
2. It was also really really wrong of Bernie to say that the leaders of Planned Parenthood are the “Establishment” when Planned Parenthood clinics are under attack and have to have security systems and safe rooms and women who believe in reproductive choice are literally getting murdered. The pro-choice so-called “Establishment” is intimately involved with ensuring that these clinics have the resources to not only provide necessary health care, but are safe for both workers and patients. We are all in this together. Cecile Richards is not the same as some corrupt union boss and anybody who implies that she is has lost me.
Women’s issues to me are synonymous with, not subservient to, economic ones, because without control over reproduction, without education, without equal access to all jobs and professions, without child care, without a chance at equal pay for equal work, women literally lose any chance at economic control whatsoever.
I support Hillary with my eyes open. Is she a capitalist? Well, yes. But I believe that’s the field we are playing on right now, and I accept it, whether I like it or not. I support her because she has been a progressive and a feminist for the more than 25 years she has been in the public eye. She has consistently spoken for women’s economic and educational and reproductive rights not only in the US, but in China and India and Africa, when this was not an easy thing to do. She is promising to stand up for the working class and the middle class in this country, and the programs she espouses are certainly progressive enough for me in the world I live in, if not in some utopia of which I dream. Hillary may not be able to succeed in everything she wants to do, but I have no reason to believe that she won’t try. Besides that, I truly think she’s the smartest and most competent and most qualified of all the candidates across the board.
She is not perfect; but neither is Bernie. I think America is too rigged right now for perfect. Perhaps the world is always too rigged for perfect. But I do think that Hillary can and will be faithful to and carry forth Obama’s legacy.
I am mostly supporting Hillary, though, because I truly admire how once she lost to Obama she supported him 100% and she learned from him. She learns, she changes when confronted with evidence, she’s loyal and she has integrity. She had Obama’s back. That means a lot to me.
I am not voting for Hillary because she is a woman. I am voting for Hillary because she is a brilliant progressive feminist. The two are very different. The latter is about intellectual and political ideals, the former is merely about gender. Of course I would love to live to see the day when this country overcomes its inherent misogyny enough to elect a woman president. But I would never support or vote for a Margaret Thatcher wannabe or Sarah Palin or Carly Fiorina, or any other woman who does not support women’s rights, progressive ideals, and the rights of the working and middle class in this country.
If Bernie has the organization and the ground game and the smarts to win the nomination against Hillary I will support him wholeheartedly and without reservation. I was really happy that Bernie got into the race. The Democrats need to respect their base and to acknowledge us. Bernie has helped to make us visible.
I respect the choice of Bernie’s supporters, and as their sister progressive, socialist democratic feminist—and a mother--I expect the same courtesy from them. I hope that both sides work to defeat truly evil Republicans next November, no matter who our nominee may be. That is the only thing that our “heads” should allow us to do. As I said, if it’s Bernie I will give it my all. I hope that if it does end up being Hillary, progressives, socialists, and like-minded people on the left will all do the same.
