It’s probably not a shock that i’m a Hillary supporter. I’m at 16,000 comments, or close, and more and more of them are about why I support her.
I’ve never disliked her, even during the 2008 primary when I was Obama all the way. I knew enough about her to know she’s a formidable force in the Democratic Party, that she has been fighting for women, children, and outsiders since College, that she’s almost scary smart and has a memory for details that rarely fails her. I loved her for having the courage to stand up and say “Women’s Rights are human rights, and human rights are women’s rights.”
I’m a cusp-er, born when women were generally nothing more than “property of dad” until they were given, in Holy Matrimony, to husband.
After my mom died we found a box of pamphlets she’d sent for as a young girl. They were all about how to be a good wife, a good mom, attract a good man. Modulate your voice, and smile showed up a lot. So, that’s been the advice for women since at least the mid-thirties: Don’t annoy men. Don’t offend anyone. Be attractive. There wasn’t one single little tract about Be Educated. Be Strong. Decide Who You Are and Live That Way.
As I grew up I was torn — June Cleaver or Janis Joplin? Who’s the better role model? I chose Janis because June was just too hard for me to pull off. I get annoyed when my intelligence is dismissed. I was blonde, and pretty, and sexy. I was also smart, and tough, and a little bit fed up with the thinking that I had to please men who weren’t as smart as I was, or as tough as I was, or even as attractive as I was.
I managed to get clean and sober at age 25, so I got to live. Janis didn’t. I still get sad about that.
Why does this jaunt into history matter? Because it’s part of why I support Hillary. She’s addressing issues that really matter to me. She’s talking about that particular income inequality that women, POC, and less-educated white men (blue collar men without unions) have faced for decades, centuries even. She’s aware that women, in particular, save taxpayers billions a year by caregiving for disabled relatives, aging parents, children with autism or cerebral palsy, or cancer.
I’m caring for my sister right now. She was fully paralyzed on her right side when I moved in, post brain surgery. I’m writing a diary about her journey. It’s amazing.
We cared for our parents until mom’s fall into dementia made it unsafe to try to keep her home any longer. It cost us, in time, money, energy, earning capacity, and the exhaustion of knowing it will get worse, not better.
She’s aware that a $15 an hour minimum wage won’t cure the deficit for women, or get POC hired. It takes more.
She’s aware that until we start talking openly about institutional racism, until we address it directly, the school-to-prison pipeline is intractable, our justice system remains skewed, the people on top are the first to do better and the people under the bus stay under the bus.
I support her because she puts her body on the line. She goes underground to reveal the ugly reality of Private Schools post-Brown v BOE. She changed the system in Arkansas because Bill trusted her to get it done. She got SCHIP passed, as FLOTUS, by working across Party lines, AFTER a hideous defeat on Universal Health Care. She knew Republicans had spent billions to kill her efforts and instead of pouting she won them over. That’s courage, wit, and conviction.
She saved the lives of women protesting patriarchy around the world by saying their names and letting their political leaders know that the US Secretary of State was watching.
She changed the State Department’s hiring, anti-discrimination and compensation practices for LGBTs. She made those changes permanent. (That somehow means more to me than a random comment on marriage being between a man and a woman, especially since she’s not exactly the only one who expressed that sentiment at the time.)
She fought the Bush administration’s lies about Ground Zero being a safe place to work, fought for compensation for everyone harmed by working there, is still working to get that compensation extended.
The list is endless, she works hard, and has for 45 years.
So, what about the AUMF? Yes, what about it? Bernie is less than honest when he says she supported Bush’s war. Her statement is on record. She wanted the decision to be left to the UN Security Council, after the inspection reports were in. So did he. She was one of two Senators representing the State hardest hit by 9/11. Bernie wasn’t. The desire for revenge, for action, was strong, hyped by the Bush Cabal. I’d guess she was monitoring her emails and phone calls from New York residents, and that there were a lot of people who wanted Something Done. I think her yes vote was, in part, a response to her constituents. Her statement was her personal take, her preference. I’m not going to reject her, call her a warmonger, or blame her for Bush’s war. It’s his: he and Cheney, Rumsfeld, and the rest of the inner circle war-cons own it. Letting them off the hook is stupid.
I’ll say this one more time. I never accepted a paycheck with the idea that my employer now owned my soul. It never occurred to me that I’d be somehow compelled, having spent that money, to do anything my employer told me to do, regardless of morality, personal conviction, or legal consequences. It. Never. Occurred. To. Me. I can’t wrap my head around the idea that Hillary owes Goldman-Sachs something. They payed her less than her going rate, which was less than .000001% of their annual profit. Why would a woman who makes a fortune writing books feel obligated to a company that shorted her on her usual fee? Why would being paid to share your expertise on multiple issues somehow mean you had just jettisoned the beliefs you’ve held for your entire life?
It’s the silliest argument I’ve ever heard, and my mind is boggled that Bernie is able to use it to some effect. Maybe you really have to fear Wall Street in order to get it. I don’t. I don’t fear Oligarchs either. I dislike them, but they just aren’t that powerful. If they were the mystically powerful force they’re presented to be they wouldn’t be spending billions trying to gut Dodd-Frank. It takes one good law and the intelligence to fund our regulatory agencies to make them a moot point. Hillary knows that. She also knows that that good law has to be tweaked from time to time, and that regulatory funding can’t be whittled away or Here We Go Again.
I watch politics fairly closely. I’m seeing some signs that Democrats may be on the ascendent. There are these little stories about 2 special elections, Legislature seats, both won by Dems, against big odds. There’s the shift in Louisiana. The removal of two really wretched PA’s from the final ballot. We see Moral Mondays and BGTX growing and becoming more effective. I think the OLB is still strong in Wisconsin. #BLM is a force to be reckoned with.
We have a side-by-side laboratory in the Upper Midwest: Minnesota returned Democrats to power, Wisconsin stuck with Republicans. The contrast is stark. Kansas is going under. Michigan is already under, and killing it’s own residents. The RW got a chance to fully enact their fiscal vision in several states. All are failing.
I think it’s possible that we could finally convince people that taxes are the dues you pay for a quality of life you value. Let’s try.
Final note. Politifact rates Hillary and Bernie as equally honest, though she has a slight edge. (The Republicans are all in the basement, Trump of course is the worst.)
Maybe it’s time to be proud that we have two excellent candidates, get back to talking about issues instead of stirring up muck, and prepare ourselves for November. It appears that Hillary will be the candidate. We’ll know more next month. My personal belief is that she’s the best candidate to take on Cruz, Trump, or Kasich. (She’s already conflating them, none of them can etch-a-sketch at this point.) Cruz or Trump would be easiest. Her mere existence on the campaign trail infuriates them. They’ll be easy to needle.
So, carry on. It’s still Primary season. Donate. Volunteer. Support your candidate. Talk to each other.