Yesterday, I proudly cast my vote for Bernie Sanders in the New York primary. I remain committed to supporting him until the primaries are over and everyone has had the chance to vote.
That said, I acknowledge that there is a very high chance that Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee. So as I come to terms with that, I am going to lay out how I feel about her, why she wasn’t my first choice now or in 2008, and why I won’t have trouble voting for her in November.
I will start with the negatives and then do the positives:
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She is way too hawkish. Personally, I think her hawkishness has more to do with overcompensating for being a woman than her being part of some vast conspiracy to take over the world, but it is still a concern to me.
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She’s hard to trust. Every time I hear her interviewed, she equivocates so much that it just feels like she either isn’t telling the truth or is avoiding putting a stake in the ground so she can play it safe with both sides of an issue.
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She is too cozy with Wall Street and big corporations. I don’t think she has ever engaged in a quid pro quo, but I do have concerns about her fundraising and highly paid speeches to Wall Street. They weren’t giving her that money out of the goodness of her heart. Given how much mileage Bernie has gotten out of her failure to release the transcripts, she must be hiding something.
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She’s too opaque and secretive. Perhaps she isn’t hiding anything. We have seen her be secretive unnecessarily before, like with her tax returns in 2008 and with the private e-mail server she used to circumvent FOIA. I think she has become somewhat paranoid after all those years of attacks.
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I have concerns about her electability. I don’t put that much stock in the polls showing Sanders doing better than she is against Republicans, because she is better known and her negatives are already out there. But I have met many people, mostly Republicans or Libertarians who don’t like Trump, who have told me that they wouldn’t vote for Hillary, but might vote for Bernie because at least he’s honest. Add that to the fact that by her own admission, she is not a great campaigner. I want to hang onto the White House and stop the clowns on the other side no matter what.
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She’s not Barack Obama. In fairness, neither is Bernie. Can we repeal the 22nd Amendment?
Now for the positives:
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She’s tough. She has had crap thrown at her for 25 years and hasn’t stopped fighting. She sat through 11 hours of interrogation on Benghazi and didn’t lose her cool. I remember in 2008, after watching her do better than Obama in several debates, when she was interviewed as a surrogate for him sometime in the summer, and I remember thinking “it’s great to have her on our side now.”
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She’s a policy wonk. For over 10 years, I have read many stories about how she surprised people by engaging in detailed policy discussions and impressed them with her deep understanding of the issue.
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She has defied gender stereotypes for years. For example, she took a lot of flack when she was first lady of Arkansas for continuing to work as a lawyer. She greatly expanded the role a First Lady of the US can play in an administration. I remember how much I admired her as a little girl, and some of that admiration has never gone away.
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She has the experience and connections to get things done. She is arguably better prepared and more familiar with the inner workings of the presidency than almost anyone, having been active in her husband’s administration and serving as a senior cabinet member in Obama’s administration. Her agenda may not be as progressive as Bernie’s, but I do believe she is ready to, as she said in 2008, “hit the ground running from day 1.”
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I do believe that she cares about people. She may not always put ordinary people ahead of the elite, but I do believe that she has compassion for the ordinary people she meets.
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She’s (mostly) a team player. At least, from 2008 on she has been. She handled herself with class after she conceded to Obama, and did a lot more than she had to to get her supporters united behind him.
This isn’t an exhaustive list, but hopefully it’s a balanced assessment that explains why, while she wasn’t my first choice, I am still happy to support her if she wins the nomination. Hopefully it will help my fellow Bernie supporters remember that there are things to like about her, and help Hillary supporters to understand some of our lingering concerns about her.