Supporting Hillary Clinton is the smart thing to do, she has the fundraising apparatus locked up - and is, in fact, already cutting off people she doesn't like from getting any money. Which is one of the reasons that I oppose Hillary Clinton as a disaster for progressives and ultimately for the Democratic Party.
You want hard reasons? Let me list why I will never, ever, ever, ever, ever support Hillary Clinton, because she cannot ever, ever, ever, ever be trusted not to stab progressives in the back on key issues. She isn't with us, except long enough to get the checks.
Let me start by way of explanation, when Bill Clinton first ran in 1992, I liked Hillary more than Bill, and even joked that we might be voting for the wrong Clinton. I felt she was smarter and sharper than Bill. She is, but, tin plated candidate that she is, she has no heart.
And she doesn't like liberals or progressives. That's a statement reported from several sources. She looks at us the same way that DeLay's team looks at religious right voters - as stupid cash cows.
1. Hillary Still Supports The War
If there is any single thing which shows that Hillary Clinton is a rigid politician without the ability to see the bigger picture correctly, it is Iraq. Iraq is a disaster, objectively speaking, check your ideology at the door, no liberalism required. A start to finish waste of time, money, blood, credibility, good will, military capital and national focus. Anyone who supports it now is stupid, a warmonger, or trying to get votes from stupid warmongers.
2. Hillary is against a balanced budget, and in favor of a bigger military
Related to (1) above, Hillary is already pushing a bigger military. This has three effects, none of them positive. The first is that it makes balancing the budget impossible. There is no way to do it without cutting huge amounts of spending, and the military is the largest single discretionary item. This also means that it will be difficult to grow GDP, which will force even more cuts from other programs. Think the $35 Billion dollar "make the poor pay" bill is egregious? Try closer to 100 billion over four years if you want to pay for a bigger military.
Second, it continues the militarization of our economy. Many of the ugly after effects of a militarized economy are seen in how we guzzle gas: the same military technology is adapted for civilian use. Jets rather than maglev trains, trucks rather than hybrid cars, hot nuclear power rather than civilian nuclear power, sustainable energy and micro-grids.
The third follows from the first, the militarization of our society. Including rigid military think where people follow the leader. Even if that leader is George Bush. America needs to stand down from the cold war, and we haven't yet, because there is an entire economy that is dependent on it. Hillary won't take this on, because she has no political capital, no personal reason to, and no ideas on how to do so anyway. We need a strong military, but not one that has consumed the whole society - as Eisenhower said, balancing protecting from without, against destroying from within.
3. Hillary backs anti-choice candidates, and is soft on the right to privacy
Casey is a Hillary Clinton production, and we nearly got an anti-choice candidate in Rhode Island.
Taken together, the first three problems point to a root problem, and that is that Hillary intends to pander to the far right wingnut base. This is smart politics for her, because these are the people who attacked her, and her husband, relentlessly. She intends to bribe this base with social issues and a military budget, and thus deprive the right wing of its hoard of freep screamers. Good for her, bad for you.
4. Hillary Clinton will shut down, to as great an extent as is practicable, openness.
In fact, Hillary Clinton is already cutting off people she doesn't like in the party hierachy and in the democratic activist sphere. I can't name names, but people here would recognize at least one of them.
5. Hillary intends to control the party with money and name recognition
Hillary already has a huge warechest, and is piling up more to make anyone running against her impossible. There will be no primary season of any consequence in 2008. Hillary already has it wrapped up, despite her high negatives - because there is no one unHillary who has media and money.
Taken together, this means that Hillary will be a triumph of old politics. People here may think "well you can't stop the internet". Yes you can, you can make it impossible for good content providers to get paid. At which point they go off and do things for which they do get paid. 8 years is a long time to go without a paycheck. Sure, opposition to Hillary will still be there, but it will burn through people as they find out there is no money in being against Hillary. A few people will be on the "unHillary" beat, and that will be their niche.
I believe in the new poltics, which is why I do not believe in Hillary Clinton.
6. Hillary is against Universal Health Care
7. Hillary is nowhere on energy
8. Hillary is nowhere on Global Warming, Global Trade, or the global finacial crisis.
Taken together, this means that on the key problems facing the future, Hillary is nowhere. She is either against, or has no vision what so ever, on any issue which is important to progressives.
So what does Hillary have? Money, Media, Gender. That's enough to win her the nomination, and, if she wins, she will be Bush Lite for 8 years, followed by 8 years of another full scale Bushoid - that means almost another 20 years of reactionary government. Think about that. 20 more years of living in Bush's America. Worse still, some large choices are about to be made that we will live with for a generation. Think about that, most of us will die in Bush's America before we even get back to where we were in 1999. 20 more years of watching privacy erode. 20 more years of watching big defense contractors get fat. 20 more years of extraction energy, global warming, and "kick the base" attacks.
I can't support it, I won't vote for it, I won't work for a party that supports it. And at this point, I won't believe any conversions on her part, because people who do deals with the devil, will do them when it counts.
Hillary is not politically reliable: she is busy selling progressives out now for her presidential bid. Which means that when she doesn't need us at all, say the moment she has taken the oath of office and need only get re-elected with no primaries the second time around, we will be worse off than against a Republican, because we will have to sit through at least one Republican president before getting a progressive in the White House. If you don't want to see a progressive President in your life time, then, by all means, support pro-war, soft on choice, anti-progressive, old top down media politics Hillary Clinton.