I have the evidence of being an initial donor to Secretary Clinton’s campaign and supporting her in 2008. I agree with everything positive being written about her. Her supporters have an excellent case. She has been unfairly treated by the House GOP and others regarding her State Department emails, Benghazi, all of it. However, what her continuing supporters are not saying has caused me to withdraw my support of Hillary Clinton in this election cycle.
As a political scientist raised by two active, moderate GOP parents, I am fully aware of the importance of compromise to create successful policy solutions. Hillary Clinton can work out compromises that create good policy. The GOP members of Congress have demonstrated resoundingly that they are united in opposing any compromises whatsoever. Moreover, as her positive/negative polling indicates, she is a polarizing individual. I do not doubt that she has the political skill to chip away at these obstacles and forge consensus eventually. It will use up political capital and goodwill, but she would probably be good enough at it to wind up with a landslide re-election in 2020 against an extremist GOP nominee riding the backlash among folks who will detest seeing Clinton succeed.
The last president to get a lot accomplished despite facing the same obstacles was Richard M. Nixon. I can’t say enough good things about that man’s long list of policy accomplishments working with Congresses controlled by Democrats. It is very unfortunate that his party turned against all of the wonderful things he created to protect our nation, its people, and its environment and now denounce essentially the very same healthcare insurance policy he had hoped to achieve in his second term.
Nixon’s political acumen was breathtaking. Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and Hillary Clinton are the only other people who have sought the presidency that come close to his ability to outmaneuver opponents. I have seen a lot of Nixon in Hillary Clinton’s actions this go round.
- She adopted much of Senator Sanders’ agenda only after he entered the race.
- The debate schedule’s bias to prevent other candidates from gaining name recognition has become common knowledge.
- The mess with data access at the DNC had all the hallmarks of the Watergate break-in.
- Surrogates are saying the nastiest stuff so she can remain clean.
- Chelsea Clinton criticized Sanders’ healthcare insurance proposal before he had announced a proposal, one of the oldest tricks in the book to undermine a political opponent.
- And Hillary Clinton uses coded messaging with ethnic minority voters and others to imply Sanders will not support their interests, just as Nixon did with yellow dog Democrats in his Southern Strategy.
Hillary Clinton is doing and will do whatever it takes to avoid being shut out of the White House a second time. This is when those political instincts no longer benefit the party, the candidates down the ticket, or the voters. They benefit Hillary Clinton only. Richard Nixon’s campaigns did absolutely nothing to help his party. Given the shape the Democratic Party is in on all levels, the Democrats cannot afford to have a solo performer at the top of the ticket.
A huge portion of the American electorate wants to see politics turned upside down in 2016, not continued on the way they have been. Senator Bernie Sanders has a long and distinguished track record of accomplishments in Congress on many issues. Sanders has all of the strengths that Clinton has. He does not have the baggage of having ever been vilified by a large segment of the public. To my mind, that makes him more capable of putting this country on a progressive track. He certainly has a more consistent record of voting based on principles rather than political expediency.
My dream would be for Sanders to choose Janet Napolitano as his running mate. We are far past the time one of the two highest offices should have been filled by a woman. Napolitano brings balance to the ticket and is Clinton’s equal in admirable qualities. She is an engaging person and has no negatives that I am aware of.
The reason why Hillary Clinton gets up every morning wanting to lead this country is because she feels she deserves it after losing the nomination battle to Barack Obama in 2008. It is the same reason Richard Nixon got up every morning in 1968. Clinton has and Nixon had all of the experience and qualities one wants in the President of the United States. Clinton’s stalwart supporters stop there. But Clinton has and Nixon had further qualities that make one want to recoil in horror from the idea of reliving that kind of national anguish.