WHY HILLARY CLINTON IS NOT THE ROLE MODEL I WANT FOR MY GRANDDAUGHTER
I do not want Maryjane to look up to a woman who presents herself as a leader but who has changed positions on nearly every progressive issue from LGBT rights, to the disastrous no-child-left-behind, to the corrupt criminal justice system (having been on the board of a private prison corp before she was against them - last year, or calling young black men ‘super predators” before she was hugging their grieving mothers and parading around with them), to equal pay (having been on the board of Walmart where the workers - many of whom are single mothers - get food stamps, govt subsidized housing, and welfare to survive) but not more than $12/hr., to trade agreements that were the ‘Gold Standard’ until she was against the TPP - when the polls showed it was unpopular, who was for the Keystone pipeline before she was against it (but has had no problem promoting filthy fossil fuel extraction in other countries), BUT who is definitely a leader in signing off on war, regime change, weapons sales & transfers to US enemies, upholding the death penalty, and who vacations and gets foreign policy advice from Henry Kissinger!!!! Consistent, trustworthy, honest????? ROLE MODEL - NO THANKS.
I do not want Maryjane to look up to a woman who, while attempting to break the ultimate glass ceiling and show that any woman (who is married to an ex-president and spends years schmoozing world leaders & corporate exploiters of humanity) can become president, and young women (like her daughter) can succeed and become the ‘successful’ wife of a wealthy hedge funder, and live in a $10,000,000 apartment, and have a salary of $900,000 a year (for being a figure head of an organization that her parents direct and which pays them way more than they give to their ‘causes’, by accepting money from leading figures in countries with huge civil rights issues - including and especially those affecting women), who did not hesitate to say children risking their lives attempting to escape the horrors in Haiti (where she and Bill had a not so humanitarian role – until they did) should be denied entry in the US to send a message to their folks back in the hellhole they left. ROLE MODEL – REALLY??
I do not want Maryjane to think she should respect a woman, who in defending the indefensible positon of her husband, one of the most powerful positions in the world who was caught having seduced a 21-year old intern, had no qualms about shaming and branding the young woman as the villain, while at the same time taking credit for standing as a proud advocate and defender of women. And I surely don’t want Maryjane to be pressured into supporting a woman – just because of her gender, or find herself in a special place in HELL. ROLE MODEL - NOT.
Nor do I want Maryjane to think it’s okay for her role model to use surrogates to defile and dishonor the reputation of a man who has worked for civil rights from before she was a Goldwater-for-president-cheerleader, or for claiming that a man who has fought his entire adult life for the rights of working men and women was not a ‘real’ democrat (you know I’m right’ she said over and over to make her point – the redbaiting, having been initiated by Claire McCaskill, is apparently still on the agenda (yeah yeah the republicans will use it too, but I thought we were better than them??) which is not much different than when they slimed Obama in 2008 (it was her folks who brought rev wright into the campaign and she wasn’t sure back then if Obama, who she is now hugging closer than her sexual aggressor husband, was really a Christian; and that provable lie that Bernie said Obama was weak – she’s on record saying Obama’s weak when she was pushing him into Libya. ROLE MODEL – NOWAY JOSÉ
I believe, for the future of our planet, and the lives of all who struggle to live healthy productive lives with dignity and respect, it’s more important at this point in time to elect a leader with as few ties to the corporate world (including a ‘humanitarian’ foundation that donates less than 20% of its haul and pays ‘expenses’ to the folks who run it with the rest) as possible in order for that person to be in a position to work for the benefit of all the people – which can only happen without sucking up the swag & generous perks from those Wall Street sugar daddies whose greed has been corrupting the system for decades to the detriment of the 99%. And if that person was a woman I’d be right there with you – right there beside you.
BUT – the woman who is running as a Democrat for this most important office is much too enmeshed in this pay-for-play system (and I don’t think it helps that FBI agents are investigating the ‘Foundation’). She is too pro-war (Henry Kissinger thinks she’s just great), a nay-sayer-dream-killer under the guise of pragmatist (not wishing to give her donors the slightest concern that they will have to pay a penny out of their piles of $$$ on anything other than themselves) (n.b. 2/8/16 she refused to say she would not appoint a Wall Streeter as secretary of the treasury), because, godforbid, Donald Trump’s kids might get something for free (like they don’t already, along with her own kid - they’re BFFs you know) we must deny millions of deserving kids the opportunity to start their lives without becoming indebted (slaves) to the system (the MAN) for most of their working lives (if they can find a job, that is), and whose incrimentalist policies are inextricably locked to her ‘golden handcuffs’ (Goldman-Sachs internal reference, not mine / in essence they got her by the balls), and who IMO, will bring about nothing less than the collapse of this noble experiment called Democracy – death by a million cuts. Unless Oligarchy is the new Democracy? and Grifters, Money Launderers, and Influence Peddlers deserve to rule the world?? NOTHING I WOULD WANT MY GRANDAUGHTER TO EMULATE – NO ROLE MODEL HERE.
“An honest public servant can't become rich in politics.” — Harry Truman