I have been soul searching lately. For a while I considered that in November, I would vote straight D down-ticket and simply leave the space next to POTUS blank. In protest.
I could still be a “good democrat” by supporting my locals. I volunteer for the party on a regular basis, I poll watch, I canvass door to door, I attend political rallies. I read this website voraciously. I know where the free parking is downtown nearby the Democratic offices on Market Street. I’m that regular a visitor there.
Today, and not just because it’s my 56th birthday, I need to grow up a little. OK, a lot. Seeing Senator Warren yesterday at nearby Cincinnati (I’m in Indianapolis, 2 hours away) has softened my disgust at all things Hillary. Liz Warren did that for me. I love that woman’s character and if she is on the ticket, there is no way I can leave POTUS blank in November.
Don’t think of the Grinch heart growing by factors of ten until it bursts in gushy mawkish support for something everybody else loves, this is more resolute and adult and part of a difficult decision. The watershed moment that breached my dam and crumbled my resolve: I will vote for Hillary in small part because I am softened by the promise that she has the good sense to include Elizabeth Warren on her ticket. 30% that, and 70% because, well, #NeverTrump.
I don’t like her. I know; that just cost me a scolding, a finger wag, a PUMA label, not something we say here at DKos anymore for fear of excommunication. I have my reasons and I am confounded by those that say to me they find her warm and inviting and personable. I am wide eyed in surprise when I meet someone that is not lying when they say that. I have been accused of misogyny for my lack of support for Hillary, just as I have accused others racism for lack of support for Obama.
I am not sorry that I do not like Hillary. In exactly the same way those that find Bernie self involved, a Democrat by convenience, a grouchy old man trying to remain relevant as the political winds blow him off course cannot understand what I find appealing about his ideology.
When Kos wrote a diary this primary season excoriating Bernie I wanted to respond: “Did you hear that Markos? Did you just hear the sound of thousands of loyal donors deleting your fund raising emails?” I remained silent, I’ve got a lot of money invested in DKos and don’t want to be put out to pasture, relegated to reading only. Having to see advertising after all these years. (The Horror!)
I don’t want to digress. This morning I thought about OPOL. His last comment was exactly a month ago. After prolifically writing nearly 47,000 comments and 651 diaries. If we have lost this writer, this thinker, this kind of integrity over this primary then we have lost more than just an outspoken anti Hillary voice. I read recently a comment that said “good riddance” to him. Wow. “Good riddance” to OPOL because he supported the minority candidate? Is this where we are now?
Yes, apparently this is where we are now. It is allowable (acceptable?) here for a poll choice to say: “Screw BoB’s” and have the majority of participants in that poll choose that particular radio button. A similar sentiment about an opposing viewpoint would be quickly flagged and removed and the responsible party summarily convicted of misogyny by mob rule.
Such is the pie fight of primary season, Mea culpa, I enjoyed being an Obama supporter 8 years ago and today my medicine is a bitter pill. I’m sure I can dig deep into my comment history and find a younger me telling the PUMA crowd of 2008 to go ahead and leave, we don’t want you, we don’t need you, we will win without you. I didn’t like Hillary then, I didn’t like her when she caved to the insurance lobby in 1990, I don’t like her now. I lived in NY and voted for her for Senate for exactly the same reason I’m voting for her in November. Her opponent was a colossal asshole.
So, I’m coming out of the closet… she has my vote. I cannot in good conscience allow my small contribution to Democracy aid a monumentally incompetent and dangerously closed mind to wield the power of a POTUS. Not my first choice, but the best remaining choice. Country First. Democratic Socialist second.
I have to add, in closing, a barb. The best reason I have to vote for Secretary Hillary Clinton is that she is not Donald Trump. What a sad little endorsement that is. At least as a secondary positive, she will elevate Senator Liz Warren to the national stage. That will be a very good thing indeed.
