I’m 62 years old and cast my first Presidential vote for Richard Nixon. Save for exceptions that I didn’t appreciate at the time, my political memory is peopled with crooks, liars, and prevaricators.
I was too young and secluded in an ultraconservative environment to appreciate the Kennedys and Martin Luther King during their lifetimes. LBJ was a Democratic blip responsible in my young eyes for the horror of Vietnam played out each night on Huntley and Brinkley. I began to glimpse the goodness possible in Jimmy Carter.
I’ve had candidates over the years who I’ve liked in a “lesser of evils” sort of way. Candidates like Al Gore who lost and candidates like John Edwards who seriously made me doubt my judgment.
Hillary Clinton is an extremely intelligent candidate with experience and resume that should be the envy of any Presidential candidate. She’s been in public service her entire life which is admirable in and of itself.
Yet, perhaps, therein lies the problem. She’s become too accustomed to making the sausage. Nixon earned the soubriquet of Tricky Dick but I found him more trustworthy than Bill Clinton whose triangulation legitimized Reagan era shifts rightward. Obama, too, in putting Social Security and various safety net programs on the bargaining table has also allowed the Overton Window to nudge further to the right.
Like many on both sides of the political aisle I am sick to death of politics as usual. Sick of politicians who promise hope and change and give me same shit, different day. Mostly, I’ve had it up to my eyeballs with politicians who lie and misrepresent issues and think I’m too stupid to notice. It demeans them, their candidacy, the electoral process, and ME. Not the way to make friends and influence people.
I support the stated positions of both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. I trust that Bernie Sanders supports them also. Of Hillary Clinton I can’t say the same.
Gruff, tousled old Bernie is not the polished candidate we’ve been trained to expect and want but I feel he has a personal integrity we’ve not seen since Jimmy Carter. He, too, has seen how the sausage is made but has not shifted back and forth on his policy stands to make the process faster or easier.
As a candidate he’s not the best debater and he relies too much on broad statements rather than details. In office he would face the same intransigence as Obama has and Hillary would. Perhaps his years in the House and Senate have given him tools to work through some of that.
I don’t support Bernie Sanders because he will usher in a new era of unicorns and rainbow poop. We will not all have healthcare and paid family leave. The bankers won’t go to jail. Income inequality will continue as will racial injustice.
I support Bernie because I truly believe he supports all of us who have been pandered to and lied to for so many years. Win or lose he’s opened the conversations on issues that we’ve needed to have for a long time. Issues like why do we pay so much more for health care and why are we one of only two nations in the world to not provide family leave.
Bernie’s rising prominence in the campaign takes these issues to a wider audience. I support that.