I've always loved Bernie Sanders’ passion for trying to do the right thing by working families. But I'm getting mighty tired of the way a handful of folks (mostly on my facebook feed) are pretending that that he invented the idea of fighting to help lift families out of poverty. Or that Hillary's new to this fight and that she hasn’t been on our side for over 30 years.
Feet to the fire?
SERIOUSLY??!!.
Now I understand we’re seeing the initial blush of excitement over the field widening out in the primaries, but honestly… Hillary’s been in this fight for decades, and I hope folks will take a look at her record before they pretend Bernie's the only one who fights for working families.
Make the jump for a few examples…
Hillary’s been fighting for working families like mine for decades.
Women make up over half of our workforce – is it any wonder families are struggling when women may 87 cents on the dollar to men? (Less – far less if you’re a woman of color!) Hillary's been on the front lines in fighting for equal pay for women for over 30 years.
She's fought to get the lead out of low income housing.
She's fought to bring good teachers in to struggling districts.
She's fought to provide educational support for disabled and special needs kids (like my son) through her work with the Children’s Defense Fund, and as a United States Senator.
She's fought to raise the minimum wage.
She fought to recuit teachers to high-need areas.
She spoke out about the importance of extending unemployment benefits for the 99'rs.
And she's fought to wipe out the staggering debt for college loans.
Did I mention HEALTH CARE reform??!!
Hillary sees the whole picture and gets that you don’t solve these problems by being a one-note-Charley. Her work over the past 40 years on so many fronts shows us how this all ties in together to address poverty and economic opportunity, and anyone who'd taken a look at her record will see that she's not new to these issues!
There’s one other large piece of the puzzle and Hillary addressed that in one in a huge way with one of her first campaign policy speeches on Wednesday, where she laid out her vision for criminal justice reform.
She nailed it with this one…
It’s time to end the era of mass incarceration.
You can watch Hillary speech at Columbia University for the 18th Annual Dinkins Forum online HERE.
Here’s the text of her speech. https://www.hillaryclinton.com/...
One more thing that I thought was pretty cool…
From what I could see on social media, folks have been talking about this speech and her proposals a lot and are very impressed. For example, take a look at what civil rights icon, Rev. Jesse Jackson had to say on Twitter…
Some of you might be too young to remember this, but the good Reverend once ran for president himself. Now he’s applauding Hillary’s continued efforts to level the playing field in our inner cities. Especially on the heels of what’s been happening in Baltimore.
Stay tuned – I’m sure there’s more to come.
