The estimable Kevin Drum of Mother Jones recently posted a list of reasons progressives and liberals should be supporting Clinton enthusiastically. It’s a fine response to all those folk who say they don’t like Trump, but can’t get excited about Hillary either.
We have a superb candidate with an unmatched record of accomplishment and leadership, and an impressive set of policy positions. The case for voting FOR Hillary Clinton is compelling, and now is that time we have to get that message out.
I took the liberty of massaging Kevin’s list somewhat. I deleted some of the more obscure or wonky points and added some clarification to some of the others. My result fits nicely on two double-sided sheets, and I intend to print a bunch to use as handouts (giving due credit to Kevin, of course) while canvassing or just to give out to the many liberals I know who express vague misgivings about Hillary.
My version is below. Please feel free to copy and paste this list. Work on it yourself to sharpen it and improve it. Maybe post better versions here and elsewhere. Let’s win this thing!
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60 Reasons to vote FOR Hillary Clinton
(not just against Donald Trump)
In 1995, despite strong pressure from diplomats and White House aides to remain low key, she went to China and said, "Human rights are women's rights, and women's rights are human rights."
She worked her heart out for health care reform in 1993.
She supports the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), and wants to expand and improve it, including the addition of a public insurance option.
She supports increasing the federal minimum wage to $12 per hour.
She supported comprehensive immigration reform in 2007 and continues to support it.
She was a prime mover behind the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, and was a key figure in finding compromises that allowed it to pass after partisan bickering nearly sank it.
She supports LGBT rights.
She worked with attorney general Janet Reno to create the Justice Department’s Office on Violence Against Women.
She was one of the prime movers behind SCHIP, the State Children's Health Insurance Program, eventually signed into law by Bill Clinton.
She pushed the Adoption and Safe Families Act through Congress.
She has been the target of countless baseless attacks, but has always rebounded and kept on working anyway.
She voted against both of George Bush's tax giveaways to the rich.
She favors closing the carried-interest loophole that give a tax break to hedge-fund managers.
She supports legislation to end racial profiling at all levels of government.
She wants to clean up the toxic lead remaining in soil, water, and paint.
As Secretary of State, she was tireless in traveling the world to repair the damage to our reputation from the Bush years.
She wants to reduce mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses.
She was the principal author of the sanctions on Iran that brought them to the bargaining table.
She then began the secret negotiations with Iran that eventually led to the treaty stopping their work on nuclear weapons.
She supports reform of the financial and banking sector.
At the age of 29 she co-founded the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families advocacy group.
She is annoyed by airline bag fees.
She supports a higher tax rate on the very rich.
She supports the Paris Climate Agreement, and has endorsed a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent by 2025 and 80 percent by 2050.
She wants to restore voting rights to felons who have served their sentences.
She has literally spent her entire adult life advocating for children and women.
She supports automatic voter registration at age 18.
She pushed through State Department regulations that gave same-sex couples most of the same rights as straight couples.
She supports universal pre-K.
She has set a goal of producing one-third of the nation's electricity from renewable sources by 2027, three years before President Obama's deadline.
She wants to expand home visiting programs, one of the best known ways to improve child development.
She wants to spend $275 billion (over five years) on rebuilding infrastructure.
She was instrumental in securing help for New York’s 9/11 first responders.
In the Senate, she fought Republican attempts to privatize Social Security.
She spent 11 hours testifying in front of the Benghazi committee and made Republicans look like idiots.
She would nominate liberal judges to the Supreme Court.
She would also nominate liberal judges to the lower courts.
She supports a plan that allows people over 55 to buy into Medicare.
She co-sponsored the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008.
She is pro-choice and supports the right of all women to have access to affordable contraception and safe and legal abortion.
She wants to prevent pharmaceutical companies from jacking up the price of long-standing drugs.
She supports campaign finance reform and wants to overturn Citizens United.
She has fought for decades for increased funding for HIV treatment and research.
She wants to restore the portions of the Voting Rights Act that were recently struck down by the Supreme Court.
She supports President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba.
She wants to beef up antitrust enforcement.
She worked to ensure ratification of the New START treaty on nuclear weapons reduction with Russia.
She wants to impose a tax on high-frequency stock market trading.
She's a big supporter of the EPA's Clean Power Plan to regulate carbon emissions from power plants.
In the Senate, she had a very good reputation as someone who could work across the aisle to get things done. Her word was always good.
As Secretary of State, she personally negotiated the 2012 ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
She has a 100% rating from both NARAL and Planned Parenthood.
In the Senate, she co-sponsored the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
She supports 12 weeks of paid leave for new mothers or to recover from a serious illness.
As First Lady, she fought for the Family Medical Leave Act. As a senator, she worked to expand FMLA to cover wounded soldiers and their families
She has legendary stamina and endurance.
President Barack Obama: "What sets Hillary apart is that through it all, she just keeps on going, and she doesn’t stop caring, and she doesn’t stop trying, and she never stops fighting for us — even if we haven’t always appreciated it,"
German chancellor Angela Merkel: "I admire her strategic thinking...Whenever I was able to work with Hillary Clinton, it was a great pleasure."
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA): "She is authentic. Hillary is Hillary, and she’s not going to become a cheerleader with pom-poms."
Sen. Al Franken (D-MI): "She is the toughest, most experienced, hardest working person I know."
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH): "As much as we want to move this country forward, you gotta cajole, persuade, work with, whatever it takes. And I think she does that better than about anybody I know."
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI): on his Republican colleagues in the Senate: "Two of them, her very prominent antagonists in this election, and one looked over at the other and said ‘Boy, she’s good.’ The other one leaned back and said, ‘Yeah, she’s really good.’ And that’s the Hillary that they know. Not the talking points Hillary or the caricature, but the real person."
Jill Abramson, who covered Bill and Hillary Clinton critically for more than two decades, first in the Washington bureau of the Wall Street Journal and later at the New York Times, says this about Hillary Clinton: "Hillary Clinton is fundamentally honest and trustworthy....There are no instances I know of where Clinton was doing the bidding of a donor or benefactor."
--Based on a list compiled by Kevin Drum
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/09/progressive-case-hillary-clinton-overwhelming
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(I’ll add one more point, although I’m not going to put it on the list. I think it’s about time we had a woman president. And eventually, there will be one. I think it’s very important that the first one come from our side, not theirs. It’s maybe not a reason to vote for Hillary by itself, but it sure is a nice bonus.)
