Hillary is not ‘the lesser evil’; she’s a great fucking candidate

I’m not a person who likes to get political on Tumblr–or anywhere for that matter. And I’ll probably get unfollowed for this. But I feel moved to say it. I supported Hillary back when she was fighting for the democratic nomination with Obama. At that time, I saw Obama as a smooth-talking, crowd-moving preacher type that ultimately had little substance, and Hillary as a smart, hard-working woman who was vastly experience and firmly grounded in liberal principles. I was wrong about Obama, but I wasn’t wrong about Hillary. 

I’ve put the rest of this below a cut in case you don’t care to read it. I have a link to a great new article debunking a lot of Hillary trash talk which is worth looking at BTW.

It astounds me how many posts I see that are either “I dislike Hillary as much as anyone but you have to vote for her to stop Trump”. Or, worse, “I will never vote for crooked Hilliary, who stole the nomination from Bernie Sanders and is all sorts of evil, so I’m determined to write in my candidate.”  I also see a lot of “How can I choose between two horrible candidates?”

Look. Hillary Clinton is a fucking great candidate. Full stop. She’s been fighting for women’s issues, for the poor, for equality, since she was a college student. She’s incredibly smart and probably the most experienced candidate EVER. She was in the White House for 8 years as a spouse and saw what it takes to run the presidency. She was Secretary of State so she has a better grasp of foreign affairs than anyone. And she has also been a state senator. She fought for better health care against huge odds.

There’s also the small matter that she’s the first serious woman candidate for president. I would love to have a woman president! That doesn’t mean I’d vote for any woman. Not, for example, Sarah Palin or Ann Coulter. But the fact that we have a potential female president who is smart and liberal and experienced fucking thrills me. I loved seeing Obama as a president because, just to name one reason, he represents diversity. More of that please.

Has Hillary always voted positively on issues we liberals now hold sacred, like gay marriage? No. But at the time when she didn’t, neither did uber liberals like Bernie Sanders and John Kerry. It was a different time. Have there been times when she made a decision for political reasons when her conscience dictated otherwise? I’m sure there are dozens! But that’s what you have to do when you’re a grown up. It’s called negotiation and compromise and sticking in there to ultimately get what you want accomplished done. Note: see Bernie Sanders endorsement of Clinton for an example. 

Compromise is treated like some kind of dirty word. Listen: anytime there are two people on a project together, even if it’s painting a banner for prom, compromise is part of the package. It’s life. Of course, there are levels of compromise that are criminal and unforgivable, like, oh, looking the other way during the Holocaust. But the tendency to deride any form of negotiation as “corrupt” or having “no integrity” is just childish. It’s like saying you want your cake but don’t want any calories in it. Sorry. That’s not how it works. You can be a successful politician, and negotiate where you have to, while still holding onto your principles and pushing your cause as much as humanly possible. I think Hillary is a great example of someone who knows how to do that.

As for all the supposed black marks against her–please check the facts. Remember that her opponents and conservatives and basically anyone who doesn’t want to see a woman in power have deliberately trashed her. I really appreciate the article below, which gives facts and links and debunks alot of the trash talked about Hillary Clinton. It also gets to the root of the issue which is that people are hugely threatened by a strong, competent woman. 

And to that end–who on God’s earth would have the courage and backbone to stand up to all that bullying? Years of the Republicans persecuting and trying to get anything they could on her. Years of being jeered at for her husband’s infidelity (which, IMHO, is between her and Bill and no one else). Being called all sorts of names like ‘slut’ and ‘cunt’ and ‘evil bitch’, hated and threatened. Man, I can’t even take a one star review on Goodreads! So I give Hillary all the props for being so damn brave and standing up there regardless. 

So. In short, I think Hillary is bloody Wonder Woman. That’s all.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-womack/stop-pretending-you-dont-_b_12191766.html?