Why I'm Voting for Hillary Clinton: Saturday Political Soap Box 138

This will make few happy.

For my friends that are die hard Bernie fans, you may be disappointed at how decisively I've turned around.  I know for some of you, your dislike of Clinton is still so intense, that you have entertained the possibility of voting for 3rd parties or, God forbid, Donald J. Trump.

For my friends who were for Hillary from the beginning, you'll be disappointed that my endorsement is not full throated enough.  Sorry.  She is a flawed candidate, who is far too embedded in the current political system and its corporatist connections.  I am not now, nor have I ever been, a Clintonista. She represents politics as it has been, not where politics needs to go in the future.

For my Republican friends who despise Trump (and there are a good number of those) but can't bring themselves to vote for Clinton, you'll be disappointed that I have crossed that line, and that I am urging you to do something you clearly do not want to do.

For my friends who support the narcissistic racist misogynist authoritarian lying thin-skinned con man, Donald Drumpf, you'll be disappointed.  Period.  But I don't want to give up even on you. Anything I can get you to do to wake up and smell the con, I am going to keep trying to do.  I don't want you to have to carry the burden of having supported him for the rest of your life.

Here are a some of the most important reasons I'm voting for Hillary Clinton:

Climate Change/Global Warming/Environment

Yeah, whatever frazology you want to attach to it, it's real and it's happening and it has to be mitigated.  Yes, I say mitigated, because we're already too late to entirely stop it.  To have done that we would have needed to listen to Al Gore in 2000.  And whether we listened or not, the Supreme Court made their own choice, and we have to live with the consequences.

Donald Trump doesn't believe it is real.  He thinks it is a hoax perpetuated by the Chinese.  Hillary Clinton may not do everything needed (her record on fracking is atrocious), but she at least believes it is real.  She can be persuaded to do many of the right things.

Universal Healthcare

Donald Trump would repeal Obamacare and leave us with nothing.  You think Obamacare is horrible?  Fine.  Go back to a system where millions more have no coverage, where many will go bankrupt trying to save family members, where insurance companies raise rates without restraint and not cover pre-existing conditions, where your child turns 18 and you can no longer cover him/her on your family policy, where healthcare is not based on need but on how much money you have or whether you're fortunate to have one of the dwindling number of jobs that offer decent health insurance,

Hillary Clinton will not move fast enough to a true universal healthcare system, such as Medicare For All,  but she will at least  preserve the Affordable Health Care Act, and will be more open to improving and expanding it.  She can be pushed to introduce a public option.


Income Inequality

Think Donald Trump cares about the average middle class working person?  HA!  He doesn't have a tax program other than the one Paul Ryan is imposing on him, which just further cuts taxes to the wealthy and large corporations.  He thinks wages are already too high.  Yes, our trade needs to be more balanced, but he would start trade wars that will leave us weaker, not stronger.  Think he's a good negotiator?  Having his Dad prop him up in his early career is not a good sign.  Going bankrupt multiple times is not a good sign.  And constantly ducking out of paying everyday contractors and workers who do business with him should be the final straw for you.

Hillary Clinton supports some of the more central ideas to at least start closing the gap at least a fraction.  She supports raises to the minimum wage.  She at least tries to tie her new proposed programs to ways to pay for them.  She may not go far enough with bank reform, but it is at least on her agenda.

Foreign Policy

Someone who asks why we can't use our nukes versus someone who has had extensive diplomatic experience.  Yes, Hillary is too militaristic for me, and out of all she brings to the table, that scares me the most.  BUT we are comparing her to a belligerent, erratic cartoon.  No.  A thousand times no. Drumpf should never be near a nuclear trigger.

Promoting the Progressive Takeover of the Democratic Party

Oh, Lord, this has to happen.  Oh, Lord, I do pray for this.  But it won't happen overnight.  It will take hard work and never giving up.  And the truth is that Hillary can be worked with and influenced IF THE MOVEMENT remains strong.  Let's concentrate on continuing to build the grassroots.  Be like the Tea Party and challenge every corporate Democrat in the primaries.  Press her on issues we care about with powerful ground-up movements.  Even run against her in 2020.

But this is what we can't do - hand the country over to Donald Trump.  Even if Progressives eventually take power, the harm and pain he will have caused will not have been worth it.

I LOVE third parties.  I CRAVE for America to have a strong, multiple party system.  But we're not there yet.  And this is not the year to start it.


There are a multitude of other reasons why this is the year to vote for Hillary Clinton, whether it's with enthusiasm or swallowing hard.  But here is the most important reason -

Because I Love this Country!

 And I will not hand it over to a 

Narcissistic
   Racist
      Bullying
         Authoritarian Fascist
             Misogynist
                 Hate Spewing
                      Fear Mongering
                          Con Man!

Please.

I'm begging you.

Join me in stopping this gravest threat to democracy and what it means to be an American that we have ever experienced.  Join me in helping defeat this man and the hate-filled forces that surround him, so that he and his movement are crushed and embarrassed, so much that they never darken our democracy again.  He must lose, and he must lose YUUGE.

I don't care whether you love her or hate her or anything in-between.  You must join me in voting for Hillary Clinton.

This election, it's our only real choice.