I swore this year I would not post heavily on political
matters. My friends know my politics and
I’m not likely to sway anyone of a different mind. So why state my opinion? There is one important reason: I want to go
on record as standing for what I believe.
So, feel free to ignore this post if you are apolitical. Also, be aware
that I am not going to engage with any who feel the need to comment on
this. I am simply stating my position on
my own page and blog.
I am old enough to have been denied equal access to
educational coursework in a public high school due to my gender. That same high
school had a whole building for boys’ sports and lockers while the girls had
the basement. I am old enough to have
been let go from a desk job because I was pregnant. I once worked in an office at a newspaper that
had only a men’s room because the editor did not believe women should be
reporters. I had one friend who had a back-alley abortion. I don’t take women’s
rights for granted. My mother’s
generation fought and bled for them and my generation has had to fight to keep
them. I am old enough to know we could
lose these hard-won rights. As a mother to two women and as a grandmother to
two more, I always keep this in mind while voting.
That alone would lead me to vote for Hillary and for blue
down-ticket. But there is more.
I have never bought the narrative that Hillary Clinton is
dishonest, a liar, or some master manipulator.
I have followed her career closely and she has been vilified at every
turn for daring to be a strong woman in a man’s world. When she was first lady and worked for
healthcare reform, she secured her fate as a hated feminist. I remember pundits
saying she was trying to break the traditional role of first lady and she
should go read to children at a hospital or something similar. But, she managed
to get healthcare through for children. She
was placed in a losing position as the wife of a cheater. Had she left him, she would have “broken her
marriage vows” and “been unforgiving.”
As it was, she stayed and has suffered, not for her own misdeeds, but
for her husband’s!
Is she flawless? Of
course not. No one is. She has played
the political game better than most.
What has caught her up has not been actual misdeeds, but her assumption
that she would be given the same leeway as her male counterparts. In her long and public career, she has put up
with innuendos and investigations that have
never led to an indictment, much less a conviction. Despite this, the men (mostly) doing these
investigations have felt free to not only censure her, pontificate on small
points, and pass their own personal judgments, but have lied and in at least
one, case fabricated so-called evidence against her. Her patience in the face
of this will go down in history.
She is not the lesser of two evils. I reject that completely. She is competent. She is experienced. She is a leader by temperament. Yes, she is a politician. So is Chris Christy, Newt Gingrich, and
dozens of others much more soiled by their involvement in politics than
she. Yet somehow they come back like bad
pennies after proven misdeeds while she is expected to dissolve due to innuendo. Nope. It’s a level playing field. If there’s dirt on it let’s do something
about that instead of imputing dirt onto a relatively clean candidate just so
she doesn’t outshine the boys.
Also, I compare her to her rival. As a female, I am offended by Trump’s words
about females. As a human, I am offended
by his words about minorities and the disabled.
As a supporter of veterans, I am aghast at his behavior toward veterans
and the Gold Star family he mocked. As
someone who follows politics and reads the fact-checkers, I am appalled at his
daily lies; even when confronted with taped proof of what he has said his
denials are epic. His immoderate
comments on nuclear weapon use is chilling.
His supporters include North Korea and the KKK. A person is known by the company he does not
disavow.
I believe that he is so unprepared for the presidency that
were he to be elected, he would have to be controlled by others. This, too, is chilling.
If Hillary – or any
woman – had the personal past that Trump owns with boastful bravado, she would
be vilified and ridiculed, not embraced by the religious as he is. That also extends to the spouses. Hillary has not said a single word against
Trump’s wife for her nude modeling or her uncertain work status as a new immigrant,
but Trump has made much political hay from Bill’s past misdeeds and even from the misdeeds of the spouse of one of her aides.
There’s also policy.
I believe in separation of church and state. I believe in equal rights for all. I believe in science and climate change. I want my granddaughters to never worry about
their reproductive choices being stripped from them by politicians. I want to ratify the ERA. I want sensible gun legislation and
reasonable immigration reform. I want
economic reform that does not try to balance the budget on the backs of those
who can least afford it. I don’t want to
make America great again; I want to make it greater than it is today.
Hillary is a well-qualified candidate and Trump is not. So, I’m with HER and I’m proud of it.
