This is pretty much a short post because the hyperbole is bonkers strong over this primary battle. From people calling Hillary a crook to people saying Bernie secretly wants Trump to win. (c’mon people. For serious. Stop it.)
I’m a Bernie supporter. I truly believe he was the best hope to throw the chain in the wheels of a broken system. Yes I think the superdelegate thing was a rig from the beginning (in 2008 they weren’t counted in totals, then suddenly from the very beginning this primary Hillary had a 500 superdelegate lead and all the networks fell in line.) The email thing worries me not from the perspective of I hope Bernie gets in because of it but because, objectively speaking, it was *insanely* boneheaded and gives the opposing party a wonderful narrative on through November. It is a completely self-inflicted wound. That combined with votes on Iraq and other questionable choices really bother me. But not as much as anything else, and I do assume on the face of it she’s a good person who wants to do well.
My qualms don’t bother me a sliver as much as even the most progressive of the Republican options. Hell they don’t even bother me a sliver as much as the most conservative of the Democratic options.
Bernie lost. Definitively. You could argue he was playing from a slightly stacked deck but let’s be honest, isn’t it about time that the male in the male vs. female contest was playing disadvantaged?
A historic milestone was achieved for women everywhere not just Hillary. She’s more than capable of navigating and managing the busted machinations of the modern US system. Donald Trump is a tire fire wrapped up in asbestos taped to a neutron bomb on a crazy sensitive tripwire that he dances around clumsily while wearing big spikey clown shoes. Also he’s a racist.
Let’s put this part behind us like Hillary did when Obama won. I’ll say it plainly:
She’s the nominee, I doubt anything will change that. I’m with the nominee, so I’m with her.
The election isn’t decided until July 25. Those are literally the DNC rules. Neither candidate has enough pledged delegates to secure the nomination (2,383). Again, that’s not wishful thinking. That’s according to the rules set by the DNC.
If Bernie was under federal investigation, do you honestly believe Hillary wouldn’t use that to her advantage? Back in 2008, after Obama had secured the necessary delegates to win the nomination, she wrote a letter to the superdelegates asking that they consider flipping to support her despite having less delegates than Obama. Obama, unlike Clinton, was not under investigation.
Setting the server aside, the Clinton Foundation has received millions of dollars from various war benefactors. While she was Secretary of State, Clinton benefited from a $10 million Clinton Foundation payday from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in exchange for State Department weapons deals. This is the same Saudi Arabia that does not allow women to drive and considers atheists to be terrorists by definition. She claims to support women’s rights yet she supported the Iraq resolution which gave the Bush Administration carte blanche to perpetuate a 14-year occupation. Because of the sacrifice of Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, we know that a minimum of 200,000 civilians died—men, women, and children. See the irony there?
What’s interesting to me is that Clinton supporters celebrate this as a historic moment—the first woman president. If they wanted a female president, why didn’t they support Carly Fiorina? Anytime Sanders supporters made legitimate arguments against Clinton, they were immediately condescended to. I have a feeling that the vast majority of them do not realize how incredibly dismissive the Bernie Bro label is. It implies that only sexist men support Bernie, which is absurd on its face.
That aside, Rachel Maddow had asked Clinton at a town hall what she would do to win over Bernie supporters. Her response was to talk about how many more votes she had than Sanders. She refused to mention any policy positions that she would fight for in order to earn their votes. What your post suggests is that Berniecrats should just fall in line and accept policies which do not align with our views. We do not owe her a damn thing. If she wants my vote, which I sincerely question whether or not she does, she has to earn it.
How would she earn it, you ask? Simple. Put forward a plan to move us toward single-payer healthcare. Make drastic changes to our current energy policy. This is a must. If we do not do something about climate change yesterday, our planet will be uninhabitable for humans in 100 years or less. This means that her past positions on fracking need to change entirely. Appoint justices to the Supreme Court that would fight to overturn Citizens United (and similar court decisions such as Buckley v. Vallejo). Use the bully pulpit to reform the private prison system.
How would the President influence Congress like this? Easy. Get a list of every single Congress member that is in an election year. In example, congressman (or congresswoman) doesn’t support Energy Bill X, run campaign ads against them. Tell the American people what makes their positions so dangerous to our planet.
Would Clinton do this? Honestly, I wouldn’t hold my breath. She takes money from the oil and fossil fuel industries so the likelihood of her doing this is next to zero.
In conclusion, is Trump worse? It’s entirely possible, but Clinton has a political history of poor decisions. I won’t vote for Trump as he is clearly a buffoon. Hillary Clinton, however, isn’t all that much better when making decisions. She has nice, fluffy rhetoric. Truthfully, I don’t give a damn about rhetoric. I care about actions, not words. Her actions have made her incredibly wealthy at the expense of poor and middle-class families. That’s despicable. I cannot, in good conscience, allow her to spit in my face and tell me it’s raining. I could go on, but I’m not sure you want to read a novel.