Guest post from Ruth Thompson, a very active Clinton volunteer
I’ve observed something during this election cycle that I’ve never seen before. We have an amazing candidate for president, arguably the smartest, most experienced and qualified candidate in my lifetime, and many Democrats are afraid to express that sentiment out loud.
It’s complicated, I get it. We’ve just come through a caucus/primary/ lead-up to the Democratic National Convention that was extremely contentious from the minute the candidates declared until the minute the DNC was officially closed. Supporters of Bernie Sanders are going through a grieving period and many of them are angry.
I also understand the reluctance for supporters of Hillary Clinton to celebrate our candidate the way we should. Many of us want to unify the party and avoid offending Bernie supporters at all costs. Many of us have experienced hateful vitriol from all sides.
I’ve heard all the reasons why we shouldn’t support Hillary Clinton. Here are my brief responses to them:
She’s not progressive enough:
She’s was progressive before progressive was a thing. She began to distinguish herself as an activist and yes, a progressive (albeit a Republican) at a very young age. As early as grade school she advocated for uniforms in her school and often wore her Girl Scout uniform to school to make a point. She believed that uniforms would help ease class distinctions because children whose families couldn’t afford expensive clothing would look the same as everyone else.
One of her earliest jobs was in a fish-processing plant in Alaska. This job was short-lived: early on she spoke out about sanitation issues and poor working conditions and was fired.
- Her first job was with The Children’s Defense Fund
- Remember the Clinton Health Initiative: Universal Health Care, people! In the 1990s.
- Her activism on behalf of women and children across the world is renowned.
- Her plans for raising the minimum wage and combating climate change are stellar
Let’s be real. She and Senator Bernie Sanders voted alike 98% of the time. We all agree on where we want the country to go. She simply takes a more measured approach to how we get there.
She flip/flops:
People grow and learn over time. Through this process they change their views. I certainly have. I admire people who evolve, examine their positions and admit when they’re wrong. I worry about people who refuse to consider other viewpoints.
She’s a liar/criminal/BENGHAZI!!!!:
Folks, we’re all smarter than that. Those are republican talking points. The far right has been making these claims for 30 years. Thousands of hours and millions of dollars have been wasted investigating Hillary Clinton. Karl Rove, Newt Gingrich, Tom Delay, Rush Limbaugh have dedicated their lives to bringing her down. She’s been investigated every which way but loose. And they’ve found nothing, zilch, nada.
She voted for the Iraqi war:
The following is a very brief portion of the statement she made on the floor of the Senate Chamber prior to the vote. Google and read the entire statement and decide for yourself if she was “for” the war.
“This is a difficult vote. This is probably the hardest decision I have ever had to make. Any vote that may lead to war should be hard, but I cast it with conviction. … My vote is not, however, a vote for any new doctrine of preemption or for unilateralism or for the arrogance of American power or purpose … [It] is not a vote to rush to war; it is a vote that puts awesome responsibility in the hands of our president. And we say to him: Use these powers wisely and as a last resort.”
I fear that our seeming lack of willingness to praise our candidate may be costing not just us, but the nation. There is the perception that Democrats are not enthusiastic about our candidate. We may be experiencing the consequences of that through low volunteer participation and tepid absentee ballot requests. So I’m going to just come out and say it: I’m unabashedly, loudly, proudly unreservedly supporting Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic nominee for president.
by Ruth Thompson
Posted 9/27/16
You missed one important reason for hesitation in showing enthusiasm:
Fear of Trump supporters!
“She’s not progressive enough.” Unfortunately that is true, she is too progressive and not conservative enough. She called good upstanding Americans deplorable and irredeemable. How can she be President if she cannot respect the American people?
“Her activism on behalf of women and children across the world is renowned.” If that’s true how do you explain the Clinton Foundation taking millions of dollars from nations that practice Sharia which oppresses women and gays?
“Her plans for raising the minimum wage and combating climate change are stellar”. Raising the minimum wage is a fools errand, it will put more African Americans out of work and drive innovation to replace low skilled workers with robots. She has no policy to grow the American economy.
“She flip/flops” Yes she does. She said the TPP trade agreement was the gold standard and now she claims to oppose it, but no one believes that.
“She’s a liar/criminal/BENGHAZI!!!!:” Only bugs under a rock do not know that this is an absolutely accurate statement. Clinton set up a private email server in violation of State Department rules and then said it was OK. Then she said there were no national security information on her server, FBI Director Comey proved that a lie. She said she turned over all of her work related emails. The FBI and the State Department found thousands more of her emails. Hillary Clinton lied to the families of the fallen that a video caused the deaths of their family members at Benghazi. Under her leadership the military left people on the battle field to die. Today Libya is a haven for terrorists after her policy that destabilized the country.
“She voted for the Iraqi war.” Yes she did vote for the war. Rather than stick to what she did and explain that she is capable to make hard decisions now she says it was a mistake. Proof positive that Hillary cannot be trusted. She doesn’t have the strength of her own convictions.
“I fear that our seeming lack of willingness to praise our candidate may be costing not just us …. There is the perception that Democrats are not enthusiastic about our candidate.” There are many good reasons, as noted above, to praise Clinton. Democrats are putting up Trump signs her.
You wrote: “She called good upstanding Americans deplorable and irredeemable.”
That is a demonstrable LIE. Hillary called “deplorables” people who can only be given that adjective: members of the KKK, ultra-right followers of the Nazi party, homophobic, Islamophobic, racists and intolerant. All of them Trump supporters. If you think that David Duke, Stephen Bannon, Roger Aisles and others of their ilk are not “deplorables”, I have to conclude that you share their views and perhaps their qualifications.
Hillary acknowledged that “many of Trump’s supporters are hard-working Americans who just don’t feel like the economy or our political system are working for them.” That is an actual quote of what she said.
The facts speak for themselves. We’ve seen the rallies, we’ve seen the people that have been there. There are people who tend to be racist, intolerant and even violent… Is the number half, not half, how much of it, you know – who knows what that amount is but please DO NOT LIE when bringing Hillary’s words, otherwise you have no credibility when raising discussion points.