Hillary’s Lifetime Commitment

Yes, I support Hillary and have since 2008. Bernie Sanders has indeed brought millennials into the fold and that’s great. Being little known to the public, his introduction to them is by default his message. Hillary, I think, hasn’t introduced herself to other millennials yet. The rest of us know her, what she has always stood for and her character, like her or not. Hillary is giving real answers that deliver right now for real people.

Hillary Clinton is her own person, her own woman, perfectly capable of her own opinions and decisions. She doesn’t need some other politician or CEO calling her on a hotline to tell her what to do. Sanders acts like the large banks are the only contacts in her phonebook with Bill, Chelsea and the CEO of Goldman Sachs in her favorites list. This should not be six degrees of separation. If Sanders wants to call a spade a spade saying she’s establishment, he is as well. He has been in Congress for 30 years — three decades benefitting from no term limits. Congress is the epitome of the establishment. He’s said she’s essentially a pawn, a sell out, controlled by banks. It’s a personal attack questioning her entire character. Just because she spoke to banks doesn’t make her a banker no more than speaking to a heart association makes her a doctor. Sanders, along with others, have wanted some of the same things but Hillary has had some thing they don’t — a huge podium. But, one must be able to get to it, stay there and use it. Hillary’s been yelled at, elbowed and knocked down repeatedly at that podium for one reason only. Her true message has not change since she was in law school and her ability to do some thing with it. I truly believe that and I’m pretty much just a realist.

She went before Congress strongly advocating for universal health care in ’93/’94 as FLOTUS, a mere two years after Sanders himself was first elected. Conservatives vilified her. They made her out to be the cause of all things evil. That was a huge reason the GOP took over Congress in 1994 and it lasted until 2006. They continue to do so and yet she still has and continues to get up and fight for the same things she always has. Sanders is essentially making her the villain too — she personally caused the financial meltdown and some how single handedly caused the second Iraq war. Neither are remotely true, which I would say is obvious but clearly it isn’t to some.

When you have a terrorist attack that’s the equivalent to Pearl Harbor and a president that’s come before you with doctored ‘evidence’ orchestrated by his vice president and the CIA that says Saddam Hussein has acquired nuclear weapons and helped with 9/11, what should you do as a senator in Congress? Just say no? When you have one of the most respected individuals that has set foot in Washington in many years as Secretary of State (Colin Powell), come before you and the United Nations and shows that same ‘evidence’, what do you do? And, that same person advocated as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs in the first Iraq war to not invade Iraq and only push them out of Kuwait. Despite Pearl Harbor, there were pacifist that voted against a state of war with Japan and Germany. I wouldn’t have wanted my senator denying reality then either. Sanders questions her judgement on foreign policy and yet despite Obama questioning the same in that primary, he makes her Secretary of State, the 4th highest ranking person in the government. Enough of the damn Iraq vote.

Hillary has been for years advocating for financial reforms. She did not cause the financial meltdown. It was regulatory lapses in the Bush years and a lack of further laws to prevent it. Breaking up the banks will never happen, unless he somehow dismisses Congress and the courts becoming a dictator. I’d rather have some one that speaks to them and learns about what they did and what they do. Breaking them up is a bad idea, especially when there are things that are raising questions that the r-word (recession) might be on the horizon. The reason it happened is not because, ‘well they got big and repealing Glass-Steagall allowed them to merge’. Several of the mergers happened during the meltdown to prevent further, complete catastrophe. Sanders is pandering with this solution. What’s done, is done. They passed the Dodd-Frank Act and she will do more. The Fed has instituted a new policy that in a few years will make it even harder and costly for them to do risky things. Saying he’ll break them up will put him seated at the negotiating table all alone. Just draw new lines further boxing them to make sure they color within those lines. Enough painting Hillary as the Wall Street devil in disguise.

Sanders’ Medicare for all plan is a non-starter. I want universal health care. Hillary wants it.  The ACA, Obamacare, in a matter of a few years has provided health care to about 25 percent of what was the 40 million without health care. That in my opinion is amazing progress. It’ll get there in time. His plan would probably lead to the second largest, if not the largest, reorganization and expansion of the federal government since the Great Depression (my guess it would be larger than the creation of DHS or possibly of all time). That’s not an easy sell, clearly. The ACA barely made it through a Democrat controlled Congress. And, it barely survived complete destruction from the Supreme Court with Chief Justice Roberts, who even rejected the government’s argument, using his own to justify it constitutionally. Acting like it’ll happen is either an outright lie or naive. The UK, if one even slightly reads European news, is going through doubt that its system is sustainable without raising taxes even higher or making dramatic changes such as making some of it private. France, Japan and Germany are also in the same boat of rising healthcare costs and how best to pay for them.

And, on to the electability question of Sanders. Americans equate a socialist basically with a communist. By his own words, a socialist that will raise taxes. His healthcare plan is a tax plan. The Republican’s attack ads will be easy to do and a color-by-numbers picture. The Democrats lost the House after Obamacare passed (a mere two years after Obama took office just like Bill Clinton and that push for healthcare) and then they lost the Senate two years ago. The Supreme Court is at stake with a very real possibility the typical 5-4 bitter divisions can change. Either the more liberal will finally get that extra seat or conservatives will with more dismantling of voting rights, women’s health and so on. Sanders, in his own words, would break decades of tradition and use a litmus test to appoint judges. That’s legitimate ammo for Republicans to block his nominees.

Hillary Clinton is not a villain, no more than Bernie Sanders is one. Her commitment to human rights, women’s rights, children, healthcare, education and the economic prosperity of the middle class is real and true. It’s not some campaign spin that’s masking her true intentions. After 40 years of service, she hasn’t made some 180 degree turn toward the dark side of billionaires and their special interest. Why would she even bother — as Sanders claims, to make some billionaires even richer when she just as easily could say ‘screw it’ and enjoy retirement with her grandkids? She cares about what’s happening and moving things forward. She went through a grueling two years campaigning in the primary of ’08 then another four as Secretary of State traveling more miles than any other in an aluminum tube known as an airplane and more places that are not quite Paris in the spring. That tube isn’t as nice as Air Force One and sure as hell isn’t a mobile Four Seasons. It’s now probably the most difficult and grueling job second to POTUS. At State, she also advocated for the same fundamentals around the world she always has. It hasn’t changed no matter what position she has held.

I have only donated to one other person in 15 years and that was like $5. I’ve donated five times to her this election. I’ve only voted in one primary and that was for her in ’08. This, I believe, is one of the most critical elections in modern history and clearly it’s in chaos. Hillary Clinton is about the most experienced candidates ever and has a different perspective opposite of old, white men before her. Presidents spend the first year or two finding their footing but given her time spent already in that house off Pennsylvania Avenue, she won’t need a map and a compass looking for that oval room; nor will she idle around choosing carpet and drapes. That ‘ready on day one’ is true. I will be in a voting booth this primary unless I’m literally on my death bed.

[I wrote this before the latest debate in Milwaukee]