Kara Post-Kennedy doesn’t want to explain to her son why a racist, misogynistic, lying, bullying tyrant will be the leader of the free world.
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I’m the first to admit, I’ve never been particularly fond of Hillary Clinton.
Most of the general criticism that circulates about her is a verifiable truth. For example: she is pro-death penalty. Seriously? What is this, the Middle Ages where we can’t evolve past “an eye for an eye”? Gross.
Her campaign is also partially financed by many of the same entities she SHOULD be fighting against…big banks, big pharma and the private for-profit prison industry.
She supported NAFTA, but has since evolved on the issue in a reasonable, intelligent fashion. She voted for the Iraq war, but given the false evidence that was being presented at the time, and also that she was the senator representing the state where the 9/11 attacks occurred and the fact that women in politics are often derided for being “too soft”, I understand (while not approving) of that decision.
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My biggest problem with her, however, stems from what I will call her “two-faced” approach to a lot of critical issues. I believe she often says what is politically expedient (promising “reparation for slavery” to voters in South Carolina?) in the moment, and not always what she actually intends to do. I have a very dear friend who tells a story of a personal encounter with her as a welfare rights organizer, where she agreed and promised to fix the problems with her husband’s 1996 welfare reform. Instead, she signed on to the most conservative welfare reauthorization bill that had ever been under consideration. This is a weakness I have seen her display time and time again over the years.
Hillary Clinton is a brilliant person who understands policy and the human condition with equal ease. She does not, however, always vote her conscience.
Bernie Sanders, on the other hand? Appears to be the most unimpeachable candidate to have run for the Presidency in my lifetime. As a woman with decidedly liberal leaning beliefs, it is impossible for me not to admire Bernie’s almost utopian ideals for the future of my country. Also, Bernie boasts the kind of consistency Hillary can only dream about. Bernie does not appear to have “evolved.” Bernie appears to have “hatched” pretty much as the man and candidate we see before us. I respect him a great deal and have written several pieces supporting his candidacy, even appearing on “The Bernie Blog.”
However, as of this writing, it does not appear that Bernie Sanders will be able to secure the Democratic nomination.
This means, for all intents and purposes, #Imwithher.
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Susan Sarandon started a conversation that seems to have drawn a line between people like me and my #Bernieorbust comrades. And I’m sorry for that because I love Bernie too and hate to think that doing what I believe is best for my country might actually lose me some friends. But it is a consequence I am willing to face, for many reasons.
Not the least of which being: I am a mother.
And I’m not in the mood to explain to my son why a racist, misogynistic, lying, xenophobic, bullying tyrant is now the leader of the free world. I have a child who will be exposed to not only the policies but the rhetoric of whoever takes office next January, and Donald Trump is completely unacceptable to me.
Also: although I am an entitled, educated white woman with an educated white husband who can weather the (horrible!) storm of Republican policies for the next four years, I have enough compassion to understand that those who are less privileged than I am may not survive them.
Four years of Republican rule will be torturous to the poor, POC, and LGBT communities.
Obamacare will most likely be gutted.
Let’s not forget Trump’s “promises” about Mexico and the banning of Muslims. None of these things affect me personally but it is empirical that this country will fare better under a “flawed” Clinton presidency than under an inevitably disastrous Trump presidency.
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When I was a young woman and read King Lear for the first time, do you know who I thought the real “villain” was? Cordelia. Because there is no tragedy without Cordelia getting up on her high horse and refusing to go against her (white, privileged) ideals. I completely agree in theory that her father’s (craven, classless) imposed competition between his daughters for their love is absurd and worthy of her derision. But in private. She should have played the game and THEN explained PRIVATELY (so as not to humiliate her father as he had humiliated her) that it was NOT COOL. Instead, she sits up on her very high horse and causes a war to break out.
How does it feel up there on a high horse while people are suffering, dying? How does it feel on that high horse when women are denied their reproductive rights (something that would NEVER happen in a Clinton presidency)? How does it feel on your high horse when Trump is building a wall? Was it worth it? Was the sacrifice that other people (NOT YOU) have to make worth it? As many people as you fear will be hurt in a Clinton presidency, can you deny there will be many, many more who suffer under Trump? How is that okay?
Hillary Clinton is a Yale Law School graduate, former law partner at a top firm, first lady, State Senator and Secretary of State. Okay, big deal. That doesn’t answer to problems of character, you say.
Well how about this: Hillary Clinton is a woman who walked the straight and narrow in the radical 60’s, married a man who would not only eclipse her but publicly betray her and the mother of a very impressive young person. Hillary is a woman, wife, and mother.
And as a woman, wife, and mother, I understand her moral “fluctuations” more than I care to admit. When you are trying to succeed in what is still a man’s world, you might make compromises a man would never have to make. When you are trying to sustain a fragile and volatile marriage, you will make a lot of sacrifices not only to your integrity, but to your dignity.
When you are trying to raise a child in what is often an ugly and oppressive world, you subjugate who you are and what you need to an alarming degree. As a woman, wife and mother, I have had to compromise more than I ever thought I would. But I, like Hillary, also have learned how to bend without breaking. And I don’t think that’s a half-bad quality for a President to have.
I will not compromise on this. My son’s future is too important to me to sit this one out. My country’s future is too. For me, voting against Trump is a moral imperative. So #Imwithher. Messy, imperfect, duplicitous, maligned, brilliant her. You know, I took one of those tests, “Which candidate best mirrors your beliefs?”
And though I understand it isn’t all about me, I am 98% aligned with Bernie.
And 97% with Hillary.
On policy, they aren’t as different as many believe. I can live with it. And more importantly, so can people who need the policies, help and services that they will be denied in any Republican presidency.
I do not have the luxury of “sitting this one out.”
Do you?
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Photo: Leigh Blackall/Flickr
And read more of Kara Post-Kennedy on The Good Men Project.
I know it’s difficult when you feel there are no viable choices. I’ll be the first to agree that the field is not that attractive this time around. Still, there’s bad and then there’s apocalyptic. Now I believe there’s been a lot of exaggeration about Hillary’s faults, but even if all that were true, she’s not even in the same league as Donald Trump. Donald Trump comes across as a gangster or thug right out of some Hollywood movie (think Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs). Personally, I don’t want to be in a continual state of mortification for the next… Read more »
Idealism is a great thing, but it never stands a chance against stark reality. This is not to say that it’s fruitless to fight for a good cause, only that it won’t do to try to fool yourself. I think the writer of the above piece is simply saying that, within the current political system under which we live, there is a “least bad” viable alternative here. I imagine that if one were to do a detailed study of all the presidents of the US, one would find that all of them, without exception, were flawed in one way or… Read more »
Trump is a racist lying ass bully that needs to be put down like the dog he is . Why has trump sons never been in the military or him self . I would never trust a man who do not know who the head of the KKK is .He is a cheater he been married three times . I can not see any self respecting person voting for this sub human . .
Racist?How do you come to that conclusion? Sub human? You are a great example of a Democrat. I’m glad the Democrats I know are nothing like you.
read this and look in a mirror for a few minutes: http://archive.is/pfgZn#selection-2075.447-2079.329
So in other words vote for Clinton not because she is the best candidate but because Trump is the devil that will unleash hell on earth? I’m sorry but you’re campaign banks more on how evil the other candidate is rather than how good YOU are then you’re no better than the evil one. How does it feel up there on a high horse while people are suffering, dying? How does it feel on that high horse when women are denied their reproductive rights (something that would NEVER happen in a Clinton presidency)? How does it feel on your high… Read more »
Interesting perspective. As the parent of a son I’d be more worried that our boys are falling out of education (70-30 split and plummeting), a greater chance of depression, suicide, drugs. If he makes it to that point unscathed, gets married, he’ll be the chattel that women once were. There are no services for him, no protection against violence, especially if that violence is DV. If he divorces he has an 85% chance of being ostracized from his kids, shackled with oppressive child support, not to mention that the grandparents, as I’ve heard over and over, will be denied any… Read more »
People who hate Hillary don’t hate her because of her ideas, they hate her because she’s the relative of another president and in a democracy that just feels wrong. In Canada last year, we had the same problem. Everyone bashed Trudeau in public because it’s cool to bash the establishment but despite the public bravado, everyone knows in secret that both Bill Clinton and Pierre Trudeau had good policies for their respective countries and Justin Trudeau won by a landslide…but they were The Man and Bernie will never be! it’s hip to cheer for the underdog.
I don’t hate the woman. I don’t hate anyone, but her affiliation with a group that hates me scares the hell out of me. Has nothing to do with Bill at all. Some of his policies were good, some sucked wind, just like every other president.
Cynthia, I disagree completely. Her affiliation with Bill plays a small role with respect to how people feel about her. Don’t underestimate the American voters. Hillary has so much going on that it’s hard to keep up.
The problem we have in this country is that too many rely on main stream media and liberal outlets put out only what they want and the same for many of the conservative sites. Difference is though is that some of the conservative sites are just as critical of the GOP as they are any of the other candidates.
People get all bent out of shape about a POTUS. THEY HAVE NO POWER TO DO SQUAT. They are our rep to the outside world. You conveniently forget about our congress that makes the laws. So you’d have to have a strong majority of a Republican congress to do anything. And that ain’t gonna happen.
What I don’t understand is why it has to be her – why not Jill Stein? Why can’t we as a country vote with our minds, not our party affiliation? If people could muster us some courage, and not fold to the two-party system all the time, perhaps we would once in awhile be able to obtain more than “the better of two evils”. And yes, it would be a painful 4 years as a poor trans person with disabilities. But you know what – you suck it up – because contrary to what that scary bastard Trump has to… Read more »
This is a ridiculous argument because it’s predicated on the notion that whomever the Democratic Party picks as its nominee is equally likely to beat Trump, that this “party unity” thing is all that matters. However, Trump has defied all conventional wisdom in his rise to the nomination. There were a few people who predicted that he’d win the nomination back when he was tied for 10th place with 3% support, and who explained the basis for their prediction. The process played out exactly as predicted. According to this “unconventional wisdom,” Clinton is one of the worst candidates to go… Read more »
You said Trump is racist, misogynistic, lying, xenophobic … proof please
Great. You’re aligned 97% with the the most hypocritical liar, pathologically so, corrupt individual and you think 4 years of trump is worse than this. That is sad.