The Old Man and the She

2/27/16

I am madly in love with Bernie Sanders, but am slowly becoming ok with voting for Hillary Clinton if she ends up being the nominee.

She's not honest. She flip flops on most major policies. 20 years ago she was one of the two most moderate Democrats in the country. She has only been a Progressive for around 9 months or so. She is funded by huge Wall Street corporations. She voted to support the Iraq War, and she also supported the Defense of Marriage Act and  Don't Ask Don't Tell. But honestly, those qualities can be found in many of the past elected Presidents.

A lot of very significant and progressive legislation came out of the "smoke filled room." The Civil Rights act, the New Deal, and voting rights for women and black americans. Barack Obama, who cannot be considered a corrupt President, was elected the same way for the most part as Hillary would be, and the Administrations of Barack Obama have been very strong for very many, so a continuation of that would not be the end of the world. But its still a compromise...

The campaign of Bernie Sanders is the first political movement I ever felt I truly identified with. Many of the policies and issues that i have been complaining  and thinking about for the last few years are the issues and policies that he is running on. His message found me. I identified with it before i even heard him speak, and then I did, and i knew that this was my message. This was the candidate for me.

I still believe he has a chance to win the nomination. Super Tuesday could be very good to him. Democratic voters just need to show up. More people like Bernie than any other candidate. But his supporters are not caucus goers, or primary voters. That the achilles heal of his constituency. But there still is hope.

Hillary is a juggernaut. She has had 8 years essentially to prepare for this race. Building a base. She has potential to be unstoppable.

If she is the nominee, I might have some thinking to do.

I will never forgive Donald Trump  for making me think Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio aren't as crazy as I originally thought. Trump scares the living shit out of me. His presidency would be a disgrace, and could end is come disaster, hopefully not one of a national security kind. His rhetoric of hate, misogyny, bigotry, and dishonesty are shameful. But he has a lot of support.

The other two, Rubio and Cruz, have been in government. They have drafted policy. Fought in the trenches. Contributed to the governance of The United States of America. Trump has done none of that, and has shown no knowledge of anything that would apply to this job. A lot of candidates have gone way right or way left in the primary and then run straight to the middle in the general election. So i can surmise that much of that Rubio and Cruz are saying will be thrown slightly to the middle. Their propositions when it comes to social issues I disagree with, but I think Trump scares me more.

So since many of my largest issues with Hillary Clinton can be found in the resumes of past Presidents, I could see myself voting for her. Mainly because abstaining, or voting for a third party or something, basically ends up as being a vote for Trump. And a Trump Presidency is not a piece of American history I could ever live with knowing I contributed too.