10 Reasons I'm Super Excited to Vote For Hillary Clinton
I am voting for Hillary Clinton, and it's not because she's the lesser of two evils. I think that's some weak BS. I'm voting for her because I think she'd be a good president. Now, normally I keep this blog pretty squarely in the realm of things like Orgasm Equality, or female orgasm journal article summaries, or TV or Movie reviews of depictions/discussions of lady-bation or lady-gasms, or the movie this blog is related to - ya know, things like that, but I'm making an exception this time because I want to write about Hillary and politics in general, and I'm classy and stuff.
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| My 3 favorites, HRC and the Broad City ladies |
Let it be clearly known, however, that I'm no expert on really anything I'm going to write about, but neither are 99% of people talking about this stuff (and honestly, those of you who think you are, probably are not. Educated to some degree? Probably. Expert? - Unlikely). We are voters, not experts. We use what resources we have to make a decision, and frankly those resources are different for everyone. However, with a bit of humility and a touch of realism and a hint of common sense and logic, I think most people are capable of making an ok decision. And, I'm not disheartened that there is emotion in people's decisions or that not everyone is up to a particular standard of education about a particular set of topics. I think diversity in the electorate is not a bad thing - even if you think a lot of that diversity includes stupidity.
I am of the opinion that if everyone keeps trying and keeps talking and keeps radically and not so radically vying for their causes, things generally go in the right direction. I'm not saying it's all perfect, or good things happen quickly, or that shitty things don't happen. I'm just saying that we get to a better place where there is a new mix of good and bad shit in the world, but the mix is slightly better for more people and in more places, in my opinion, than that mix was, say, 50 years ago.
So with that said, here is my non-expert, somewhat educated, laced-with emotion, personal opinion about why I'm excited to vote for HRC for POTUS in 2016.
1 She's Got Mad Health Care Policy Cred
Heath Care is far and away my most number 1-est of reasons. Here's the deal. Health care - particularly the insurance part- in the US can be a hot trash heap of a mess. Now, for perspective, I'm not talking 3rd world deep poverty bad or anything, but for this being America and all - it sucks pretty hardcore and has for decades.
My husband and I lucked out and didn't need it much during the 8 years of our adult life we were without health insurance because it was too expensive (even though we were exactly the type of people who needed to be paying into it). Oh - but I have dealt and am dealing currently with large health care issues in my immediate family - and I've seen the havoc insurance BS wreaks. My parents both owned small businesses (and to be clear I'm not talking about the 'small businesses' I see politicians and shit on TV talk about with 20 employees and an high upper middle class lifestyle for the owner. I'm talking about what I've mostly grown up knowing as small businesses around me - having somewhere between 0 and 1 employees and affording a sometimes shaky working class lifestyle for an overworked owner). Years ago, after decades of paying into private health insurance, one heart attack and they were dropped - and the pre-existing condition made the only option state run healthcare, which was...oh...$900 a month, so that didn't work out for long. They, like many who were previously uninsured now have a plan though Obama Care, if you will. So that's good, but still, the confusion and bureaucracy and BS and insane cost that goes into dealing with the money/insurance part of health care has been enough to make me want to punch a hole in 50 walls.
The Affordable Care Act (Obama Care) allowed a tiny kernel of light to come out of this massive shitstorm that is the American insurance system. I love that now we can't be denied for pre-existing conditions like my parent were. People can stay on their parent's insurance till they are 26 (I currently have a contract temp worker in my lab using this. She gets health insurance and can not worry too much while she has an entry level job with no health insurance - win-win). There are also 10 essential benefits all insurance must cover now. We didn't have that standard before and it includes thing like mental health and maternity and newborn care. Those are huge. Huuugge.
So, it's a start, but there's so much more to do. It still sucks, but if you were expecting Obama Care or any health care reform to wave its magic wand and make it all perfect, you can go back to your never-never world, because that's ridiculous. It's too complicated and too big, and there are too many opposing viewpoints about policy. Any sensible person should have known when Obama Care was passed that this was the beginning not the end. So, Lets. Keep. Going. If it gets gutted and then we have to wait another 2-40 years to get started reforming this garbage insurance situation again, I will lose my shit. I swear - I will lose my goddamn mind.
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| Hillary and her 'HillaryCare' in 1993ish |
She has deep experience in the state and federal level, and she has 35 years of health care legislation knowledge. So, for my parents and my niece right now and for all the people (including myself) who will have to deal with the insurance system in the future, Hillary is who I want in the White House - 100%.
2 Pant Suits
Okay, so let me lighten the mood for a minute. The pant suits ya'll! There is something absolutely delightful about how she has embraced the pant suit as a symbol. She has a full-on sense of humor about the pant suit, with its oh-so-terrifying lack of classic womanly charm and its terribly terrible femi-nazi stank - Hillary often makes jokes about them and her campaign offers the Everyday Pantsuit Tee.
I really do love how she soldiers on in good humor and bright businesswear. I mean, she has truly had enough scrutinizing about her clothing to create giant US-sized waves of visible shaking anger, but this bitch has class, and after many years of what I imagine has been clothing decision hell, she found a sensible, comfortable, might I even say cheery clothing style. She said, 'Fuck a skirt, bitches. Fuck a pantyhose. I got shit to do, and I will wear something profession and comfortable, hard to criticize, and rainbow beautiful! So gimme 'em all in every color!' And thus it was done, and the world was a better place...and she still got a lot of crap for her clothing, but maybe a little less.
3 She Listens
So, it sounds kinda silly, but Hillary Clinton, by all accounts, tends to listen to people. She goes on listening tours. She did it in Arkansas, and when she was first lady, and when she starts a campaign. Maybe it's a bunch of BS she's putting out there to show she cares or something, but maybe, just maybe, she actually tries to listen to people before she starts trying to legislate on behalf of them. I'm gonna bet it's more the latter than the former. From things said by her colleagues - the people who work for her, who've worked with her on causes, and from other legislators on both sides of the aisle - a fair amount of them do say she listens.
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| Hillary Listening Tour Monticello, Iowa April 14, 2015. Courtesy of HRC official FB page |
Again, I know it sounds kinda silly to say she listens, but it seems to be a big part of her character and leadership style. And, honestly, isn't this what people always talk about wanting a politician or any leader really to do? - actually listen so they work towards what needs to be worked towards instead of just what they think needs to be work towards? Listening doesn't mean she always takes people's words and uses them to to great things or anything, but to me, it means she is informed, or at least is making an effort to be informed. And I think it means there is a level of empathy she must have with problems of this nation - because you cannot hear so many sob stories and not have at least a bit of empathy. I truly believe that.
3 She Changes Her Mind
Okay - I don't think Hillary is all over the board on issues at all, but I do know that she gets called a flip-flopper, and I also know that I like that she flips and flops on certain things. Here's the deal, I have never ever understood the worries people have about flip-flopping politician. I mean, I guess, if you say one thing and then another a minute later and then back to the old thing another minute later with no explanation, then you're just being irrational, but that's never what people mean when they say Flip-Flop. It's always that someone had a position and over a period of time it changed. AS. IT. SHOULD. If a politician has not changed her mind on a topic in 10 years, then she's probably not doing her goddamn job. Things changes over time. Information about it gets better. Circumstances change.
I very much want my politicians to change their minds, and I very much do not want the public giving them shit about it. Anyway, I actually really appreciate that she changes opinions and is not (usually) afraid to say she has and why. Mad Respect for not being stagnant - and that goes to all the politicians out there who dare to Flip Flop.
4 Straight Up Hella Experience For The Job
This one is simple. She has a lot of experience from a variety of angles. She's seen the White House from the perspective of a First Lady and from the perspective of Secretary of State. She was US Senator for 8 years introducing 361 pieces of legislation. She's seen state politics as a quite active First Lady in a rural southern state. She was a junior lawyer on the impeachment inquiry staff during the Watergate scandal. She worked at the Yale Child Study Center and served as staff attorney for the Children's Defense Fund. She has also worked in a private Little Rock law Firm. She knows her shit, people - public, private, state, federal, executive, legislative and judiciary.
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| Hillary Clinton running for US Senate courtesy of Hillary For President official website |
5 She Knows Her Way Around Politics
Okay, so piggybacking from that whole experience element I just spoke of, let me just say I have no problem with her being a life-long politician. In fact, I find it a positive. I realize there are a lot of folks out there who cry and moan about about how terrible it is that politicians are so all up in politics, that they are too part of the political system, but jesus h. christ people, how do you think political work gets done?...by people new to politics creating change through the pure innocence of their hearts and righteous knowledge of how things should be?
I get that being in politics for a long time can create corruption, but, and hear me out, it can also creates people who know what they are doing and know how to get things moved through a messy and complicated system...and in the kind of gridlocked federal government we're seeing right now, I really like the idea of someone who knows how things work and how to maneuver.
Take for instance that Wikileaked part of a speech she gave to the National Multi-Housing Council in 2013 where she said you have to have a private and public position on policy. Seems bad, but when I read it, seemed to me she was speaking quite openly and pragmatically about how to Get. Shit. Done. The 'sausage-making' (this term she used is a slightly gross buzz-word used in my job quite a bit as well) of creating policy is messy and slightly distasteful, and people probably don't always want to see it in its full glory - she speaks about the way Lincoln did this sausage-making way back when he was getting the 13th amendment passed. Her point in the speech actually seemed quite sensible and rather accurate to me.
I mean, did politicians who would like to see gay marriage legalized in 1992 really say that aloud to the public back then? Probably not often because in most places it was still too controversial to get them elected, and if you are not elected, you can't do anything at all. You lose your chance to make progress because you wouldn't make the compromises you needed to make to get elected. If you are elected, though, maybe you can make a little progress and grease the wheels for better policy in the future.
Policy making is like activism, I think. Neither is always about what is the absolute right thing to do, but about what is both possible to do and also gets things closer to right...so yeah, it sounds icky, but it's also probably quite honest to say there needs to be both private and public policy in order to get things done. This, I believe is how pretty much all politicians work to some degree because it's necessary.
The question, I guess, is do you trust that the politician in question is generally doing those backroom maneuverings and making those compromises with generally good intentions and in a generally positive direction? This is an emotional question and calls for a little bit of faith, but I think there is a lot to be gleaned from looking at what has stayed consistent about a politician's work and what their long game seems to have been. For me, Hillary's seems to actually be about fixing big problems like health insurance and making the world a better, more inclusive place for the future generation.
6 She's Actually Largely Honest When She Speaks
So part of my faith in her comes from the simple fact that Hillary generally scores quite well on fact checking compared to other politicians. She seems to at least try to say things in an honest way. She seems to not be too overzealous in her assertions, and frankly, I can't find any of these huge terrible scandals that she supposedly has had that hold any water. I mean she gets into some shit here and there like most politicians, but nothing that makes me think she's a corrupt person with largely bad intentions.
Seriously. Here's Politifact, Here's her FactCheck.org file. Here's her Snopes File. Go for it. Read up on everything you want. There's just nothing that exciting there - and compared to all the intense crap she gets for how corrupt she is and for how much people dig into her stuff - you'd think there would be something truly glaring and terrible in there somewhere. I mean this lady even got emails Wikileaked that were about campaign strategy, private speeches and secret 'sausage-making' stuff like that, and there just wasn't really anything that bothersome. Seriously, go read through the parts of the speeches that were leaked - they were snippets that the campaign worried might look the worst out of all her paid speeches...and they just weren't that bad.
So, given all the accusations and searching, and the very little that has been legit dug up - I'd say it makes me think this lady is pretty clean.
7 She Is Clearly The Future
Okay - again, can I go back to the pant suits? Let's be honest. A lot of the time she goes a step further and is clearly dressing as though she were on a Utopian planet from an episode of Star Trek Next Generation. Obviously this is awesome, and I love it, but let's be even more honest. This is a very good thing for the world. How do you expect to go into a bright, Utopian future if we don't have a leader wearing the tradition garb of Utopian futures?
Something I didn't know about her till recently was that for her post graduate work she researched and authored a pretty important and fundamental paper about children's rights under the law. From her Wikipedia site,
"Her first scholarly article, 'Children Under the Law', was published in the Harvard Educational Review in late 1973. Discussing the new children's rights movement, it stated that "child citizens" were "powerless individuals" and argued that children should not be considered equally incompetent from birth to attaining legal age, but instead that courts should presume competence except when there is evidence otherwise, on a case-by-case basis. The article became frequently cited in the field."
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| HRC as First Lady of Arkansas |
As I said before she worked for the Children's Defense Fund and The Yale Child Study Center. She has a long history from Arkansas to the White House to the Senate of advocating for better childcare, child health care, foster care, and children's rights. It really is important to me to have a leader with an eye towards making life better for the nation's children. She is informed about these things, and she has a history of working to get better policy for children - so that's pretty much awesome if you ask me.
9 She Leans Toward Kind And Inclusive Policy
This is actually pretty big for me. Overall, I want to see marginalized people - people who are very poor, disabled, of minority races and religions, mentally disabled, immigrants, LGBTQ, etc. gain equal rights under the law and appropriate respect and opportunity in our culture. That is important to me. I have friend and family and co-workers who fall into some of these categories and who very much need policy to give them the protections they deserve.
I do believe from what she's done and worked on in her life that Hillary Clinton feels similar to me on this, but more important to me than her personal feelings is that she supports and represents a party with good policy intentions about these things because the president, in the end, is not all powerful, and they will be supporting their party line. Will all the things get done and in a timely manner? Probably not. Sadly, many of these are not an easy fights, but it's very important to me that I support a candidate for president representing a platform that at least says the rights of marginalized people, the rights of many of my friends and family, are important - because that is a movement in the right direction.
10 She Gets Shit Done
This is merely one situation here, but to me, it speaks volumes. Hillary Clinton, as First Lady, failed at getting healthcare reform passed. She was heavily criticized from all angles - the Republicans, of course, but also from Democrats and Industry. What did she do? She tried something else that would help people afford and access quality healthcare. She worked with a Republican and Democrat to get the SCHIP passed and extended health care to tons more American children, and she succeeded. I just think this piece of history exemplifies a lot of what excites me about a HRC presidency. To me it shows
- She is practical and goes about policy making in a way that does what needs to be done to move forward - even if it's not perfect or everything she hoped.
- She learns from her experiences/failures in policy making and does it better next time - and she has now had a lot of that experience.
- She works hard and keeps working and works across the aisle to get sensible things done.
- She has an agenda that she works toward and it seems to be things like - 'make healthcare better' not something like, 'gain ultimate power so you can become lord of America and fully reveal your true evil self'
- She done got that child betterment and healthcare policy experience in her back pocket, ya'll!
- She should have been wearing more pantsuits back then because she probably would have gotten that healthcare reform passed if she had
SSL Bonus:
I'm just gonna say it. Hillary Clinton has a clit, and this brings a perspective to the White House that we have not yet had. She, like most women, has certainly laid in bed after the ol' in-out where he came and she did not. She has certainly at some time in her life, probably much later than it should have been, realized where her clit was and that it was necessary to orgasms, and she probably thought how BS it was that she didn't already know that. She probably even has been confused at some time in her life about where her pee comes out (Does she have 3 holes down there? Does it come out of her clit? her vagina?). She has even likely worn that giganto mega maxipad to catch all the vaginal bleeding after giving birth. Thems right there, my friends, are perspectives that have not yet been in the mind of the US's highest leader, and in the name of cognitive and experiential diversity for creating better solutions - I think maybe it's time we had these very common, yet still unrepresented experiences play a role in our nation's highest office.
*See, you didn't think I could get the words clit, pee, or maxipad in a post about Hillary Clinton, did you? Well, guess what, I'm not as classy as you thought.