I’m With…Sigh…Her (Hillary Clinton), I Guess.

jamin | May 5, 2016 | 0 Comments

Hillary Clinton is, as of right now, basically the Democrats’ nominee for President barring any scandal or royal eff-up in the next month or so. Bernie Sanders would need to win 100% of the next states’ primaries in order to be the nomi…actually, even if he won them all, he still wouldn’t have enough delegates to clinch the nomination. Hillary leads with pledged delegates and committed superdelegates.

Bernie’s fuzzy math supporters will tell you that he’s actually winning, that Hillary is a weak candidate, not qualified, never been fully vetted (despite being a First Lady and supporting her husband’s run for President, running for President twice, being a [mostly] two-term Senator, and being a Secretary of State), and Satan reincarnate. His sensible supporters have already said they are voting for Hillary in the general since they love America enough to not see Trump as President.

I used to like Bernie Sanders as an Independent Senator from Vermont. I do not like Bernie Sanders as a U.S. Presidential candidate who has trouble conveying his message to a broad audience and some of the most viciously rabid and condescending supporters I’ve ever seen anywhere. I do not like when Bernie Sanders bashes President Obama when the topic is about something else, or how he is bashing and suing the Democratic National Committee for things like access to Democratic voter information (that he shouldn’t have as he isn’t a Democrat, but just running for the nomination) and accusing them of misappropriating money to Hillary from state-level candidates, which he promised to raise money for but hasn’t done a thing for them. Finally, some of his supporters are harassing and even threatening Democratic superdelegates after bashing the party for the superdelegate process and saying they are working to convince them to support Sanders. Support the man who bashed my group, said I was a fraud for being a superdelegate, sued my group, and now wants my support just so he can win after wreaking so much havoc?

Bernie is a “no” for me.

Thus, I’m left with Hillary Clinton since Joe Biden didn’t run (I’m still sad over it) and I give no country to Martin O’Malley. (He used to be my mayor and didn’t improve my city whatsoever. No way was I going to endorse him running my country.)

So, what does Hillary offer me? Words. She offers me words that her term will be like President Obama’s third term and expanding on his progress. Will that bear out in practice? I don’t know. These people say whatever to get in then wing it when they’re in. For the most part, Obama kept his promises. Will Hillary keep hers? I honestly can’t say as she’s never been President. As Secretary of State everything she did was with Obama’s permission and oversight. As Senator, I think she got the same amount of bills passed as Bernie Sanders and New York liked her enough to have her get reelected. Democrats liked her enough to have her keep then-Senator Obama on his toes until the convention when she conceded defeat admirably. (Bernie waffles between supporting Hillary if she’s the nominee and saying that she must do things his way to win his support. Sigh.) I like that she’s a government and policy nerd.

What don’t I like about Hillary? She doesn’t come off as warm, but I hear that she is in person. She doesn’t excite me the way Barack Obama did. She reminds me that in normal elections, you often vote for someone you like enough over the other person. I have to rationalize and make myself mentally “okay” to vote for her. I don’t like her 1994 Crime Bill support, but she was supporting her husband, so I can see why she said and did what she did. I don’t like how she lied about almost being shot down in the Balkans. I don’t like how much she is pandering for the black vote. Like, YOU ALREADY GOT IT. STAHP. I don’t like how she won’t sit her husband down and make him shut up because he says something stupid that makes her look bad when he’s confronted about his record.

I don’t like that she still might muck this up before November and have America fall regretfully in love with Donald Trump by direct voting or indirect General Election abstention. At least most Independents like her right now. That’s hopeful.

I could use more hope right now. A Trump presidency is horrifying for me. He stands against everything I am and everything I support, and he’ll be the perfect pawn in the GOP’s Congressional game to get everything they want to send America back into the dark ages and kick off World War III because everyone else will be finally fed up enough with our mess to do something about it.

Thus, with a wan face and a shaky hand, I throw in my support for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Presidential Election. May God bless her with the General Election win, the Oval Office, and a good job with both.