Political pundits in this campaign have criticized Hillary Clinton for not having a simple “message,” for not generating sufficient voter enthusiasm. If you did not get a chance to watch her victory speech in South Carolina (and it would not surprise me if many Daily Kos subscribers skipped it), it is worth taking 15 minutes to listen to her.
https://youtu.be/ZoI-XVoUqp0
She talks about we don’t need to make America great AGAIN, as one candidate postulates. America CONTINUES to be a great country, but needs to pull together to make things better. We don’t need to build walls, Clinton argues, we need to pull down barriers. We need respect for each other, and love, and kindness if we want to make a real difference. (Contrast that with the Republican candidates.)
In her speech she touched on many current issues: the need to police Wall Street and address income inequality; officials in Flint, MI who poisoned their own people just to save a few bucks, but how Americans from many walks of life have come together to provide support for the citizens of Flint; the mothers of slain young people who did not turn to bitterness and despair but instead, with a resistance to adversity that inspires us, have made it their cause to make this a better world. Clinton quoted the famous words from First Corinthians 13: Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Many of the voters in this year’s election will never be heard from, and their enthusiasm will never be seen or credited. Whenever I have heard Hillary Clinton speak, I find myself thinking at the end, “I agree with the things you said. I believe in the same things.” She has made mistakes in judgment in her long career, but I believe her instincts and motives are always good, that she wants make our country a better place for all people. I do not feel at all conflicted about supporting her for president over anyone the right wing will offer us.