Disclaimer: I’m no longer going to refer to this as a safe space or safe haven, as I don’t think those are necessary anymore. Instead, I’ll refer to it as an appreciation thread. I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be doing these on the weekends, but I’ll give you a head’s up before I do. Once I’m done, I would love to continue contributing diaries as part of the DailyKos online Hillary Clinton community.
So what’s new? Hillary Clinton is going to be the Democratic nominee, that’s what! That’s been true a long time, but April 19 and April 26 sealed the deal as much as they could without giving her an outright majority in pledged delegates. Since then, there’s been a definite shift in the way the media have covered Hillary Clinton, with the focus being on her versus Trump. So far, Trump isn’t doing so well. In fact, he seemed to have handed the Clinton campaign a gift with his “woman card” line, which the campaign has responded to brilliantly, with the above and the examples below:
While insiders might believe that Hillary Clinton will crush Donald Trump in November, expect to hear 5,000 versions of “OMG, it’s getting really close! Hillary is underperforming! Donald is winning over black voters and Latinos!” between now and then.
Speaking of the “woman card,” Nancy LaTourneau at Washington Monthly argues against one of the greatest criticisms of Hillary Clinton, that she would be a hawk on foreign policy because she feels the need to be tough as a woman:
I am not highlighting any of this in order to completely dismiss the concerns people have about Clinton’s view on the role of the military. But to focus only on that is to build a caricature of a very complex woman. If she is elected president, we have no way of knowing what kind of foreign crises she might face. What we can know is that she will focus much of her work on engaging women both here at home and abroad in the process of forging peace and ensuring security. That has been her commitment since she said this back in 1995 at the World Conference on Women:
If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights once and for all. As long as discrimination and inequities remain so commonplace everywhere in the world, as long as girls and women are valued less, fed less, fed last, overworked, underpaid, not schooled, subjected to violence in and outside their homes—the potential of the human family to create a peaceful, prosperous world will not be realized.
While how Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy will treat women will have a lot of focus, she is also seeking to help women here in the most desperate circumstances:
If you’ve missed them, check out Lysis’s News & Views series (which may have an edition today), the Hillary Writers Circle, the afternoon Hillary Hangouts, and the evening #ImWithHer threads. Also, see a couple of new diaries that have not been showcased below:
DarthAnakin: Governor Earl Ray Tomblin (D-WV) Endorses Hillary Clinton for President
topdo08: If Brown or Warren resign to run as VP the special election for Senate could be 11/8
There are still too many pretty awful anti-Hillary diaries floating around, but they seem to (finally!) be on the wane. I’ve been tempted to make a list of the most ridiculous, but I didn’t want to bring the negativity in here.
In addition to making the standard call to contribute to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, I’d like to request that people consider contributing to Hillary HQ, the blog run by Scan and Lysis that has brought us so much important information, and served as an online haven for so many months.
This is your open thread.