I’ve read a number of diaries endorsing Hillary or Bernie. Many of them, though very positive about their candidate, don’t do a good job of explaining reasons (not emotions) for endorsing their candidate. I decided that instead of criticizing those diaries for what they lack, I should write one of my own.
So here is why I have chosen to support Hillary Clinton -- I’ve picked 3 areas on which to focus that I care about greatly.
1) I’ll start with health coverage since that is my field — and health coverage specifically is one of my main areas of expertise.
I want to begin by saying that I wish both candidates had better plans for improvement of health coverage. However, given that they don’t, here are my thoughts on the proposals from both of them.
The ACA is not perfect but it is a good building block toward universal coverage. Hillary’s proposals are modest, but they are the next steps in that direction. They are, like so much of what she does, practical and possible. She’s criticized for that — people say she doesn’t have vision. I think her vision is very acute. She sees the political landscape for what it is and knows what she can do and doesn’t promise what she can’t do. I respect honesty of that kind. If we improve the ACA, we can use it as the vehicle to achieve coverage for everyone in the United States. All our public programs, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security started out with problems and were improved over the years. They still are not perfect but they’re much better than they were, and that’s what I want to see happen with the ACA. I view our best path to full coverage as expansion and improvement of the ACA.
I carefully read Bernie’s health care proposal expecting to be impressed since I’ve been a fan of single-payer health coverage for most of my life. Instead, I was disappointed by the lack of details about how the plan would work, other than a big statement about covering everyone for everything with no copays or cost sharing. As a public health professional, I was dismayed by the ignorance expressed in saying that this plan is like the ones in European countries. It is not like them. No European country makes promises of this kind of coverage. No country can afford to do what Sanders promises. No country, not even Denmark, has a health system that makes such coverage claims. I was also disappointed in the lack of information of how we get from here to there — no steps set out to do that, just Boom! Here it Is! like giving birth to a fully-formed and developed adult. His health plan seems hollow to someone like me who has fought for better U.S. health coverage for decades.
2) She is a passionate leader on issues of women’s rights, not just voting the right way but advocating for women’s equality and reproductive rights in every setting she’s been in. Given her history of both domestic and global advocacy for women, I know she will keep pressing for protection of women in the U.S. against the inroads made by right wing ideologues who want to control women’s bodies, deny them access not only to abortion services but also to contraceptive services and even to basic health services. She is the only one (not the moderators, not the other candidates) who has brought up these issues during the debates. She has spoken to the necessity of getting rid of the Hyde Amendment so that all women can have access to abortion services when needed. Women’s rights have been one of the main issues of her career — this is not just a policy position of Hillary’s, but is one of her major and lifelong priorities. It’s no accident that both Planned Parenthood and NARAL endorsed her.
She is also a passionate defender of children and has been since she was in her 20’s when she worked at the Children’s Defense Fund (where I worked for 16 years). Her work helped change the education landscape for disabled children. As the mother of a severely disabled child, I thank her for what her efforts did for my son and our family. I really cannot imagine how we would have managed if our son’s disability had occurred before the IDEA was passed. And the IDEA came about because of the work she and others did finding the children who were being kept out of school because the school systems had no interest in education children with disabilities.
While I didn’t know her personally (I started working at the Children’s Defense Fund after Bill Clinton’s election), she was greatly liked and respected for her dedication to protecting children by my colleagues who worked with her and knew her for decades. That’s a high high recommendation from people who do not give praise easily.
3) Foreign policy and strength of character. The event that finally decided me on whom to endorse was the Benghazi hearing. I had been going back and forth between Hillary and Bernie before that. But as I watched her take on the Republicans, listened to answers that demonstrated a voluminous knowledge of foreign affairs, I was convinced that by background, experience, knowledge, smarts and personal toughness she could handle both foreign affairs and the Republicans. My view was reinforced by her answers in the debates in which she displayed her in-depth understanding of what is happening in just about any country she was asked about. I have listened carefully to what she has said and disagree strongly with people calling her a warmonger. Her views on what needs to be done are quite the opposite of warmongering, and her skills in diplomacy makes it less likely we will engage in military interventions. I am very concerned with the lack of interest in or understanding of foreign policy by Bernie Sanders. Given his responses in the debates, that is a big area of weakness for him. (and no, I don’t view his one vote against the AUMF in 2002 as proof of great foreign policy judgment).
Of course, there are many issues other than the three I have described.
If my husband were here, he would write way too long a piece about gun control alone, his support of Hillary’s policies and his strong disagreement with Sanders’ voting record. But while I agree with him, it’s not my main issue, so maybe I’ll suggest he write something himself about that in the future.
Hillary has also made a number of excellent and caring proposals beyond the three I describe above, including increasing research into the scourge of Alzheimer’s disease, better help for persons with autism and their families, debt-free college for students and refinancing of current student loan debt, help for families caring for disabled or chronically ill family members, improving infrastructure, increasing renewable energy resources in all parts of American life and helping the people living in coal country retool for an economy no longer based on fossil fuels.
My support for Hillary is reasoned and researched. If I didn’t like her positions, I wouldn’t support her. However, not only do I like her policies, I’m also excited and proud to support such a strong and capable woman for the highest position in our country. I’m tired of the “don’t vote with your vagina” meme — it’s horribly insulting to women. I have never voted for a candidate because she’s a woman. But the fact that my candidate, a woman, can take on and beat the Republican men attacking her (and she utterly destroyed them during her 11 hour ordeal) makes me laugh and feel good whenever I think about it. So while my political support for Hillary comes from my head, my enthusiasm and excitement are definitely from the heart.