Truly Outrageous

I voted for Hillary Clinton in California’s primary on Tuesday.

Why? Not because I want to draw a line in the sand, not because I want to make Obama into some sort of devil. It’s easy to overlook the deeply personal reasons we choose to support one candidate or the other for president, but I’ll put mine out there. I want a woman in the White House — now, not later. And for that, I am willing to take a lot of shit.

I’m not willing, though, to turn on folks who think differently, who are maybe a little less (more?) cynical than me in reference to policy decisions or political machinery.

For instance, when Sylvia writes:

There are problematic aspects with both Clinton and Obama on foreign policy issues, on health care issues, on fostering unity within the United States, and on creating a content and productive country over the next four years.

But you know what? Those are the stakes involved, not Hillary’s vagina or Obama’s brown skin. (Or his middle name, for that matter.)

To the contrary; I see exactly where she’s coming from. If I didn’t believe that Clinton could do the job — if I didn’t have some strong reasons, personal experience being one of them, to think that some of her more loathsome decisions are in fact what’s enabled her to get this far, and that anything less would mean she would not be a plausible Democratic candidate today — I would say the same thing.

Here’s my problem. I’ve cast my vote, but I’m not going to start spewing faulty logic like one minority’s time has come and it should come before another’s. But let’s take a deep breath before we start comparing Clinton — whatever her networks are — with Dick Cheney and his paranoia. Both of those divisive editorials were published in the same newspaper and have gotten plenty of attention. Is this really the level of discourse we’re working with?

What are we gaining here? Why was that last, ‘cordial’ debate between Clinton and Obama seen as such a snore? I will never argue for a lack of disagreement or accountability, but here’s something exciting. People who do not vote, or who are voting for the first time, people who are switching their party to Democrat to vote for one candidate or the other (I saw a woman switch from Libertarian at my polling place!) — they’re excited. They’re motivated. Let’s not lose these folks before November.

Please, continue to point out the differences, continue to discuss your motivations one way or the other, but don’t tell me that if your candidate isn’t top billing on the ticket you won’t vote at all. My question for you: how do we have this discussion in a way that really builds what we want our next president to accomplish? (If you’re already having that discussion, and I’m missing it, please let me know.)