After having a good, active day today, I heat up a lentil and vegetable soup and have a couple beers. I browse my news feed to find Bernie Sanders giving a speech in Washington D.C. as well as the white house.
As of today, 10/June/2016, Sydney time, Hilary Clinton is the presumptive party nominee. And President Obama, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and Vice President Joe Biden have endorsed her. Naturally this leaves a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth.
I am an unabashed Bernie Sanders supporter. Every issue his campaign is built on is my opinion on the issue. He is a candidate for the optimist. In his speech he reflected on his historical campaign. His campaign was the largest ever funded by single donations. It was paid for by the people, not the million or billion dollar companies.
Bernie Sander’s platform is built entirely to help out the average little guy–on the fundamental problems that hurt the common man from getting ahead. Growing up we often lived paycheck to paycheck, without healthcare for long stretches of time.
Now save for a morbid turn of events, the only way Bernie Sanders will become President is by the grace of persuading super delegates to change their votes to him instead of Clinton
Naturally I think they definitely should vote for him. I truly believe he is what will be best for the country going forward. Maybe they’ll see that–however unlikely.
I will vote for Hilary Clinton if it comes to that. For me she inspires no great cause. No major quest than the quenching of a madman out for his ego apposing her.
*Above was a draft that never made it to post–it remains as it was then. I’ll finish it with an update below.*
It’s now February and this is long been resolved…to a degree. The madman got his ego stroked to the highest office of my nation. I did what I could. I voted for Hilary Clinton from the other side of the world. And a democratic congressmen and senator. Unfortunately only my senator was elected. We got clobbered. But it doesn’t end here.
After the devastation, the resolve mustered. As Bill Maher has said ‘We are still here.’ The revolution Bernie started is going forward, full steam ahead. It’s been heartening to see protests and marches in response to this regression. It seems like liberals and progressives finally have a Tea Party. Hopefully this fervor has longevity.
I was never a Hilary supporter. To a much lesser degree, I was in line of the general criticisms of her. Besides that email scandal–that was just a ridiculous distraction that didn’t amount to anything. We expected her to perform perfectly and she pretty much did. Her opponent was, for some reason, allowed to stumble in like a buffoon and people rewarded him for it.
I still stand by my support for Bernie Sanders but Hilary Clinton deserved better from us. I think she would have made an alright president, at the least. She could have been pulled to the left more. More reasonable, more stable, less, if any, embarrassment. It would have been a much better situation than what is happening now. I have empathized with her and it must have been truly difficult for what she had to do. If anyone can go through such opposition and criticism and keep their sanity I admire them for that.
I don’t think by any stretch she deserved the amount of hate she got but that’s how it went. I’m intrigued by politics and her enough to want to read her biography eventually. I’m sure I’ll have a much better understanding at that point. I hope she doesn’t run again, just because I don’t see her winning a race pretty much ever. But I thank her for what she’s done, wish her well and hope she finds some peace from the chaos she’d had to endure.
Joshua Calkins 