General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The inevitable Hillary will lead to President Rand Paul. [View all]DemocraticWing
(1,290 posts)We're Democrats, and we can nominate plenty of great candidates who hold our values. Those values are a government that looks out for average people instead of the 1%, and that includes programs that the Clintons have fought to preserve and expand like Social Security, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act. Those values include reforms that the Clintons have fought to implement like raising the minimum wage, reforming the tax system to make the rich pay their fair share, and strong support for the rights of workers and organized labor.
Hillary Clinton is an experienced public servant that has served for 8 years in the Senate, 4 years as Secretary of State, and as an extraordinarily active First Lady to the most popular Democratic President since JFK. Hillary is pro-choice and will fight to stop the GOP's War on Women, Hillary is pro marriage equality and will fight for the rights of LGBT Americans, and Hillary supports compassionate and comprehensive immigration reform that will bring millions of people out of the shadows.
Rand Paul wants to take away the rights of black voters, thinks the Civil Rights Act was a bad idea, wants to amend the constitution to strip human rights from gay people, and wants to use every tool of the federal government to squeeze the poor and make the rich even richer. With Hillary we have the chance to elect the first female President, while Rand Paul is opposed to every policy decision that would ever help women, and indeed wants to enshrine anti-choice policy in the constitution.
Personally I'd rather vote for Sanders or Warren or perhaps another Democrat. I don't think Hillary is perfect, and the beauty of our party's primary option is that I get to voice my opinion and advocate for the candidate of my choice. But I also have to face reality that Hillary Clinton is polling at much higher numbers than she was 8 years ago, actually has much of the Obama coalition on her side this time, and much of the (non-DU) Democratic base thinks it's her turn to be President. She appeals to nearly all sectors of the Democratic electorate, and is one of the most formidable candidates among moderates in recent memory.
While she's not my first choice, if our Party chooses to nominate her for President in 2016, I will vote for her enthusiastically in the general election. Now hopefully we can stop bickering about a future election cycle in which nobody is actively running yet, and actually get down to business and elect Democrats to local, state, and Congressional offices in THIS YEAR's vital elections.