General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Trash-talking Hillary on this board makes me more likely to vote for Hillary. [View all]JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)I am a Bernie Sanders supporter.
I am opposed to Hillary as our candidate.
Why? I have a number of reasons. Some have to do with her personality, that is how she presents and comes across as a candidate. I don't think she is effective in many respects.
But setting that aside, because I can understand that sounds personal, here is one of the things that I and Elizabeth Warren criticize in her voting record: She voted for the 2005 revision of the Bankruptcy Law that affects individuals. One of the changes that law made was to make it so that virtually all, not just the federal government, but virtually all student debt cannot be discharged in bankruptcy.
That means that when students and their parents take on student debt and then can't make the payments, they can't go to a bankruptcy court and obtain forgiveness for their debt. They are indebted and only in certain unusual circumstances can obtain a release from their indebtedness.
Now, Donald Trump or any other businessman can form a corporation, run up the bills, or even buy an existing corporation and empty its bank accounts and then rush off to bankruptcy court and get some kind of relief perhaps total forgiveness for that debt.
Elizabeth Warren did not want that change in the Bankruptcy Law. Why did Hillary Clinton vote for it? It is extremely unfair to young people from families that cannot pay for their education out of pocket.
That's just one example of the poor judgment of Hillary Clinton, of her demonstration of more concern for the banks (who were at that time the primary lenders of the non-government student loans) than for graduates from our universities and colleges.
That's just one example of her many "mistakes," mistakes derived from skewed values.
I have one thing to say about that Bankruptcy revision. John Edwards, the man who told us about the Two Americas and who cared about economic justice more than any candidate prior to Sanders, also voted for it. Why they fell for the Republican pressure to pass it I do not know. But it was a huge mistake.
Those of us who criticize Hillary are not just being mean. It is about her judgment, the many mistakes she made in her relatively short career and questions about her ultimate electability -- that is whether her personality will really get her elected once voters meet her.