Clinton is the candidate who can do the job best...... [View all]

[Historic NY]

As we consider the best candidate for president in the upcoming election cycle, the question seems simple: Who can best do the job? Not so simple is to understand what the “job” is.

In recent years, in terms of solving our most pressing problems, our country seems to be in political gridlock. You name it: immigration reform; election campaign financing; renewal of our roads, bridges and other infrastructure; climate change; financial industry reform; keeping assault rifles out of the hands of homegrown terrorists who would murder our schoolchildren; and, more recently, eliminating ISIS. Political gridlock has turned our country into a stumbling giant, unable to deal with these problems, or even to get out of its own way.

So, the” job” is: Leading us toward effective, cooperative and long-overdue solutions to these problems. We simply can’t afford more mindless inaction, or useless blustering, about them.

Are any of the Republican hopefuls up to the job? Their rhetoric seems to fit the description offered long ago by H.L. Mencken, an acute American political observer: “There is always a well-known solution to every human problem – neat, plausible and wrong.” They seem to be scrambling to outdo their current frontrunner in offering “simple” solutions, that are becoming more and more outrageous and divisive.

What of the Democrats? Any one of them would do better getting the job done than any of the GOP contenders. So the question becomes, which Democrat would do it best?

In politics, “best” isn’t necessarily “perfect” – nobody should expect perfection in a presidential candidate. But what we can and should expect is a proven record of confronting difficult issues, in a way that reflects the reality of our two-party political system. When our system works well, it operates on the principle of cooperation and compromise. Reasonable people can disagree on issues, yet succeed in reaching solutions through respectful engagement and discussion.

Hillary Clinton has proven she has that capability: a progressive candidate who has a history of accomplishments in every role she has assumed, whether as first lady, senator or secretary of state. In supporting her candidacy, we support a candidate who is determined to bridge the gap between parties and work for all Americans, not just the wealthy and well-connected.

While everybody may not agree with her on every issue, it is undeniable that she has demonstrated a mastery of a broad range of issues that currently confront our country. Her performance during the Democratic candidates’ debates, and during her 11 hours as a witness in the feckless Benghazi hearing make that clear. She will need no on-the-job training to understand what needs to be done in addressing problems presented by Russia, China and ISIS.

Hillary Clinton understands that we currently have a broken political system, where the wealthy and well-connected exert outsized influence on public policy. To restore the public’s trust in our democratic process, she has called for aggressive campaign finance reform to restore the voice of the common person in our political system. She has promised to do everything possible to overturn the Citizens United court decision, which has allowed the mighty to hide behind their money. She has proposed a small-donation matching system for presidential candidates, to promote small donor participation in elections and to allow more people’s voices to be heard.

She has presented clear and doable proposals to deal with other persistent problems confronting our country: immigration reform, renewal of our infrastructure, climate change, financial industry reform, and sensible, effective background checks on would-be firearms buyers.

Hillary Clinton’s election will help move our country forward both domestically and internationally. She is the one who can do the job best.

(Martin Gross is a Concord lawyer, a former Concord mayor and a longtime Democratic activist.)

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