May I please join your group....

[calimary]

17. Welcome! But you really don't have to ask. Come on in!

Here at least we get a little relief from the constant dumping and criticizing and sniping that seems to erupt here - the minute one invokes the "H" word. I even got pissed off and yelled about it in one of the threads a few days ago! I won't take any credit for it, but the next day, DUer cali started a thread recommending that everyone in the Bernie Sanders camp here be nice and let us enjoy Hillary's launching speech the following day, and not pee in our pickle barrel, out of respect. I thought that was REALLY cool and VERY considerate! And I eagerly note that they almost totally complied. I appreciated that A LOT - from cali, and also from everybody else who cooperated.

But man, aside from that, you say one thing positive about Hillary Clinton and they POUNCE! Here comes the instant avalanche of criticism and barbs and snark and she's this and she's that and she's horrible and she sucks and she's a hypocrite and she's owned by Wall Street and she wants war and all this shit. Which I do NOT care to hear, and I do not agree with. Just dumping, dumping, and more dumping! I certainly don't dump on anybody about Bernie Sanders. I like too much about what he says. The ONLY critical thing I've had to say about him is a post only just today, expressing my concern about his stand on guns. One person tells me he supports liberal access to guns because Vermonters like hunting, and has voted against restrictions on gun ownership and so on, while another person tells me he doesn't vote that way at all. I don't know what's true and I'll have to go research that further. But for me, that's a HUGE problem, because it would be difficult for me to support someone who doesn't see a need to rein in the wanton access to any damn gun somebody feels like having or prancing around with, menacing and bullying people in public!

I've already said MANY times that if Bernie Sanders beats Hillary Clinton to the nomination, I will be MORE THAN HAPPY to vote for him, actively support him, and work for him. Eagerly! I'm also very sorry to say I don't hear much of that, at all, from the Bernie camp - about returning that favor if she prevails over him. The best I find in those cases is among the "well, I guess I'll go ahead and vote for her but don't expect me to help" or "I'll have to hold my nose and vote for her..." quips. And some still insist they'll not vote, period. GREAT. One more default vote for the bad guys then. NO flexibility or give-and-take or compromise. Sorry to vent but it really troubles me, and irks me. I'm sick of the nonstop fault-finding and Hillary-bashing. And I'm old enough to remember how it went in 1968 - with Hubert Humphrey versus Gene McCarthy for the Democratic nomination - and the Gene McCarthy people refused to budge and refused to compromise and refused to unite behind ONE candidate for that November, and what was the result? PRESIDENT RICHARD FUCKING NIXON. And I fear that with such rigid refusal being manifested again from some of our fellow Dems - we're doomed to repeat that horrible scenario next year and get a fucking republi-CON in the White House. And then we're REALLY screwed.

With women's issues getting either ignored completely or focused on by CONservative pirates and bedroom busybodies, in an effort to drag us back to the Dark Ages (preferably by our hair a la duggars-style), I think it's rather urgent that a woman be put in charge, for a change. THAT mindset. THAT perspective. THAT understanding. Our right to choose is on the ropes and nobody seems to care much about that anymore. To me, it's an absolute, and a non-negotiable. It's first on my list with ANY candidate. I watch the LGBT community making marvelous and long-delayed gains. And I envy that, because for women, it's the opposite. We're losing ground, state by state. It feels as though we're the forgotten (or maybe even abandoned) cause.

Hillary is NOT perfect. But she's my choice, too. I heard her speech yesterday and started getting all teary-eyed. Because I'm 62 this year, and I have been waiting a LIFETIME to be able to vote for a woman for President. And only with her arrival on the political scene have I found ANY woman, at or near that level, to be as capable and well-qualified - and brilliant, AND flexible as she is. Who else do you know, who's female and THIS experienced and THIS involved, who's paid this many dues, who brings THIS MUCH to the table? What other woman politician is there like that?

YES, I'll repeat - I like Bernie Sanders too. But SHEESH! And I have to be careful now because it's really begun to piss me off, what just rains down like a monsoon from some of his most ardent followers here. It's actually made me consider leaving DU for awhile - that's how bad it's gotten. OR, maybe I should be fair and say that's how bad it seems to have gotten - at least TO ME personally. And I know I really shouldn't be taking it personally like that. So for that, let me apologize.