UPDATE: This article was written and published in January of 2015. At the time, Hillary had not announced her candidacy and no other candidates had come forward, either. The writer intends to vote for Bernie Sanders in the primary elections, but notes that she will vote for Hillary should she secure the Democratic nomination.
Hillary Clinton has not announced any intention to run for President in 2016, but speculation and assumptions abound that say, of course, she’ll be the Democratic nominee. A website called “Ready for Hillary” sells t-shirt, hats, even cat collars with the website’s signature phrase. It seems many Democrats are encouraging her to run, and people who know me and my feminist leanings assume I’m thrilled by this and will be running straight to the polls to cast my vote for her.
The idea of Hillary being our next president, woman or no, just doesn’t feel good to me. To be honest, it’s rather insulting that people assume my identity as a woman and a feminist requires that I vote for a female candidate without regard for my personal beliefs and concerns. I vote with my conscience and I’m intelligent enough to analyze political ideology and determine when my ideas are not represented by a candidate, even if that candidate and I share a gender.
Come on, liberals, don’t you remember what it felt like to vote for President Obama in 2008? Remember how it felt as if we were bucking the establishment and finally, at long, long last, we were going to have a president that wasn’t a part of it? No career politicians for us, thanks. We were sick of them. We wanted new, fresh, and bold ideas. We wanted someone who understood the issues we faced, and Obama acknowledged those issues and offered innovative ideas.
I’m not hearing that from Hillary. I never did.
My biggest concern for our country going forward is income inequality. Progressive leaders and scholars, such as Robert Reich, note that the wealth gap is currently at rates similar to those around the time of the Great Depression.
That level of inequality, combined with legislation like Citizens United, means that 1% of our population holds more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans combined and have the ability to seriously affect votes and legislation. Considering that Hillary’s largest campaign contributors include Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs, it’s difficult to analyze how fully she would be able to address income inequality and to implement its only solution: raising taxes on the 1%. That’s one of the biggest problems with political dynasties like the Clintons. Eventually, you have to acknowledge that they are firmly ensconced as part of the establishment and subject to the same criticisms. They cannot be exempt as a result of their identities as Democrats, liberals, or females.
It’s also no secret that Hillary voted on issues during her tenure in the Senate in ways that contradict my own feminist beliefs. The biggest stain on the Bush administration occurred during Hillary’s time in Congress – we were led into a war on false pretenses that resulted in the torture of war prisoners and the unnecessary and inexcusable deaths of American troops and innocent Iraqi citizens. Feminism has long concurred that only a pacifist stance can be reconciled with our beliefs, as we are taught that a feminist ideology abhors oppression and violence and works to upend it. I can’t ignore the fact that Hillary Clinton, also, voted for that war. She gave permission for President Bush to send our troops there to die and to kill innocent people on a false pretense. If I detest the failures of Bush’s presidency, how do I not detest those for whom we voted who then signed off on those failures?
While Hilary is not her husband, it’s fairly clear that her ideas and policies align fairly similarly with his. There is also a dominant narrative that suggests that the accomplishments made by the Clinton administration should reflect on Hillary and encourage us to vote for her. I am proud to say that I voted for Bill Clinton, but that doesn’t erase the many criticisms of his presidency that stem from my own feminist beliefs, nor does it mean that I always consider the gains made during his presidency worth the losses feminism incurred. A balanced budget and a non-existent deficit does not cancel out Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, or the 1996 Welfare Reform Act, or bank deregulation. If I have to consider the good of the original Clinton administration as reflecting on the possibilities of the new one, don’t I also have to consider the bad in the same way? Also, imagine if someone else was?capable of making those same gains without forcing all of us to suffer the same losses. Do I have to sacrifice quite so many of my beliefs to see the gains for which I am so hopeful, simply to be able to say I cast my vote for a woman?
Don’t get me wrong. After the primaries, if the choice is between Hillary and a Republican nominee, I’ll gladly go and submit my ballot with her name checked. If I have to choose middle ground over the religious Right, the conservative view on women, and those who would be unwilling to work toward every single issue that’s important to me, I’ll gladly choose a centrist member of the establishment over a right-wing one. It would be, though, with resignation and reservations that I would do so, as it would be a “lesser of two evils” vote.
I’m waiting for a better option, a choice that makes me feel as if my biggest concerns and beliefs are represented. A vote for Hillary just doesn’t feel as if that would be the case.
