This is going to disappoint some of my friends, and maybe that’s why I’ve been quiet about this until now.
Also, who cares what I think?
But here is what I think: Hillary Clinton for President.
I think Sen. Bernie Sanders has been an inspiring, provocative, necessary, and admirable public servant for decades.
I respect the personal moral and practical math that has led each of his supporters to turn out for him. And I’m grateful to and a little in awe of the movement for keeping issues I care about at the center of this race.
But I have done my own moral and practical math, and I have decided that I would really, actively like to see a Hillary Clinton presidency.
I have grown up with her in my political life. There have been times I have supported her and not supported her. I appreciate that she has made big mistakes, both in office and while seeking it.
And she has made enormous, at times disheartening compromises and changed positions. But I don’t think she has done worse than anyone who seriously wishes to win office in our present system.
There is no question that she is personally ambitious, though she is one of the few candidates who is ever blamed for it.
The question is, what is her ambition? To make money? Impossible. She’s doing fine. To get power? She’s had it. To get ALL the power, because she is power mad? That’s a creepy conspiracy theory that doesn’t ring true to me.
I think her ambition is, and has long been, to be the President of the United States, like everyone else in the race, and also to make policy.
I think it’s reasonable to say based on her career that she likes making policy.
Moreover, I think she wants to make the best policy possible in an antagonistic-by-design political process that she has known and wrestled with for decades, and keep that policy in place.
Moreover, I think she wants to make policy that I largely agree with.
And I think she can do it.
No one can succeed 100% of the time in our system. But I think she can foster policies that will capitalize on the initial gains made by President Obama, whom I supported and still do, and surely, if slowly, move our nation closer to the ideals that I embrace.
Will it be fast? No. But there is a lot to do to shift the the nation’s policies back after the slow, economically rightward/socially intolerant swing that began with Ronald Reagan and peaked with the reelection of George W. Bush in 2004.
(A swing, by the way, that was patiently planned, deliberately funded, and slow by design. Major change is ALWAYS incremental. Unless you want to have a REAL revolution, with shooting and stuff. You might. I do not.)
Just because the social and economic right wing are in flailing, comic disarray at the moment, it doesn’t mean they are not a force. Or that conservative voters are not still our friends, family, neighbors, and fellow citizens.
I don’t think this is a time to laugh at the Republican party.
I think it is a moment to consolidate and continue our gains, enact new progressive policies; let existing progressive policies mature in place; offer independent and new voters the allure of continuity, professionalism, and effectiveness; and gradually regain the congress.
(This makes me sound pretty conservative for a liberal! And maybe that’s just who I am now in my 45th year as a human)
I will certainly vote for and work for Sen. Sanders should he gain the nomination.
But today I am voting for Hillary Clinton.
Yes, she has wanted this job for a long time. There is no crime in that. It’s in the constitution! I think she’s earned it. And while I cannot predict the future, I am curious and eager to see what she does once she gets it.
So that’s what I think.
I trust you think differently. We are different humans.
I don’t wish to discuss this online, but if you see me on the street, I’d be happy to talk to you about it.
In any case, please vote, and
thank you for your attention, and
That is all.
When I moved to New York City 16 years ago I am pretty sure that on some level I believed if I went far enough above 14th Street with money I did not have, I'd reenter some gauzy version of New York from the past, you know, stuffy restaurants with tufted leather banquettes, paintings in gilded frames, black and white tiled floors and stories about when Sinatra was a regular. Places where mutton chops, Lobster Newburg, Baked Alaska and things in champagne cream sauce never went off the menu. It's not entirely clear to me why I thought I was moving to 1950 but needless to say, in the actual New York City I moved to, my first years were filled with the typical stuff, a walkup apartment in an illegal sublet, a terrible job, a lot of wine, virtually no hangovers (because: youth) and a lot of five-dumplings-for-a-dollar and $1.50 slices at 1 a.m.
I still love those old-fashioned places, though, and I have yet to find peach melba on a menu. It's too bad; I realize it sounds dreadful, like something an ancient aunt named Melba would eat or worse, something someone snuck melba toast into (fair enough, as they're named after the same person), thinking we wouldn't notice, but as it's in fact a scoop of vanilla ice cream, a poached peach half and a cascade of tart raspberry sauce, it's probably the most August dessert, ever. Escoffier created the dessert in 1892 for a dinner party to honor the opera singer Nellie Melba, who was performing in Covent Garden. Wikipedia says that an ice sculpture of a swan, which had been featured in the opera, carried peaches that rested on a bowl of vanilla ice cream topped with spun sugar but was later replaced with raspberry purée.
