Why I'm with Her

In my last post before the election I would like to write about why I will be extremely proud to cast my vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton to be the 45th President of the United States. I have been a supporter of Secretary Clinton's since long before Donald Trump became the GOP nominee. I donated to her campaign during the Democratic primaries and voted to make her the nominee over Senator Bernie Sanders. If she wins the election on Tuesday it will be to the great good fortune of our nation and its people.

Though I understand the qualms of many of my friends on the left about Clinton, I cannot share them. Yes, she is a friend of corporate interests and Wall Street. But we have a political system that requires the building of broad coalitions across complex regional, social, and economic boundaries, thus it is not possible to completely eliminate the influence of corporate or financial interests in the negotiation of policy. For all her amity to corporate elites, Clinton has a proven track record of fighting for the interests of vulnerable groups: minorities, children, the working poor. She wants to make the system work more inclusively and has shown that she can do the hard political work necessary to achieve progressive change.

As for the caricature of Clinton as a uniquely corrupt malefactor, that is totally and obviously false. Clinton has lived in the public spotlight for three decades, she has been very transparent about her political and business dealings. If she had done one hundredth of what she is accused of, there would be overwhelming and irrefutable evidence to make Trump's "Access Hollywood" tape look like an "Our Gang" episode.

Hillary Clinton is committed to and shows obvious concern for issues that will be of vital importance in the near term. She will fight to arrest the course of climate change. She will make expanding economic opportunity a priority. Her record of past success during her time as First Lady and in the Senate holds out hope that she will make headway on these issues despite strong political headwinds.

The area that drew my support to Secretary Clinton early on was foreign policy. As Secretary of State, she was instrumental in the execution of policies that were most effective during the Obama administration: renewing diplomatic relations with Myanmar and Cuba, negotiating a halt to the Iran nuclear program. In the continuing crisis in Afghanistan and the Middle East, Clinton has been a voice in favor of a hard-nosed pragmatism that will be needed in the years ahead. Her support for "no-fly zones" in Syria exemplifies the kind of course-correction needed to help the US deal more effectively with the threat posed by groups like ISIS, Al Qaeda, and Boko Haram.

Hillary Clinton is knowledgeable, intelligent, and has demonstrated an almost inexhaustible reserve of political endurance. It is difficult to imagine any candidate that could have conducted this campaign as doggedly or strategically as she has done against the unique challenge posed by Donald Trump. I have every confidence in her leadership, and will be very pleased to have the opportunity to cast my vote for her on November 8th.