Some thoughts — and some more thoughts — on Hillary Clinton’s presidential run and the aftermath

I’m not a fan of Hillary Clinton. I voted for her because I couldn’t bear to see Trump in office. Which happened anyway. And now, she’s blaming the stupidity of racists, Nazis, the short-sighted, and misogynists, the perfidy of Russian hackers, and her own mediocre, underwhelming, pandering brand of BULLSHIT CENTRISM, for people being underwhelmed enough to support Bernie Sanders?

Uh-huh. Maybe that, too, is why you aren’t president, Hillary Clinton. Because you pander and are settling for being the lesser of two evils, rather than actually righteous and yeah, idealistic. I, for one, am sick of voting for “better than that other guy.” It’s never gotten people of color or minorities anywhere they need to be. Rarely, too, has the Democratic Party, in recent years. You aren’t Progressive and never were. You are, at best, a bland and spineless centrist who blows whichever way the wind does. You count on fear of “worse, I guess,” to score you votes, rather than standing for Progressive ideals.

And where are you now, Hillary Clinton? Speaking out? Helping out? Dedicating yourself to defending the country you supposedly love from the very real monsters taking it over in spite of your efforts? Are you working still to have the backs of those who supported and even believed in you?

No, you’re bitching in a tell-all book, playing the blame-game, and licking your wounds. Letting the country slide into Hell without lifting a finger, making your fat-cash speaking-engagement checks and collecting royalties, while the downtrodden wonder where you are. You took your little red ball and went home because not enough people liked you.

Boo-fucking-whoo.

I find your notable absence on the world stage deplorable and despicable. And I wish I hadn’t voted for you because I was too afraid of following my conscience where it really wanted to go.

I am a Democrat in name ONLY. Proudly so. They are, sadly, the closest viable party to what I really am: a Progressive. But now that voting for a not-as-bad guy still put the really-bad-guy in office, from now on, I’m not going to compromise my values and conscience. Is Hillary Clinton better than Trump? Yes. But so is a dirty diaper that’s been sitting in the summer sun. Better-than-Trump is not an achievement or a rallying cry. It is a baseline, at best, like: not-a-Nazi, or doesn’t-slaughter-the innocent. You don’t get or deserve kudos for not being a complete slime-bag, and just a half-assed one, instead.

Is Bernie Sanders idealistic to the point of unrealism? Probably. He demands better and actual GOOD of his country and it’s people. And that’s more than most politicians or people demand. And probably more than this country and it’s people are capable of giving. Especially if Hillary Clinton is the best a Progressive can hope for, and Trump is what the majority of the voters chose and deserve.

No shade on those who believed in or just settled for Clinton. If that’s what your fears demanded, like mine did, then you gotta do you. **EDIT: If you’re a true believer in the power of Clinton, and feel she’s YOUR CANDIDATE, then you gotta do you. Again: no shade.** But I won’t be giving in to the temptation to settle for an evil, no matter how lesser, ever again. I will not accept mediocre. Because I’m sick of settling when it nets me nothing but the same shit on different days. And usually far, far worse.

APOLOGY and REPLY/REDUX:

I’m glad you [commenter] had a candidate to vote for in the election that you felt good about and comfortable with, but I didn’t. And I am VERY salty about it. However, if I came across as patronizing because I don’t care for Clinton, then I apologize. And again, I say, that I think all conversations around the mess this country has stepped in are valid, whether we want to have them or not. Whether they seem to effect us or not. If people are voting for a lesser of two evils only for that reason — and they are . . . in disheartening numbers, they are — I want to know it and I want to know why. Because I have to live here, too, and when most of the country fucks up, I have to suffer with them. Whether the president is a waste-of-skin disaster, or merely a lame-duck, same-shit/different-day placeholder. So, I don’t trust when someone suggests shutting down a conversation that people feel the need to have. There are many conversations I’d rather not have, but I simply hold my piece and focus my attention where I want it to go or where I think it’ll do the most good. I don’t invalidate what others find worth talking about and venting on. I don’t agree with your candidate, but talking about why I don’t and who I prefer is not unimportant. That’s the sort of thing that’s integral to a functioning democracy. Everyone won’t ever agree on everything. But ignoring differences as opposed to hashing it out and understanding why, and expressing our discomfort and inability to trust a politician or what they claim to stand for is a RIGHT. A fundamental right. And it is IMPORTANT. I don’t understand why the importance of knowing where people stand and why they stand there is so easily dismissed. If you don’t know where your country stands and why, you can’t fix it or change it or make whatever policy/voting choices are necessary to keep it on track. Ignorance of opinion can be just as dangerous as ignorance of facts. I feel as if I’m in danger, not knowing what my country is going to do to me next. In direct danger. Not just because I’m eight different kinds of minority, either. Lack of knowledge is dangerous, period. And when shit goes wrong, ignorance doesn’t except one from the fallout.

Conversations need to be had. Until equality and fairness and empathy are automatic and evil is vanquished forever — I’m thinking at least a few weeks from now — conversations need to be had. MANY of them. Not everyone has to join in, if they don’t see the point or don’t wish to be embroiled. If they can afford not to speak or listen to certain conversations, that’s their lookout. Different conversations will always take higher precedence for different people. But wherever people disagree, conversation needs to happen. Not necessarily for compromise, but so everyone knows where everyone stands, and so as not to step on other people’s needs/rights/opinions (as long as they don’t infringe on those things, as well as the safety, of others).

I don’t claim to know your reasons or rationale, but if I was disrespectful of your right to have them, then yes, I apologize sincerely. I’m not asking you to change your opinions and I certainly haven’t changed mine. Not about Clinton. But please don’t tell me which conversations are “important” and which aren’t. Just as I don’t know your POV you don’t know mine. We probably have very different priorities in some ways. And it sucks mightily to have one’s truth belittled and dismissed.