aNewDomain
— Hillary Clinton’s coronation at the Democratic national convention is looking more and more likely.
It isn’t a foregone conclusion, though. The superdelegates won’t vote until July, and neither she nor Bernie Sanders will arrive in Cleveland with the requisite number of pledged delegates to clinch the nomination, so there is still the possibility that the party bosses will internalize the polls that show she’s weaker than him against Trump and push the superdelegates to support the populist senator from Vermont.
That move would make a ton of sense. But sense is in short supply in American politics, especially this year.
Which is why I’m preparing for the worst: Hillary versus Trump.
Any way you look at it, it is one hell of a choice.
The more I delve into Donald Trump and his past (I’ve been researching the Trump biography I’m writing, which comes out in June), the more scared I get.
But there is still no way I’ll vote for Hillary.
I won’t vote for her even if she stops shaking down rich right-wing Republicans for donations. I won’t vote for her even if she adopts Bernie’s platform. I won’t vote for her even if she names Bernie her vice president.
I won’t even vote for her even if Bernie invites me to spend the summer with him and Jane in Vermont and begs me, too.
#NeverHillary. That’s me.
And I’m not alone: There are millions of us.
Many progressives have told me they are baffled by my stance. Trump is a threat to democracy, decency, peace and the economy. He acts and talks like a nut. Why not suck it up and vote for Hillary? She’s experienced, steady and presentable. Unlike Trump, she understands the issues. Plus: first woman president! That’s 225 years overdue!
Nope. Not voting for her. As I said, I am #NeverHillary and never means never.
Look, a vote is an endorsement. A vote tells a candidate: “I mostly agree with what you say and what you have done.”
I agree with nothing Hillary Rodham Clinton has done, ever.
Most egregiously, she voted to invade Iraq. At the time, everyone knew there were no WMDs. She knew. More than a million Iraqis are dead because of that war of choice, a war no one but especially no Democrat should have supported. I will not, cannot, betray those dead. Casting a vote for Hillary says: “I love that a million Iraqis got murdered.” Or, at minimum it says: “I’m cool with it.”
Well, I’m not.
For me, that’s enough. What Clinton did was monstrous. She should be in prison for life.
You need more? Really?
Okay, here’s more.
Running a close second behind Iraq as my reason I am #NeverHillary was Hillary’s vote to invade Afghanistan. This was another enormous mistake and resulted in an unjustified, illegal fiasco that left hundreds of thousands of innocents maimed or dead. Also, as secretary of state, she constantly encouraged Obama to arm and fund crazy Islamist insurgencies in Libya and Syria, reducing two modern countries to failed states.
Sorry, I can’t let that go.
Voting for a politician also sends another message: “I agree with what you promise to do.”
There is zero indication that Hillary wouldn’t continue her every-war-a-good-war philosophy were she to become president.
She’s a hawk.
Unlike even Trump, she has never questioned the usefulness, legality or ethics of use of force as America’s go-to approach to foreign policy.
And I refuse to throw good blood after bad.
I believe Hillary is sleazy — a cheater and a liar. I can’t forget how she willfully misrepresented her own take on the minimum wage: She wants $12/hour, but since Bernie’s $15/hour is more popular, she claimed she wanted $15/hour too, but it would be up to the states and cities. When pressed, she conceded she’d “like” $15/hour, but wouldn’t lift a finger to make it happen federally.
Incredibly, she still does this.
Then there’s her lie about the auto bailout. Fact checkers call her claim that Bernie voted against it untrue; he voted against bailouts for Wall Street, some of which was attached to aid for automobile companies.
Despite being called on this whopper, she still uses it on the campaign trail.
The primary fight against Bernie saw Hillary deploy tactics that went way beyond political hardball. Her allies in the Democratic National Committee schemed to deny Bernie media coverage or a decent debate schedule. They rigged the superdelegate process. They made sure votes and caucusgoers weren’t counted and that voter registrations in Bernie strongholds mysteriously disappeared. Can’t let that go.
I am highly sympathetic with the argument that we need, and that women and girls deserve, to see a woman in the White House. We do; they do. If Hillary Clinton were merely a flawed candidate, the woman thing would be enough for me.
But Hillary is not merely flawed. She is a monster and a dangerous one. She is a mass murderer. And she is a warmonger.
The fact that Hillary wears bright-colored Doctor Evil suits and has a silly laugh and twinkly eyes and seems kinda smart can’t change the fact she has never voted against a war, or apologized for voting for one, or promised not to start any new ones. Her resume can’t cover up for her record: We’re talking zero sponsorships or votes for a major anti-poverty proposal, and only one vote against a job-killing free trade agreement.
I don’t vote for monsters.
Let Hillary or Trump destroy the world without the endorsement that would be my vote.
(Ted Rall is the author of “Bernie,” a biography written with the cooperation of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. His next book, the graphic biography “Trump,” comes out July 19)
For aNewDomain and the new SkewedNews, I’m Ted Rall.
Cover image: SlantNews.com, All Rights Reserved.
