Hillary Derangement Syndrome -- An Addendum & An Endorsement

Okay, I’m losing it. Some my friends on the left (where I’ve lived my whole social-political-academic life) have fallen so far down the slippery slide of Hillary-hating that I’m beginning to worry about them.

Here are some of the more off-the-end-of-the-pier posts that I’ve run across recently in the popular social media outlets. I’ve not included names or screen handles and I’ve corrected spelling and punctuation errors because I don’t want readers to think they’re mine.

To be clear, these aren’t from Trumpeters, none of them came from right-wing sites or blogs. All are from Bernie supporters.

And, full disclosure, I caucused for Bernie. I believe in his vision and support virtually all of his positions. But he lost. He actually never had a chance but I am glad he ran, delighted that he got his message out and overjoyed at the impact it had on the Democratic Party and on Hillary. But the level to which his supporters are sinking is, at once, disturbing, amusing and incomprehensible. So, here we go:

“She’s a war monger, a cold heartless hawk. I will never vote for someone who wants to start WW III.”

“She’s a weapons dealer who’s sold arms to terrorists and funnelled the money back into the Clinton Foundation.”

“She’s the brains behind the crafting of the TPP and no matter what she says now, will put it in place the day she’s sworn in.”

“Hillary is a pathological liar who cannot help herself. Nothing she says can be trusted.”

“Hillary is really a moderate Republican and I cannot, will not ever vote for a Republican.”

“She was raised a Republican and always been one at heart. She loves Wall Street and wars.”

“If she ends up in the White House she will be worse than G. W. Bush. We have to save the world from Hillary!!!!” (yes, all four exclamations marks were in the original).

“She’s a warmonger but luckily Putin and Xi are on to her and can neutralize her if she wins.”

“All she wants is power and she will do anything to get it. I still think she had Vince Foster killed.”

There are lots more like these and they tend to get repetitive so I’ll just drop in one last, deliciously paranoid comment:

“Donald Trump is a Hillary-plant. She and Bill are behind his whole campaign. They encouraged him to run last year because they knew it’s the only way she can be made to look good.”

Friends and fellow leftists, it’s time to bury the hatchet. Ms. Clinton won the nomination and as fairly as any nomination gets won. She’ll be a fine president. She’s a life-long feminist, the first to propose a national health care program, she supports Obama-type immigration policies, has always been a staunch defender of minority rights, LGBT rights, a woman’s right to choose, an opponent of unregulated capitalism (yeah, really). She’s worked on children’s issues her whole life, backs gun control, a progressive tax code and a gradual increase in the minimum wage.

She will nominate progressive judges to the Supreme Court and place thoughtful, liberal people in government agencies and her cabinet.

Are there positions of hers that are not ones I support? Yes, of course — no one gets their ideal candidate. I wish she’d back off her stance on fracking, though I understand why she takes it (it produces a large proportion of relatively clean energy and there are those swing states) and I worry that she might be pushed into returning to her earlier support of the TPP. And I wish she’d take a harder line on the idiotic war on drugs, back Federal legalization of marijuana and support a $15/hr minimum wage.

She was a fine Senator (with a voting record that matched Bernie’s 93% of the time) and when she stepped down from her job as Secretary of State she was compared with the greats like Dean Acheson.

She’s been accused of dozens of things, been investigated scores of times and nothing has come of any of it. And these investigations weren’t softballs. They were cranked up by Republicans hell-bent on finding her guilty of some crime or complicit in some illegal scheme. They found nothing. 

The glaring brutal truth is that she is, right now, running against Donald J. Trump — a man who cannot be allowed to become president. It is incumbent on all Moderates, Liberals and Progressives to vote for Clinton. A vote for Stein, a Sanders’ write-in or a blank ballot is, effectively, a vote for Trump.

Perhaps some have forgotten — Nader gave us Bush and the world is still reeling from his catestrophic eight years. Imagine the wreckage that a Trump in the Oval Office would create. 

Hold your nose if you have to but punch that chad for Hillary.