Why I support Secretary Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton is arguably one of the most simultaneously respected and most hated people in America. Over her over 20 years of public service, her constant work leading our country have led to a diverse array of opinions. The perception of Hillary Clinton has been twisted by the over 20 years of fierce opposition by Republicans, and has led to many of the qualities that lead to her terrible performance among young people and progressives. However, this is merely a reflection of the larger Clinton story, one of a candidate who has never truly been able to connect with voters, and give inspiring speeches, but who has always been a phenomenal leader, and earned praise from both sides of the aisle for her work. Simply put Hillary Clinton is not a candidate. She doesn’t give the best speeches and her policy positions don’t fit on a bumper sticker. But her policy positions represent what we should all want: achievable, inspiring, and continuing and improving the path of success of President Obama, and bringing back the prosperity of the 1990s.

When judging a candidate, the best thing to do is to try to drown out everything their campaign says. The rhetoric, especially in the cable news era, doesn’t count for much if it is just a bunch of people whining about America. Instead it is important to see what results people have on their record and what they have achieved. It is important to see what people who actually have worked with the candidate have to say. It is from this perspective that Hillary Clinton truly shines. Republicans across the board have praised her, from Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) saying, “I think she is a good role model. […] [She is] one of the most effective secretary of states, greatest ambassadors for the American people that I have known in my lifetime, to Senator John McCain (R-AZ) calling her a “very effective Secretary of State” to the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) saying, “I think she’s done a good job for the… secretary of state’s position, and I have high respect for her and think a great deal of her.” Republicans may say she is the devil during the election cycle, but you should evaluate the candidate based on comments Republicans made when she was actually working. On the other side of the spectrum, some of the most progressive Democrats have praised her, such as Senator Al Franken (D-MO) saying, “I’m ready for her to be President.” The state that knows her best, New York—a competitive state because it is the birthplace of her primary opponent Bernie Sanders—overwhelmingly elected her with over 284,605 more votes, a 15.8% margin. When we are electing someone to become the leader of the free world, responsible for the largest military in the world, with the ability to send markets tumbling and armies marching, we must choose someone who has been tried and tested in one of the most critical roles in the America: Secretary of State.

The above quotes show that the people who understand government best believe that she is the best for the country, yet the idea that she is merely a puppet for the dreaded “Establishment” is absolutely false. Right after Hillary graduated from college, rather than join a high paying law firm, she took a job with the Children’s Defense Fund, and her first task was to address discrimination in public schools in South Carolina. Her work to help children continued as First Lady where she got healthcare passed for children, ensuring that all kids will receive economic opportunity by being healthy, regardless of the salary of their parents. Her work as a Senator working to not only get help for her constituents, through over $21 billion care for the 9/11 responders, but also help advocate nationally for equal pay for equal work. She even worked with Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to create the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition, which provides incentives and rewards for completely domestic American manufacturing companies. She voted against the Central America Free Trade Agreement, and for the North American Free Trade Agreement, showing a nuanced view on free trade that aims to maintain free trade by ensuring that companies still compete on equal footing. She led a bipartisan effort to get broadband access to rural communities to help bring them to the 21st century, and brought tax-exempt bonds to environmentally-conscious construction projects. She has always been for opening immigration, vital to America and the American Dream, by supporting the comprehensive immigration reform bill SBEOIRA of 2007, and by voting for the dream act. Throughout Hillary Clinton’s career, when she is actually working, her approvals have gone up, she had an all-time high approval rating of 73% in New York while their Senator. This is what we need a leader. Not some who gives great flowery speeches and accuses their opponent of being “unqualified.” We need someone who has actually shown an ability to get things done with the Republicans, and help bring policy ideas from across the table.

This opens Hillary Clinton to the craziest accusation at all. She is too Republican and is not a progressive like Bernie Sanders, and is merely a puppet for the corporations. Hillary Clinton’s Senate voting record matched Bernie Sanders 93 percent of the time. In addition, Bernie Sanders was given a prime time opportunity to expose Hillary during a debate when he was asked to name one vote or decision that Hillary flipped because of donations. Just one. Bernie Sanders couldn’t name even a single decision, and reiterated his generic attack that Hillary is beholden to her donors. This however brings up a valid point: why does Hillary receive donations from large corporations and Wall Street. Bernie Sanders made the apt point that Wall Street is not stupid and obviously understands that it will succeed in a Hillary presidency. Yet the key behind this determination is the reason that President Obama received millions of dollars from Wall Street as well. Wall Street makes money when the economy grows. Wall Street lost billions of dollars during 2008. In addition, there is nothing that Wall Street likes more than stability. Instability, and confusion in the markets causes problems, which is why Wall Street absolutely hates the government shutdowns and deadlock in Washington. Wall Street wants a candidate who will be able to get both sides of the aisle and get Washington moving again. This is the key behind Hillary Clinton’s campaign, and is why she has Wall Street donors. The ad hominem attacks from the Sanders campaign have no basis in fact or proof, merely guilt by association.

Another reason that Hillary’s positions don’t seem progressive, and are not inspiring for young people is that they are nuanced policy positions, not bumper sticker designed phrases. For example, Bernie Sanders has said that he wants a ban on fracking. That is great for a bumper sticker, and makes Bernie look like the crusading environmentalist who will not listen to the corporations. Hillary Clinton’s position is far less glamorous: she would like to create a commission to examine the environmental impact of all fracking sites, close down all bad sites—while providing training and stimulus to disaffected workers—and then slowly begin the process of phasing out fracking sites with minimal impact. Over 200,000 people are employed in the fracking industry; one cannot simple say that they will ban it, and then somehow deal with this people. This is how policy should be made, address the problem, bring both sides together—Republicans are very scared about the job losses—and address the major issues. Yet Sanders immediately attacked by saying that Hillary receives donations from the Oil & Gas industry—amounting to a whopping 0.02 percent of her donations, leading her to not support a ban. This paradigm of creating well-thought out policy meant to solve problems, not make good speeches, has always helped make Hillary a great leader, and a bad political candidate.

Do not get bogged down with rhetoric, or meaningless insults that hide the bipartisan praise for her work. When you evaluate Secretary Hillary Clinton as candidate, I implore you to look at the bipartisan results she has achieved in enacting real policy, in a consistent, effective, and successful manner over the last three decades, improving the lives of Americans around this already great country.