After the Presidential Debate
Monday night I came home from watching the Clinton-Trump debate
with friends fully convinced that we must elect Hillary Clinton
President of the United States with an overwhelming majority.
I have made no secret of my displeasure with the choices for
president that we have been given. But truly, how often in our lives
are we given ideal choices? The dilemmas in our lives between two
goods may be bitter sweet and the choice between the good and the bad
may hardly be a dilemma at all. But the most wrenching dilemmas are
between two bads and we have to weigh which of the two is the better,
the less harmful, least painful, more open to change. The choices that
we are often forced to make must be pragmatic.
I may not like the choices with which I am faced, but truly, what
choices can we expect from the empire? The choice is indeed between
bad and worse. What the debate clearly showed was how much better one
choice is than is the other.
The very demeanors of the two candidates were enough to highlight
the superiority of the one over the other. Hillary Clinton was poised,
self-possessed, in command of the situation at once alert and at ease,
clear and articulate of her positions and facts.
After all, she has been tempered at high heat by her positions as
First Lady, as Senator, as Secretary of State. She has trained, as
Hillary pointedly said, to be where she stood and to stand as
President of the nation. And she stood well, confronting Trump firmly
but courteously, even with sly humor at times, always maintaining her
ground and her position. And she very clearly stood by those pieces of
the Democratic platform which we who supported Bernie Sanders
placed.
On the other hand, the debate clearly showed Trump for the
immature buffoon, racist, misogynist. misinformed liar that he is. He
showed himself petulant, bullying, easily angered, and obstinate in
his misinformation and lies even as they were called out by both the
moderator and Sec. Clinton. His lack of any poise and dignity, any
self-control made me cringe to imagine him as head of the nation, the
empire.
Even The Arizona Republic, a newspaper that since its
beginning in 1890 has never endorsed a Democrat over a Republican has
taken the unprecedented action of endorsing Secretary Hillary Clinton
over Donald Trump.
What most terrify me are those for whom he speaks in his
belligerent hatred and ignorance, those who identify with a thug
distinguished only by his great wealth, much of it arguably ill
gained. And they must be many to have brought him to this
point. To me the dilemma is hardly one at all. We must elect Hillary
Clinton resoundingly in repudiation of the racism, the fear, the
hatred, the ignorance that permeates so much of our society.
Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Noam Chomsky,
Rachel Maddow, Michael Moore, and many, many others warn us that we
cannot afford a protest vote Green or Libertarian or write-in or not
to vote altogether. We must vote Hillary Clinton - and a Democratic
Senate, a Democratic Congress, and in our local city and state
governments those who will uphold and wage Our Revolution for justice,
peace, and the well-being of the Earth.
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