{"id":1755,"date":"2015-04-14T08:05:07","date_gmt":"2015-04-14T14:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=1755"},"modified":"2015-04-14T08:05:07","modified_gmt":"2015-04-14T14:05:07","slug":"who-supports-hillary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/04\/who-supports-hillary.html","title":{"rendered":"Who Supports Hillary?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Hillary Clinton has now made it official, declaring her candidacy in a youtube video<\/a> and heading off on a \u201croad trip\u201d to Iowa <\/a>(no, she\u2019s not driving herself). \u00a0And the media is all over the story.<\/p>\n

The tagline on her website<\/a>: \u00a0\u201cEveryday Americans need a champion.\u00a0I want to be that champion.\u201d \u00a0But, poking around that website, there\u2019s no real content<\/em> to it. \u00a0No policy positions. \u00a0No campaign promises. \u00a0Just a bio, and a request for donations and volunteer help in the early-primary\/caucus states.<\/p>\n

Now, it\u2019s not hard to find all manner of stories on why HRC is exceptionally unqualified for the office of the presidency: \u00a0she has a history of corruption, from Whitewater, to accepting money for the Clinton Foundation from foreign governments during her tenure as Secretary of State, to destroying e-mails in which she conducted official business as Secretary of State. \u00a0She doesn\u2019t have a track record of accomplishment, having been \u201cgiven\u201d her Senate seat, with no signature legislation during her time there, and without anything that she can point to during her time as Secretary of State that brought about improvement in our relations with, or the state of affairs in, places such as Russia or Libya that were claimed \u201csuccesses.\u201d \u00a0Her singular achievement has been to enrich herself and her family and build networks of power \u2014 to such a degree that there\u2019s\u00a0a reasonable case to be made that here marriage to Bill is all about wealth and power. \u00a0I could go on, but that\u2019s preaching to the choir, for the most part, so let\u2019s think about this, instead: \u00a0why, given all these flaws, do Democrats continue to support her?<\/em><\/p>\n

So far as I can tell, then, the case for supporting her rests on three things:<\/p>\n

1) She supports mainstream Democratic policy positions.<\/p>\n

2) She is a woman.<\/p>\n

3) She is presumed by Democrats to be \u201celectable.\u201d<\/p>\n

I tried to poke around via google to find pro-Hillary columns\/blog posts\/articles\/pieces of whatever kind. \u00a0I started with a search for \u201cI support Hillary\u201d, which didn\u2019t get me very far \u2014 a couple articles on celebrities declaring their support, for instance, and pieces that HRC herself supports. \u00a0The first hit expressing actual support was this discussion from Democratic Underground<\/a>, in which her supporters didn\u2019t really have much to say about why, except presumed electability \u2014 and others countered that with statements that she\u2019s the candidate of Goldman Sachs, not \u201ceveryday people.\u201d<\/p>\n

I realized that I didn\u2019t have a close quote for that search, so I tried again, and found \u201cThis is why I\u2019m voting for Hillary Clinton in 2016,\u201d at CNBC<\/a>, in which the author,\u00a0Jehmu Greene, says,<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just because she is a woman, but it\u2019s what she has done and continues to do on behalf of women all over the world. . .<\/p>\n

Hillary\u2019s dedication to women\u2019s rights, from that speech in Beijing 20 years ago through her time as senator, secretary of state and beyond, is one of the reasons I am so proud to know her and why I, along with so many others, am ready for Hillary.<\/p>\n

Hillary has spent her life promoting women\u2019s rights. She has been a champion for advancing equal opportunities for women and girls in America and around the globe, calling women\u2019s empowerment \u201cone of the great causes of my life.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, did she achieve anything in furtherance of that cause? \u00a0Greene speaks largely of her as an advocate, a champion, but doesn\u2019t point to tangible achievements.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another search result: \u00a0\u201cFive Reasons Hillary Clinton is the Most Qualified Presidential Candidate,\u201d at a site called electwomen.com<\/a>. \u00a0The five reasons:<\/p>\n