Because…

One anonymous "friend of a friend" of a Wise Woman wrote this endorsement for Hillary

by

  1. Hillary Clinton speaks at a rally during the 2016 presidential race
  1. Hillary Clinton speaks at a rally during the 2016 presidential race

Because she fights for the underdog, always. A career’s worth of fighting. Children. Women. The poorest among us.

Because there is no enthusiasm gap. I cry thinking about taking my daughter to vote. And my grandmother voting. I read It Takes a Village in college. I am passionate about this woman.

Because she has the most experience—expertise—of all the candidates. And she has to fight twice as hard to prove it while being told she is uninspiring.

Because it does take a village to raise a child. And she will create the kind of villages I want.
Because she is a policy wonk. She does the hard step-by-step, day-to-day work of researching, thinking critically, and compromising to get things done.

Because she knows that it takes compromise—working together. She was our head diplomat. She repeatedly earns the trust of her peers, far and away more support than those of other candidates.

Because she waited in line—oh how she waited her turn—when it was best for this party and this country, supporting and working for rivals for the greater good.
Because she has had twice as much—no 25 years more—scrutiny than any other candidate, and by factual assessments of those very much not in her pocket, is still rated the most consistently honest. They cannot find a thing. and they are trying SO HARD.

Because she and the other candidate running as a Democrat voted the same 93% of the time. And when they didn’t, often she was the more liberal of the two. See: gun control.

Yes, because she is a woman and the absolute strongest on the issues that matter to me as a woman, which happen to be among the issues I care most about:

  • The Republican candidates are so extreme in their abortion views they would criminalize women (not men!) who have abortions. Not only Trump, but all of the remaining Republican candidates hold extreme positions on women’s reproductive rights. They talk about the “woman card,” deriding even the thought that issues that affect women or children would matter to us as citizens: equal pay, parental leave, worker’s rights, education reform, child care, health care, gun control.
  • The other candidate running as a Democrat says, in effect, “Yeah, women, that Trump says some crazy stuff about ‘women’s issues.’ Now back to the economy. Now back to serious issues that matter.”
  • Hillary says women’s rights are human rights. They are a serious issue. In every talk she gives on every issue, she thinks about women and how they will fare. She brings this up.

I’m for her because she is for me. All day.

Because she knows that downticket races matter. See North Carolina’s decisions to limit rights of LGBT people, and dangerous decisions for workers’ rights, women’s rights, and freedom of choice, among others in Mississippi and Wisconsin. The other candidate running as a Democrat says “well let’s get me elected first.”  He and his surrogates threaten to sue the Democratic party, harass superdelegates, threaten to contest the convention. He says I’m for me so be with me?

Because she will keep us safe. There is no one I trust more on terrorism, foreign affairs, homeland security, relations with other nations.

Because the corporate-sponsored social media attacks on her are misogynistic and awful. And they even come from the other Democrat candidate, despite his early campaign promise not to attack. Every day former senator and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is called a bitch, blasted with sexual and violent imagery. There is shushing when she talks, telling her to stop interrupting, to stop talking too loud, or to stop being too shrill, or too, too! Then there is so much talk on how if it were just a different woman, things would be different. But that isn’t true either. As soon as favored “different woman” Elizabeth Warren spoke up agreeing with Hillary on some policy matters, the same violent vulgar terms and threats were lashed at Warren.

Because she thinks through issues (like the Iraq vote) and discusses her thinking transparently. Because she apologizes and says, “I wish I had done things differently.” This is something I’ve rarely heard another candidate do.

Because she stands on that wall. When I get sad or frustrated or feel invisible, I think of how many times Hillary has sat and smiled and heard her own ideas mansplained back to her some 25 years later (hello, health care!), how she is told to wait, to be quiet, to be less. I think of how she nods and says “forward,” and even works with those people for the things she wants. I want to be like that. I want my daughter to be like that. In my better days I am.

That’s why I’m voting for Secretary/Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. We’d love to have her.