Let me ride that donkey donkey

It is Tuesday, Feb. 12-the day of the Potomac
Primaries. As I drown myself in expensive Vodka and
organic cranberry juice, lonely tears make their way
down my slightly swollen cheeks while I listen to the
deep rhythmic beats of Peaches-“F-k the pain away,”
she says. As I listen to the bad news roll in, I seriously
contemplate this notion.

As you might have guessed by now, I am a supporter
of Sen. Hillary Clinton. It’s a position that has caused a
great deal of contention in my life. All my friends seem
to despise Clinton the most. “Why do you hate her so?”
I often inquire. Across the board, the most common
response is that she is a “b-ch” who voted for the War
in Iraq.

Now, I am not a hard-line feminist, per se, but when I
hear such derogatory adjectives used to describe Clinton,
I become enraged. If she were a man, all of the qualities
that people say they hate about her would be celebrated!
If I hear one more man call her a “b-ch” or, worse yet,
a “c-t,” I’m going to start carrying around a bag full of
rubber bands. Henceforth, you may refer to me as Tyler
Durden.

Insofar as the War in Iraq is concerned, my friends
are right. Clinton did, in fact, vote for the war. But so
did every other Democratic nominee except Rep. Dennis
Kucinich and Sen. Barack Obama, who wasn’t even in the
Senate at the time of the vote! That vote was based on
erroneous and falsified intelligence handed down from
the Bush regime.

So, why do I support Clinton? She is an amazing
woman. While I agree that she has become a politician
in the truest sense of the word, she still holds tightly
to her core values and beliefs. As a student at Yale Law
School, she represented foster children in family court
and worked to create legal standards used to identify and
help protect abused children.

Upon graduating, Clinton took a position with the
Children’s Defense Fund to continue her work for
children’s rights. In 1974, Clinton served as one of only
two female lawyers on the House judiciary committee
working on the Nixon impeachment and gained immense
respect from her colleagues.

In 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed Clinton
to the board of the Legal Services Corporation – a nonprofit
federal organization that provides legal assistance
and services to the poor and civil legal aid. She also
served on the American Bar Association Commission on
Women in the Profession. This launched her work on
sexual harassment and pay equity-battles she still fights
to this day. Clinton proclaimed that “women’s rights are
human rights,” and because of her international efforts
to prevent the abuse and degradation
of women, she has garnered intense
respect around the world and has strong
diplomatic relations with governments
and non-profit organizations alike.

While serving as first lady, Clinton
helped pass the Adoption and Safe
Families Act of 1997, which resulted
in a dramatic increase of foster children
moving into permanent homes. She
increased funding for breast-cancer
research and for programs that directly
helped veterans suffering from Gulf War
Syndrome. Clinton is also the creator of
the universal health care initiative.

Unfortunately, because of the Republican
majority in Congress at the time, her
efforts were forcibly put aside. However,
realizing universal health care is one of
her biggest goals as a politician, she has
never let it die. All of the candidates
who support universal health care have
modeled their plans on the decades of
work Clinton already has put forth.

Since Clinton’s election to the Senate
in 2000, she has tirelessly fought for
the civil rights of women, children, the
poor, kinship families and minorities.
Her work has included the introduction
of legislature that would directly
tie congressional pay increases with
increases in minimum wage.

“If America’s working people don’t
deserve a raise, neither does Congress,”
Clinton has said.

As a candidate for the executive office,
Clinton has pledged to begin pulling
the troops out of Iraq within 60 days of
being signed into office. She has workable
plans to create energy independence for
the United States. Her efforts to combat
the growing threat of global warming
are impressive and include creating
five million new “green-collar” jobs
in the U.S. Universal health care is a
tremendous part of her platform, and
her mandatory enrollment plan will
guarantee that every American has health
insurance they can afford.

Clinton has policies in place to tackle
the failed international policies of the
Bush administration, to strengthen the
failing economy and housing market, to
better the lives of veterans and to ensure
that women’s rights, including the right
to choose to have an abortion, are not
infringed upon.

Clinton is an ambitious leader who
cares for all Americans and has every
intention of bringing America back from
the edge. Do you think Clinton is a “cold
b-ch” now? If you find your answer to
that question is still “yes,” then I suggest
you are the one with the problem.

As I bring this political diatribe to a
close, I implore all of you to look closely
at what the candidates did before the
campaign began. Examine their voting
record. Take note of what they have
accomplished or have attempted to
accomplish.

You will see Clinton is far from a
“cold b-ch.” She has solid plans to
turn this country around and make it a
better place for us all. I think that is the
real hope in this electoral race.