Hillary Now!

Hillary Clinton isn’t running for president, but her campaign already has started in New Hampshire.

A group, Hillary Now!, this week will run TV ads in Manchester, Concord, Portsmouth, Salem and Nashua, pushing the New York senator for president in 2008. The group has no official ties to Clinton’s office, but its president, Bob Kunst, of Miami Fla., said he is laying the foundation for her possible bid for the presidency.

“Hillary is the strongest Democrat. She’s the most popular woman in the country,” said Kunst, who believes the polarizing senator will attract votes from Republicans who are unhappy with the Bush administration.

“The party simply says, ‘Well, Hillary divisive, Hillary controversial.’ We say that is an asset, not a liability,” Kunst said. “Nobody gets attacked like her, but on the other hand nobody has the support like her.” (source)

I’m going to catch a lot of flack for this because as a gay American, I’m supposed to vote a certain way, but there’s just something about Hillary Clinton that I simply can’t stand (probably the same thing, if I can put my finger on it, that makes me dislike Diane Feinstein). Actually, I can be more specific. I don’t like the fact that she will try to appear to be one thing, then, when it suits her needs (wanting to actually get elected), she will try to move towards the right, to be more, shall we say, mainstream America.

She’s not fooling anyone and we (Democrats, although I’m not sure I’m still a Democrat) are simply deluding ourselves if we think that America is ready to elect a woman to be President. I’m sorry folks, but America has huge problems with bigotry, racism, and sexism. I hate to use the ISM’s thing, because I come off looking like this radical lefty who only cares about radical lefty issues, which isn’t true.

The truth is, we live in a country where it is totally acceptable that women, working in exactly the same jobs as men, collect 60 cents on the dollar for the SAME WORK that men collect! That’s just wrong. Yet, we boast that women have equality. We still haven’t accepted them as equals in the work place and still have this image of many women that their “place” in society is in the home being a “home maker”. There’s nothing wrong with that. But for many families today, who can afford that? When women do the same job as men, they should be paid the same wage.

So do we really think that a woman has a crack at being President? I don’t. Not the way things are now, anymore than I believe a black man or a gay man or a lesbian has a crack at being President - and let’s not even get into where transgendered people stand in this country.

The job of the President in 2005 America is the job of a rich, white, middle-aged man without a lot of past achievement (baggage) in his career. And if he does have baggage (running every company he’s ever run into the ground, just as an example), he’d better damn well have connections (having a father who was a past President, just as an example). That is reality.

If the Democrats have any hope of getting into the White House the next time around, they honestly need to get back into the real world, and pick a white, rich, male to run. John Edwards comes to mind. He’s not bad looking (we do love that, don’t we?), rich, has a sexy southern accent, and can look you right in the eye with a lot of charm, and lie his ass off to your face, making you feel that you are so very special to be in his company. That is the epitome of what we demand of our Presidents today. And hopefully, the candidate can form complete thoughts and share them with us without sounding like a complete moron, although, this is not a prerequisite.

Back to Hillary...

It’s funny that I came upon this “Hillary Now!” article, because a week or so ago, I received a request for money survey from the “Friends of Hillary” which, apparently I’m part of. The first section is “PART I: RANKING THE ISSUES”. This is what the survey said:

1) Please rank the following issues in their order of importance to you by placing a number in each box:
Economy/Jobs
Environment
Social Security/Medicare
Education
Homeland Security
Health Care
Tax Cuts
Reproductive Rights
Separation of Church and State

That was all. I wrote a big note in that section, since she wanted my input, and said, “Where is gay marriage? I’ve been with my partner for 30 years!!! I will not vote for a candidate who will not vote for us. That may mean the Democratic Party will lose my vote. After listening to Al Gore endorse second-class status to gay Americans with ‘civil unions’, I vowed that I would never again give my vote to anyone who doesn’t support our equality.”

If we’d all take a stand like that, perhaps things would change. Oh and by the way, next to the little check boxes where you check how much money you will be sending, I paraphrased what Joan Crawford told her daughter and later told the board of Pepsi Cola (watch Mommie Dearest for details!) when asked for money. I said, “Not a cent, until you come out PUBLICLY and show your support for TOTAL equality for ALL CITIZENS (that means marriage equality as well).”

Status quo is no longer good enough for this American. It shouldn’t be for you either. Think about it.

And if you start getting down about the war in Iraq, just remember the time-honored words from our fearless leader (who still hasn’t sent his daughters to help fight the war in Iraq that he believes in so damn much)...

If that doesn’t get you through your day, I don’t know what will.