Sanders, Clinton, and “fears” of losing.

The following is something I was going to post as a status on Facebook, but then realized my thoughts could be better articulated here.

I will support Bernie Sanders as long as Sanders is in the running, all the way to president and beyond if he makes it. Just like when Obama ran there are “fears” that he can’t beat Hillary. And while I would love to be able to give my primary vote to a powerful woman, I cannot support her in the primary. If there were an alternative female candidate who was truly socially progressive, I would vote for her, but as of yet none has come forward, which is a shame because a woman in office would have possibly the biggest impact on the value placed on women in american society. If Hillary ends up being the democratic candidate, I will vote for her, not because she is a democrat, but because she supports more of the issues I care about than any of the running republicans who are focused not on helping this country but only on policies that go against anything and everything the democratic party has done in the past 8 years. I believe that if the “anti” form of republicanism(anti-lgbt, anti-science, anti-environment, & anti-women, anti-poor, anti-foreigners, etc…) were to disappear then there are many things that the GOP could offer this country.

This came up when I saw an archive post from 2008 about fears of Obama losing to Hillary and that situation being compared to the Sanders one. And I do hope the comparison is apt and that Sanders will gain enough momentum to win. The sad part of this is, I really would love to vote for Hillary, but I can’t bring myself to vote for someone who is actively  for war with Iran, has threatened them with annihilation if Iran were to attack Israel, and believes the use of Nuclear weapons can be justified. (Stay tuned for why I think war and annihilation are the worst possible “solutions”)

I have heard criticisms that many liberals and progressives are saying they can’t support Hillary because they really bring themselves to vote for a woman and so are screaming “Corporate!” as the reason for their inability to support her. This is ridiculous, as I have many friends who have outright stated they will vote for Hillary no matter what since they want a woman in power. More power to them I say, if Hillary wins I will celebrate the U.S. finally doing something many other countries did years ago….

I will vote for Sanders not because I can’t bring myself to vote for a woman, but because the Senator has repeatedly voted for tax increase on the 1%, is avid in his support for unions, has stressed that is intolerable for there to be as much poverty in the U.S. as there is, and so on and so forth. I do agree that it is unfortunate that he is yet another Old, Well Off, White Man, but sometimes we go where we have to to find what we need.