My personal political dilemma

I feel the Bern. If we could live in the world Bernie Sanders envisions, I would be a happy camper. Not that I’m rich enough to qualify as one of his targets, but I would gladly give up some of my material comforts to help those less fortunate. I think the wealth of the 1% is obscene, and greed has overtaken this land. I support almost every position he takes. But Bernie Sanders is an idealist, not a political realist. I doubt he could get one-quarter of his program approved in one term—and then only if he had a progressive Congress, which I pray for but know we can't count on. And I’ve heard him say almost nothing about international relationships, which is a big part of governing this country. Let’s just say I’m a big Bernie Sanders fan.

But, ah ,Hillary. I think she’s been followed by scandal ever since Bill was elected, much of it trumped up. There was health care reform, for which she was rudely shot down; Whitewater, which never came to much; the Monica Lewinsky affair in which she behaved as any hoodwinked wife would and then recovered gracefully—the state of the Clinton marriage is not part of our equation in deciding whether to vote for her or not. More recently, there’s the Benghazi disaster, which has been done to death and yet people don’t seem to understand the blame lies not with the Secretary of State, who had been pleading for extra funds to protect our embassy staffs, but with the Republican Congress who refused to grant their funds. And now she’s under a barrage of attacks from the right, saying the FBI has evidence to arrest her for treason or espionage or something. The right will do anything to defeat her, including false accusations and building up Bernie because they know they can defeat him and they can't defeat Hillary. One symptom of this: I’ve begun to see the most unflattering photos of her on Facebook.

I don’t think Hillary is as guilty as all the above accusations would make her appear, evil and corrupt, but neither do I think she’s lily-white and pure. She’s a practiced politician, with an effective knowledge of the recent past and a practical ability to play the system. I may be a liberal, progressive idealist, but I am also practical, and I believe Hillary is the one with the experience and background to get things done in DC (and she’ll have her husband for advice—no small asset; he may have lapsed in moral judgment but he’s a terrific politician dealing with domestic and international affairs). For Texans, no—I’m not suggesting a Ma and Pa Ferguson kind of government. I think Hillary is her own person, who speaks out and doesn’t kowtow (which may be what has involved her in scandals).

In the long run, I believe I will vote for Hillary (as if it makes any difference in pure red Texas) because I think she is the one who can move us ahead and has the guts and will to do it.

I may be an unabashed liberal and yellow-dog Democrat, but that relieves me from worrying about the clown car, except to say that Donald Trump and Ted Cruz scare the living bejesus out of me. The rest, except maybe Kasich, are undistinguished and probably all scary.

And oh, yeah, I think Michael O’Malley would make a terrific vice-president and probably a pretty good president.

Just one woman’s opinion. When I started t write this, I was torn between Bernie and Hillary. As I wrote it, as you can see, I worked it out in my mind. And now, Texans, please vote for Lon Burnam for Railroad Commissioner—the job has little to do with railroads and lots to do with energy sources in the state. It’s important, and Lon has lots so say about turning around what has been a pretty shaky and sometimes corrupt public office.