#ncvotesearly

(Photo from Sufjan Stevens’ tumblr)

FULL DISCLOSURE OF VOTE BELOW, trigger warning if you’re afraid of political discourse and my opinions ;)  

Today I will vote for the first female president of the United States, and then I will go help a black female artist to unravel the Confederate Flag. I’ll do both of these things in a state which 40 years ago still had discriminatory laws against people of color and 100 years ago did not allow women to vote and 150 years ago had legal enslavement of human beings. This state currently legally discriminates against members of the LGBT community and systematically subordinates people of color and the poor in general through law enforcement and the courts. This is the USA. There is still so much to be done. These are changing times, and we can call them bad and dangerous and end of the world, etc. It feels that way sometimes. But it’s also a time when progress is possible. I think that moments of upheaval are both damaging and scary and at the same time remarkably abundant, filled with possibility. I think better days are coming.

As to why I choose today to vote. I have may grievances with my government and the way we conduct our nation. We have many problems. However, I know people all over the world who do not have the rights I have. So, I have supported and will continue to support the idea that democracy in our country means a right to exercise a vote. To elect someone to give the responsibility for the most difficult decisions of war, the most divisive issues of culture, the most pressing questions of economy and climate. Decisions which we are nearly powerless to work on at a national level without good political leaders. Decisions I know I would not be able to make myself. Obviously the system is screwed up, and it has rotten seeds. But does that mean I am going to forfeit my vote which women (and men) fought for, died for? I know women are still out there still waiting to vote for the first time. I don’t take the right to vote lightly, because I know the history of oppression and protest which resulted in my gender’s right to vote beginning August 26, 1920.

As to why I vote today for Hillary Clinton. Well, that’s what the rest of this post concerns. I understand that many people do not support all of her policies, and I do not. I also don’t support all of Barack Obama’s policies. I’ve never found a political candidate with a perfect record that I could buy into completely. I am voting for Hillary Clinton because she is the most prepared candidate who has ever run for this office (save maybe FDR on his fourth term), woman or man. She is ready to make these decisions in a way that none of the other candidates have been.    

Today I am voting for the first female president of the US, who will win by a landslide, over the least prepared candidate who has ever run for this office. For all her competence, Hillary Clinton deserved a far better running opponent. I'm tired of people talking about him when they should be talking about her. I don’t have anything else to say about that trash.  

I am voting for her because in all her preparation, she has also managed to be a powerful woman in a man’s world, a world that millennials don’t even know about or have to deal with because of women like her. Her feminism is different, it is old school, defensive, on guard. I do not personally identify with her feminism, I prefer the idea of women in leadership recreating those positions with a different set of interests, and not trying to achieve prescribed goods inside a system men have wrought. I’d rather replace it with something better.

But then, you have to look at history: she like others started out in a time when women had to assert themselves and wear shoulder pads and push and announce to the world that they were going to "have it all". She came up when gaining true positions of leadership for women, positions of leadership above men for example, was only really beginning. It’s almost shameful really that this is our first. It is 2016. Women leaders all over the world have proven abilities, sensitivities, knowledge, creativity, resilience that comes from their place in the world, our place. I think Hillary Clinton stands for those leadership abilities and embodies them through her particular difference.  

Regarding her presidency. Male candidates/pundits/bros spend a lot of time talking through how Hillary will or will not fit into an office which has only hitherto been held by men. In this future, a future where a woman is president of the "free world", this role can change for our democracy. As it has with a President and first family of African descent, so can it change with a President of female gender. If the process works, her presidency can continue to usher in change in this office, rather than status quo candidates. This is what "smashing the ceiling" looks like.

I voted for Bernie Sanders in the NC primary because I also believe in Bernie’s vision. I care about the things he talked about, most importantly a vision of “life” which encompasses the whole person, which demands accountability from the richest Americans for the lives of the poorest, and which puts the climate and our environmental behavior in priority over capital profits and endless land development. And today he as a former candidate stands by Hillary, and says things like, She’s our only hope in this election. He’s right about that. But I'd also like to see a level of respect towards her being our first female leader. Bernie and his supporters should also be saying, And what a historic thing, that we are going to elect a competent, brilliant woman. It matters. It is historical.

Some people are afraid of a HRC presidency, because she has been involved in war before. Well, fyi all American presidents have been involved in war and they were all men. If you are not voting for her for that reason, you don’t understand global politics or how we operate as a military power.

But also, think about this: HRC is the type of politician who adapts, morphs, grows. She is a female, and we all do this because we have to. I think about all she had to go through as the spouse of an elected male official who has a public problem with sexually inappropriate advances on women. I think about her place as one of the few faces of female leadership in global government who has stayed and stuck so long after years of heinous criticism, comparison with her male counterparts. She is strong, but she adapts.    

So many people who work for her or know her well comment that she is a listener. Listening is a skill that not many people have in public leadership. But what that means is she concentrates on the voices that come to her, and she moves in the direction of the voices that need aid. Because of that gift, she will be someone who stands in the middle of a lot of things, who balances. This is the kind of leader that we all want to have, regardless of political belief. She will listen to the Bernie ideology and incorporate parts of it she deems worthy and workable. Bernie Sanders will have a larger roll in her administration than he could in any other scenario. Strangely enough, she will likely listen better to the poor white constituency that has formed around her opponent better than he could have done himself. Even if they chant that she should be in prison.

That's what a public servant looks like.