I’m with her. Now that some of you have clicked away, let me tell the rest what I find even more distressing about 2016 election coverage than the other candidates in the race. I detest reading and hearing, semi-continuously, about how reporters and analysts are unable to find anyone who likes the candidacy of Hillary Clinton. In fact, some asides seem to indicate her enthusiasm rating rivals that of tobacco executives and deadbeat landlords.
While I’ve never been a champion of those who poison lungs or gouge tenants, I am an enthusiastic supporter of Ms. Clinton. I’m no naïve neophyte — my dad drove a too-young-to-vote me to volunteer for Shirley Chisholm when she ran for president. I’ve handed out leaflets and made phone calls for many politicians, and I’ve also held my nose and voted for a few candidates that I thought would do the least harm.
In this election, I’m in the keenly passionate category. Yet I just heard another sneering pundit proclaim, “Look, no one really wants to vote for Clinton, but they are forcing themselves because they hate Trump.” I voted for Ms. Clinton for Senate twice and I volunteered for her presidential try in 2008. All I knew about Mr. Trump at that point was that he was someone quite enamored with his own name.
So what’ll it take to convince the know-it-alls that I am all-in on Hillary Clinton? I’ve been rocking pantsuits since law school, I’ve supported the same ideals as she has and worked on some of the same causes, I’ve proclaimed how she sets my political heart aflame since the 1990s, and I’ve joined a “secret” Facebook group of over 148,000 people (as of this writing) who are fervently working to support Ms. Clinton.
Do I need to sport an I’m Nasty tattoo? That won’t happen, as mine would likely wrinkle into something less defiant. Should I hire a skywriter to proclaim HRC Rocks from now until Election Day? Would that even convince one media storyteller to change the plot? I suspect not.
So please let it be noted wherever such self-serving declarations are enshrined that I’m eagerly with her. Not because I have no better choices, but because she’s been my first choice for a very long time.