I haven't been around in a while, but it feels right to break out the keyboard and write down how I feel about the nomination of a woman for President of the United States.
I know this will sound odd in a post about a history-making woman, but I miss my dad. He was the political junkie in the family. I came to political activism much, much later. I suppose it's a testament to the good governing of Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman (dad's heroes) that my childhood was fairly stable. Daddy was born at the beginning of the Great Depression and lived through WWII as a teen-ager.
What must that have been like?
But it didn't.
And now it has.
I kept thinking I might get a text from one of the women in my family – I'm the matriarch, so it would have been my daughter, a daughter-in-law, or my granddaughter. But none of them are political or even history buffs. It wouldn't resonate with them the way it would have with my dad or does with me.
So here's how I feel this morning.
Hillary Clinton will and must be the next President of the United States. The stakes are too high for any other outcome. I'll do all I can possibly do to make sure Donald Trump never sees the inside of the Oval Office. It terrifies me that he is now getting security briefings on sensitive issues.
Hillary Clinton is not perfect. No candidate is, but she comes with an extraordinary amount of negatives, courtesy of popular media that feeds on negatives and a populace all too willing to let the media do their thinking for them.
But here's the truth. Hillary Clinton has been under scrutiny for decades. She's always done what she felt was the right and good thing to do, given the circumstances and facts before her. I can say that, even though I don't know her, because the results bear that out. You can watch the many, many speeches from the convention last night and learn more of the quiet, private good she's done in her lifetime.
You can watch Fox News to hear the negatives and, yes, the lies. Because Fox is an entertainment network, they're not bound by the truth.
I don't have stars in my eyes for Hillary Clinton. Neither she nor her pick for vice-president have the charisma of the First Couple or the fire and sizzle of many of the up-and-coming Democrats. (Our bench is deep, and wow are we fortunate for that. Especially considering that the Republicans have majorities in the House and Senate and Donald Trump is the best they could do.)
We live in a time where solid, measured government is necessary. President Obama is so darned good at it. He doesn't let emotion take over, but you know how he feels and where his heart is.
Hillary Clinton is good at it, as well. We will expect more of her, because she's a woman. She will, right or wrong, have to work twice as hard to earn the respect of an equally qualified man. It's astonishing that our country, often called the most powerful in the world, regards women as not good enough for governing, but just fine for accessorizing.
Here's the thing: No one in America – man or woman – is more qualified, more experienced, more committed, or more ready to lead this country than Hillary Clinton is. Whether you like her or not is irrelevant. We're not voting for Homecoming Queen. This is serious.
Hillary Clinton has made tough decisions, run into obstacles, changed course, weathered storms, dealt with private matters in public, and taken public matters to heart day after day after day. She's looked at life from not just both sides, as Judy Collins sang, but from all sides. That's what you do when the stakes are high. And that's what you do when you have to do the best, most-right thing, no matter who's watching.
In the end … for a host of reasons I can't really articulate …
I'm with her.
