I Endorse Hillary Clinton

By Marc Ash, Reader Supported News

13 October 16

t is said that President John F. Kennedy’s favorite quote was from Dante’s Inferno: “The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in time of moral crisis preserve their neutrality.” Accordingly, I hearby abandon my neutrality.

I saw in Bernie Sanders an FDR-like figure, a committed, practical reformer. That was the basis for my support of his campaign.

The DNC saw that too and decided they were having none of it. That was and still is the basis for my opposition to the DNC.

My decision to endorse Hillary Clinton at this stage is based on several factors. Not the least of which are arguments in favor of Secretary Clinton by Bernie Sanders himself, Senator Elizabeth Warren and former Labor secretary Robert Reich.

In essence, what they are all saying is, “We advise you in the strongest terms to get behind her.” But the subtext of what they are saying is that they are giving progressives their word that they have negotiable assurances from the Clinton camp that she is prepared to take seriously the need for progressive reform.

I was also swayed by the last debate. Misogyny is a term that gets used all the time in this day and age, sometimes to describe a very real pattern of abuse and sometimes not. During the Democratic primary contest, every time we took a position in favor of Sanders or against Clinton we were sure to be accused of misogyny, probably unfairly.

What I saw on the stage at the second debate was appalling. That was misogyny on full public display. Donald Trump actually referred to the former secretary of State as a “devil” and went on to threaten her with using the powers of the presidency to influence “his attorney general” to pursue a retaliatory prosecution against her. I am absolutely and sincerely outraged on her behalf.

My endorsement of Hillary Clinton notwithstanding, I expect her to beat Donald Trump like a drum on November 8th. In doing so, she will have dispatched one of the most abusive figures in American political history. That alone would be worthy of no small measure of respect in itself.

On domestic policy, I am reasonably optimistic that Hillary Clinton will be more progressive than Barack Obama. It’s a fairly low threshold, as Obama proved much better at articulating progressive ideals than sacrificing for them. The key on domestic policy will be the TPP. If Clinton signs off on TPP she will have zero credibility with progressives regardless. If she sidesteps it or shelves it, she has a real chance to be a uniter.

The Supreme Court in the wake of Justice Antonin Scalia’s unexpected departure is at a critical moment of transition. I am not wild about Judge Garland Merrick as a replacement for Scalia. Obviously he would be better than Scalia, but is he up to the task of restoring the Civil Rights Act, defending the Fourth Amendment? Would he acquiesce to the demands of the NSA in the interest of national security?

I suspect that Hillary Clinton might well want to leave her own mark on the court. What president would not?

On foreign policy, things get a lot more complicated. After the second presidential debate, David Brooks, appearing as an analyst on PBS, conceded that Clinton again looked more presidential, but he also needed to point out that “She has no plan for Syria.”

The problem is that the Iraqi-Syrian frontier, post U.S. invasion and destruction of Iraq, is quite literally FUBAR. The corollary for the rise of ISIS in the wake of the U.S. assault is the rise of the Khmer Rouge in 1975 in the wake of the U.S. carpet-bombing of Cambodia. The lesson there was once the killing started, there was nothing the West could do.

The notion that there should be an American solution, a way to fix the massive problems caused by the brutal and totally unnecessary U.S. military assault and occupation of Iraq, is absurd. The truth is, as the label FUBAR implies, there is no simple solution. Right now the best U.S. officials can hope for is damage control and crisis mitigation. That’s if everything goes really well.

Hillary Clinton said one thing with regard to the situation in Syria that gave me a little hope: “No troops on the ground.” Of course the U.S. can do immense damage without troops on the ground, but it shows she is wary of overcommitment. It’s a start.

So yes, I endorse Hillary Clinton for president. At the same time, I endorse and intend to join with the efforts of Sanders, Warren, Reich and organizations like Our Revolution who are lining up to press the administration for real, meaningful reform.

Marc Ash is the founder and former Executive Director of Truthout, and is now founder and Editor of Reader Supported News.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.