This 2016 primary season has forced us to evaluate our political consciences. It has pressed our values and made us uncomfortable enough to research our candidates and their opponents — candidates who we might have picked much more easily and scrutinized less under different circumstances.
Progress does not happen on its own. Progress needs progressives. That is why Bernie Sanders is an easy choice for many of us, but we are faced with our first strong female candidate for President who is brilliant, deeply knows Washington and has experience in global politics.
She’s not “just a woman,” as Brenda S. “Sue” Folton explains, being that first woman would mean she would carry the weight of all eyes being on her with judgement already voiced that she was there because of “equal opportunity.” People would be looking for every reason to continue to justify prejudices based on her imperfection. That she has made it through this gauntlet of gender scrutiny to be front-runner in this primary is remarkable. That she knows what scrutiny a woman leader faces, then gets up and is ready for more is genuinely inspiring. There is no question as to whether she’s qualified to lead, but for a president, we have to look at where she has led before, then decide if that’s where we want to keep going. That choice leaves us deciding between a conservatively progressive candidate (who perhaps we could forgive) and a real progressive who has no bones about fighting an uphill battle with the odds against him and his cause.
What do we have to forgive Hillary for?
Ambition and aggression? No. Without ambitious women America might still be patiently waiting to vote. Ambitious and aggressive women are necessary for progress.
Does she lack leadership ability? Absolutely not. What I find myself struggling to forgive Hillary for is her calling herself a leading progressive… while in reality she has a history of staying far behind the ones risking their careers to defend what was right. Once the dust settles, in walks Hillary and cheers “WE DID IT!” This conservative progressivism will not take us forward but leave us stuck where we are. Doing what everyone else accepts, then taking credit for what others’ efforts accomplished. Working to call herself moderate until very recently, Hillary only even identified as progressive once failure to do so was causing her to lose votes. As the still front-runner, many of us wrestle with our conscience over the values we would have to ignore or sacrifice to vote for this woman as President.
In this interview from 2014 Secretary Clinton repeatedly said how grateful she was that there were progressives “ahead of their time” on gay marriage. Progressives like Sanders -who was already strongly supporting the risky position gay marriage 20 years ago.
Hillary was following the progressive trail-blazers until it was completely safe to support progressive causes. Progress does not happen on its own. Progress needs progressives. If we are going to embrace progress we must embrace and vote for Bernie Sanders. If we are willing to forgive Secretary Clinton who is still trying to have progress both ways (calling herself moderate early in the campaign then progressive only later), then we allow a vote for the status quo. The question we’re asking, then is why we would vote for forgiving Hillary rather than embracing the trail-blazing progressive Bernie Sanders?!