Former State Sec. Hillary Clinton and Pres. Barack Obama (Marc Nozell/Flickr)
I was a ‘Bernie or Bust‘ brother. And as such I listened to Senator Sanders, when he doubled down on his endorsement of Secretary Hillary Clinton.
Now, before the showdown unfolded at the DNCC, I expressed the reasons why I’d welcome an ‘entertaining’ Trump presidency if Bernie Sanders didn’t get the Democratic nomination:
I mean, Trump is the epitome of capitalism. He encompasses the ethics and values of what drives capitalism in America. Bigotry, white supremacy, greed — the guy is the complete package in a human nutshell, the personification of capitalism, if you will. So not only would this coup de grâce that takes down the presidency of the living symbol of capitalism be both symbolic and melodramatic, it would be epic!
But the show’s over. This is not an entertainment stage; this is a serious job. Upon revisiting all the issues and analyzing the last two standing, it’s clear the only candidate able to move our country forward is Hillary Clinton, especially after publicly embracing some of Bernie’s policies.
At the time, I attributed this impulsive stance to nature’s mechanism for the survival of our species, and how protecting children, at any cost, would allow us to suspend judgment and reason and resort to violence, if I had to keep my kids from danger’s way. But now, the danger has become much more real. The threat of a Trump presidency and the display of support from his right wing constituency are no longer an anecdotal possibility, but a heart wrenching and dangerous reality. As the quote reflects, my analysis led me to believe that Trump would make an easy target, which would be hastily overthrown, ejected, and ousted, and we could then rebuild our nation and government from the ground up. In the spirit of unity, we could do it right this time; with free education, and healthcare, and all of the other wonderful stuff that Bernie promised us.
Then the unstoppable “Trump Train” sped up, and got stronger; the RNC convention happened, and the naïve dream of creating the perfect world through the fall of Trump, became the frightening nightmare of his rise to power. Imagine all of the damage that it would cause to the progress of the last 50 years: building a wall, reversing civil rights, gutting welfare, privatizing social security, rewriting history, all of these things that so many people have worked so hard to ensure and protect and have even died for, would be destroyed and erased, and in no time, we would surely find ourselves living in Mike Judge’s prophetic world of “Idiocracy.”
But how could I just flip flop like that? Where are my convictions? Where is my integrity? This election cycle feels like someone is pointing a gun at my children’s heads and forcing me to choose sides. Will I choose the side that will put their weapons down and point them at someone else’s kids for my vote, or will I choose the side that will take my vote and then might pull the trigger anyway? Now for the real question: is voting from a place of fear, any different than voting from a place of anger? Yes, while one person has something to lose, the other just has something to prove. I’ve heard all arguments about how some can’t bring themselves to vote for Clinton, and how she is “just as bad as Trump,” but is she really? What did I know or what was I told that would get me to form such a negative opinion of her?
Hillary Clinton has been under public scrutiny for decades now. As a woman and public figure for the Democratic Party, she has been the target of GOP smear campaigns since her husband Bill Clinton was President. The horrid ratfucking tactics aimed at Hillary Clinton in this election cycle caused me to examine my own positions and weed out half-truths and propaganda. The latest faux pas? Trump claims Clinton wants to abolish the Second Amendment — something she’s repeatedly denied— and on the same breath he pitches his constituents the danger of Clinton’s ability to ‘pick her judges.’
Let that sink in for a moment. Trump, like Clinton said, “words matter.” Whether we agree with her or not, the amount of subtle threats and violent rhetoric the GOP candidate has spewed out, should be of horrid concern. At this juncture, our nation is faced with the most important decision we have ever had to make, as far as elections go. The United States of America, whose imperialist history and military industrial complex has made it the global super power, have been hijacked by a half-wit, Reality TV star, who has essentially proven to the world, that you can buy your way into office. Aside of examining the main differences between the Republican and Democratic parties, let’s put Trump’s personal and business history side by side to Hillary’s.
Objectively, let’s determine who is a better business person, who is the better example of a public servant, which one has worked to help more women and children, which one has actually reached out to bridge gaps that are tearing apart the social fabric of our nation, and which one is simply appealing to racism and xenophobia. This is our chance to see that one side wants the government to stay out of your bedrooms, your uterus, and your weed stash. The other side are trying to convince us that everything is either the government’s fault or the immigrants’ fault, or the devil’s fault, even though they have been the ones that have had control of congress. Ironic isn’t it?
In this election, NOT voting for Hillary may increase the risk of my children losing their health insurance coverage. It may also increase the risk of millions of hard working people being rounded up and separated from their families. Your non-vote risks years of work towards equal rights being vanquished and reversed. If we want change, we make moves with the highest probability of rate of change. As stated at the DNCC, Hillary Clinton is one of the most accomplished people ever to run for the Presidency. In other words, she is overqualified.
She’s a public servant who has her fingerprints all over successful foreign policies as Secretary of State. She’s let the world know “human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights.” She’s tackled issues like women’s health, equal pay, and domestic violence. Imagine where we would be if Trump wins, on these issues alone? And let’s not forget that Breitbart condemned her for her immigration policies when she stated that, as President, she will “defend President Obama’s executive actions to provide deportation relief for DREAMers and parents of Americans and lawful residents.” For these few and many more legitimate reasons, I’m honored to vote for Hillary Clinton, not just against Trump. Yes, #ImWithHer.
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Ray Perez is an actor, artist, writer and musician from the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas. He is best known for getting Joseph Gordon-Levitt to rap in Spanish on the song “The Prize” for hitRECord.org, JGL’s collaborative production company, and for playing the small role of Beggar in the film A Night In Old Mexico opposite Academy Award-winner Robert Duvall. He tweets on @therealrayperez
Ray…here are
just a few reasons why 77% of American voters don’t trust her:
1. As SofS she
signed off on the slaughter of 10s of thousands of innocent people in
hospitals, schools, churches with her “surgically-strategic” drones
dropping bombs on hapless souls. Meanwhile,she sorted through gold-plated,
monogrammed wedding “thank you” cards with Chelsea. Then back “on-the-ground” she
increased the troop count in Afghanistan
by 300%. And the local muslim crazies once dead, left the local crazies with no
one to address with their anger, but lots of motivation to get bomb recipes off
the internet to slaughter people all over the world when they bombed bus stops,
grocery stores, churches and malls.
2. Lest we forget
her Super-Woman machinations as she “allegedly” dodged grenades and
napalm as she reclined in her limousines, plush private Wall St. jets and corporate yachts off Martha’s Vineyard.
3. Losing 33
THOUSAND e-mails…who thinks that’s really believable?
4. She lies as
easily as snow-flakes fall on Santa’s ass. Won’t forget when she said in an
interview that she was named after Sir Edmund Hillary who climbed Mt. Everest….never
mind that Sir Edmund hadn’t climbed the mountain until THREE years after
HIllaria’s birth.
5. Her snide,
calloused and absolutely vile remarks to the families of the Benghazi dead who
were massacred at their desks while they tried to call Washington, DC
frantically as they saw each other butchered, with (I’m paraphrasing here)…”get
over it, they’re dead already!!!” . This AFTER the embassy staff had been
begging her for over a year to relocate them to a safer location….check out the
YouTube videos of HER OWN WORDS to the families of the dead…”” what
difference, at this point does it make.. And let’s not forget the damage SHE
accomplished in just four years as SofS.
Droning 5X more people in her 4 years than Bush did in 8 years (90%
innocents killed aka collateral damage). Tripling the troop count in Afghanistan in
her first year. Toppling secular leaders in Libya
and Egypt who were keeping
local crazies in check, only to create a vacuum, arm and train said crazies,
who eventually turned into ISIS and are now
slaughtering people and creating a refugee crisis- the likes of which have not
been seen since Hitler himself. It wasn’t until she pushed for boots on the
ground in Syria,
that O finally gave her the boot. In a 2016 election between Stalin and Hitler
you are advocating “voting” for Stalin.
6. Can we ever
forget her Barbara Walters interview when she LIED to everyone watching as she
held the slimy, sticky hand of her serial-adulterer-husband Billy-Bob as he
orally farted that “I did not have sex with that woman”, as Hillaria
bobble-headed her approval of his LIES!!!
7. Then she went
on to personally orchestrate a character assassination on a young Monica
Lewinsky who was used and abused by her husband, to the point where Miss
Lewinsky actually contemplated taking her own life. And coincidentally, her
home and the home of a dozen of Billy-Bob’s other girlfriends “just happened” to
be broken into and robbed of diaries, computers and letters and article of
clothing.
8 Travelgate..when
SHE as NO MORE than the wife of the sitting president FIRED the White House
travel office staff with no notice to install friends in the same posts, but
not until she had made every attempt to destroy the reputation of the
unsuspecting staff who had been at their job for years. Upon further
investigation of her claims of theft, corruption and shady record-keeping, they
were ALL exonorated. She denied she had anything to do with their firings even
when they produced memos with her signature!
9. The phone calls
she made to the President of Egypt when he called her to find out what she knew
about the bombings in Egypt and she said it WAS a terrorist attack and even
sent her daughter Chelsea an e-mail confirming that it was…then she LIED to a
Congressional investigating committee who in turn read to HER the transcripts
of HER recorded comments to the President of Egypt (that he provided)…all of
which she said she “didn’t recall”.
10. Washington
insiders have been quoted (off the record) that Obama couldn’t get her out of
the SofS post fast enough as the bodies piled up in the Middle East and the
body bags of Americans baked in the sun at US Army And Air Forces bases in the
US. Notice how that little PR “inconvenience” is NEVER on th 6
o’clock news?
11. Her approval
rates are ABYSSMAL…there has never been a presidential contender with HER
double digit negative numbers…NEVER!!! Only 41% of democrats in polls have said
they will vote for her..and that is HER party! Meanwhile 77% of the American
electorate does not trust her!
12. She hasn’t
granted an interview in MONTHS….Why? Cause she doesn’t dare answer any
un-scripted, un-coached, un-sanitized commentary of politically-over-corrected
babble-speak.
13. During her 8
years in the Senate…she did NOTHING of significance, EXCEPT she CO-sponsor 3
bills…All having to do with naming a road or building after one of her Wall
Street bankster friends…Yeah she’s a regular “everywoman” all right.
14. She AND Bill
REFUSE to answer questions on what foreign interests contribute to THEIR
foundation. Why?
15. She brought
Bernie into her darkened tent of slimy, bubbling pods and now he’s campaigning
for her…something he SWORE he would never do.
16. She will be
bringing an IMPEACHED president BACK into the White House.
I know this will
be a stretch, but all the facts about this creature don’t make it past the
fields of Texas tumbleweed, so you are to be forgiven for swallowing more than
your share of the Hillaria kewl-aid and getting your political insights from
“La Tino” posers in San Antonio who can’t read the Taco Bell menu
without a Rosetta Stone Spanglish 101 tutor.