Wednesday, June 8, 2016

About last night

I’m deeply saddened by the results of yesterday’s Democratic primaries. I have been a strong supporter of Bernie Sanders, for reasons summed up by Hillary Clinton, then Rodham, in her 1969 Wellesley commencement speech. (I’m not kidding.) But I cannot vote for Hillary Clinton. I think that the Obama campaign got it right in a 2007 memo:

HRC is driven by politics, not conviction. From the war, to NAFTA, to Social Security, to her choice of baseball teams, Clinton is constantly shifting, dodging and changing positions to satisfy the politics of the moment. Her penchant for secrecy and non-disclosure reflect an underlying disdain for the “invisible” people for whom she claims to speak.
I was thinking about possible choices in this presidential election when I posted, last October, an observation from Peter Drucker about integrity in leadership:
No one should ever be appointed to a senior position unless top management is willing to have his or her character serve as the model for subordinates.
I went on to write,
With necessary changes in terminology, one might apply Drucker’s thinking to elections, with integrity of character as a primary consideration for a voter. I for one would find it impossible to vote for a candidate who did not evince some core element of integrity, however consonant with my views that candidate’s views might be.
So I won’t be voting for Hillary Clinton. I will write in Bernie Sanders’s name or vote for the Green Party’s Jill Stein, whichever choice looks like the better way to send a message to the Democratic Party.

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5:20 p.m.: Casting a valid write-in vote in Illinois is no easy matter. From the Cook County Clerk’s website:
Prospective write-in candidates in Illinois must file paperwork with the county clerk, or election authority, in each jurisdiction where their name will appear on the ballot.
Otherwise, a write-in vote is for naught. More on other states here.

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August 1: It’s good to know your own mind, but it’s good, too, to know that you can change it. I’ve decided to vote Hillary Clinton. This allegorical paragraph explains why.

[“Her penchant for secrecy and non-disclosure reflect”: should be reflects .]

comments: 2

Chris said...

It's much easier to "send a message" than it is to determine how (or whether) the message will be received and processed, particularly given the dismal signal-to-noise ratio characteristic of American political life. Personally, I don't have to respect or like a candidate to vote for him or her; I just have to weigh the consequences. What those are likely to be is, of course, everyone's individual decision to make.

Michael Leddy said...

There’s a lot to think about here, for sure. I would imagine that many voters who would typically vote Democratic or Republican will be considering other possibilities.