I sympathize, I really do.
However, I cannot come out strong for Hillary Clinton, nor can I even show up. You want me to volunteer at planned parenthood? You want me to protest for women’s reproductive rights? You want me to engage in civil disobedience or direct action or go to jail for a woman’s right to choose, I will do all of those things.
But I will give no aid, direct or indirect to HRC, because of her economic and especially because of her foreign policy. I understand that this may be frustrating, but honestly, lending my vote and voice for HRC is literally the least effective way that I as a citizen of the United States and a registered voter in a blue state can help to safeguard a woman’s right to choose. It is at most a symbolic gesture. Real political work is done in the streets and on the local level. Who the president is, will not be decided by the American People and considering the biggest problems with women’s reproductive freedom is not national laws but in fact, the forceful impediment of access to health facilities, our energies are best spent being directed in that direction.
If Hillary is elected, she has the potential to be worse than Trump in both economic and foreign policy terms. This may be a bitter pill to swallow but the simple fact is, Trump will have mainstream left opposition. Both Hillary and the Republican Party never met a war they didn’t like. Both Hillary and the Republican party are firmly in the pockets of Walstreet. Hillary’s foreign policy will kill thousands of innocent people, both in the terms of our own soldiers and in the collateral damage her reckless militarism is sure to cause. A second crash like the one in 2008, the one her husband’s neo-liberal economic “reforms” laid the groundwork for will no doubt result in a higher suicide rate in this country and an increase in crime and social dysfunction around the world.
I have been an outspoken radical feminist for years. Women’s reproductive health is extremely important to me personally, but I cannot use it to justify the deaths of other people both at home and abroad. If I do that I and everyone else who votes for her will have that blood on our hands.
As such, I will vote Democrat if Bernie is the nominee. It will largely be a symbolic gesture and all things considered will realistically be throwing my vote away as I live in NYS and NYS will go blue no matter if it’s Bernie v. Trump, Hillary v. Trump or a Baked Potato v. Trump — but I’ll do it for the ritual of it.
If he is not, I’ll be voting for Dr. Jill Stein and directing my political energies where they will have a real impact: on the ground and in the streets.