Why I Didn’t Vote for Hillary

Okay, full disclosure time: I didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary. Why did I do such a dastardly thing that was counter to my feminist principles? There are several reasons, but first let me shoot down the obvious reasons that Clinton supporters will lob at my reasoning.

MYTH #1 – I DIDN’T VOTE FOR HILLARY BECAUSE SHE’S A GIRL

Sesame-butt! (As opposed to poppycock!)

I have looked forward to the day when a woman would occupy the Oval Office for a long time. Hell, I was rooting for Shirley Chisholm in 1972. (Yes, the liberals indoctrinated me at an early age!) Call me crazy, but when it comes time to vote a woman into the White House, I will vote for the candidate who shares the same views on the issues as I do. I won’t vote for just any woman. Also, I would like to vote for a female candidate who has a snowball’s chance of winning the election, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

MYTH #2 - I FEARED THAT IF I DIDN’T VOTE FOR BARACK OBAMA, THAT I WOULD BE LABELED AS A RACIST

Wow, talk about extremes! During the course of the primary season, both sides were accused of resorting to the ugly –isms (sex and race) to make the other side appear unworthy of holding public office. Both campaigns fought hard from allowing the primary race from sinking to such depths, but in the end cooler heads prevailed. Now both sides have “kissed and made up”, pledging their combined resources to defeat John McCain.

MYTH #3 - I BELIEVED A VOTE FOR HILLARY WOULD ALSO BE A VOTE FOR BILL CLINTON

People feared that Bill Clinton would have too much influence on his wife if she did win the White House. This was not a concern of mine when I voted. Consider this: all but one of the occupants of the Oval Office brought a significant other of some type to Washington with them. Each of these wives or nieces or whatever may have influenced the Commander-in-Chief in some way shape or form. Unfortunately, we may never know how much influence these women exerted. My guess is they had more influence on some of our Presidents than the voters would care to know. Until significant historical evidence is found to the contrary, we’ll have no choice but to give each of these ladies the benefit of the doubt.

This is the political world we’re talking about after all. Influence – good, bad or indifferent — comes with the territory. Even if Bill had the chance to influence Hillary, so what? I recall that there were good economic times during Clinton’s administration. I don’t know about you, but I really miss paying less than $3.00 per gallon for gasoline!

In short, I didn’t vote for Hillary because I did not believe that she was electable, at least not this time around. (TO BE CONTINUED)