I Want to Vote for a Woman for President

I mean it. I really do. I want to vote for a woman for president. We’ve had a couple centuries of male presidents, and it’s well passed the time that we give a female a shot at it. Throughout our history, lots of women have run, and rather than provide a list here, see this site.

It wasn’t until 2008 that someone other than a white man was elected POTUS, and because I know our first African-American president, President Barack Obama, engenders strong feelings on both sides, and because this is about women candidates, I’ll keep my opinion to myself and leave judgments to history. But, like I said, I really do want to vote for a woman for POTUS. I’d add “in my lifetime,” but this would be silly as I clearly couldn’t do it any other way.

This year, 2016, two women are running. I think this is great, and I hope it’s a trend for the future. I’m an independent voter and am registered with no political party. I’m a Liberal, but although I do know many folks who are far left of me, I tend to think and act moderately. Call me a Moderate Liberal, I guess. I think it’s great that the two women who are running are on opposite sides, but I’ve known that I won’t be voting for either one of them for some time.

I can’t abide Carly Fiorina because I think she’s making that faulty assumption that a government is like a business and that it can be run by applying business principles. It isn’t, and it can’t; otherwise it would have been long before now. Besides, even if I accepted this false premise, her questionable business choices at Hewlett-Packard, a once amazing company, would disqualify her. As for the other woman running, I simply don’t trust Hillary Clinton.

I used to be a big fan of Hillary Clinton. So much a fan was I that I wrote her a letter in 1999 offering my services as a speechwriter should she ever decide to run for office. (Yes, I really did this.) She was kind enough to reply to my letter back then, but I don’t trust her because I think she is as much a political opportunist as any man and is as beholden to outside interests as any man, and these are two things I don’t like about politicians in general, regardless of gender. Cynics might argue that this is how you have to be to be a politician, but I would argue that you don’t. You just have to be a human being, a good person, and people will respond to that. You don’t have to be someone who will say anything to get what you want. 

I don’t care about her emails; this is a red herring. This is just a way to get at her, to make her look bad. Should she have done things differently? Of course. I don’t think what happened in Benghazi disqualifies her either, because plenty of horrible things have happened on the watches of other Secretaries of State, and no one convened hearings about them, let alone the endless string that has come since Benghazi. I’m deeply sad for the families of those who died helping, but what’s happened since has been a dishonor to them, in my opinion. 

Nor do I care about her husband potentially being back in the White House as First Gentleman, although I have to think this title alone is causing no end of heartburn for thousands who hate the man. But I like him. Yes, he got Don’t Ask Don’t Tell completely wrong, he never should have pushed DOMA, he never should have allowed Glass-Steagall to die, and as a person in an obvious position of power, he totally messed up by having a sexual dalliance with an intern, a direct report (although all things being equal, I would argue that a smile on the face of the man [or woman] holding “the nuclear football” isn’t always a bad thing). So Bill doesn’t bother me. 

However, he’s not running; his wife is, and I don’t trust her. I do think she has some great ideas, and I agree with her on pretty much all of them. Yes, she made a mistake voting us into the Iraq invasion, and so did President Obama make mistakes where Nouri Al-Malaki was concerned after the last Iraq election. Many mistakes have led to the birth of yet another terrorist group; this was not all Bush 43’s fault or all Hillary’s fault or all Obama’s. I just don’t trust Hillary, and I can’t vote for her.

But I’ll say it again, I want to vote for a woman for president. I just don’t see the current options as folks I can support with my vote. I wish it were otherwise, but there it is. Maybe I'll get the chance to vote for Elizabeth Warren in 2020, or as VP in 2016... hint, hint.

Update: I ended up voting for HRC in 2016 because the alternatives were far too awful. In retrospect, I'm glad I did.