I am politically apathetic.
I make no apologies for this.
I vote simply because somebody marched, bled and died to gain and protect my right to vote as a black woman. That's all. I was here for the Obama campaign. Popped my voter cherry on a straight democratic ticket when he got elected. Cool. I am not democrat, but I tend to vote the same way I assign loyalty in the Superbowl or playoffs —I side with the winners. Except when they are traditional-value-wielding-make-america-great-again nutjobs. Nope. Never going. My raging case of intersectionality isn't going to allow for that. Liberals don't impress me, but if I have to pick between the big weevil or the little weevil, I'm going to hedge bets and pick the lesser of two weevils (clearly I like puns too, heard that one this week from a friend, it was fun-nay —but let me return to the meandering point).
Here's how this apathetic feels about Hillary Clinton: Y'all better step back and let that woman be great.
She may or may not be (read: is) showing signs of corporate puppetry. Her donor list looks like the sign up sheet at a Koch Brothers Anonymous meeting. While her frienemy Uncle Bernie, who is 2 days from a "Weekend At," reboot, has all the feel good granola donors a true advocate of change would want. Awesome. *shrug*
But politics is a long game.
Ted Kennedy did all the dirty things he could do in the prohibition era to make sure his shiny sons could have bids for office in the Rat Pack era. George Bush (poppa) went into office to start like 60 wars. He did all the things a Friend of Regan would do to the coloreds, women and the poor, so a Bush could rise out of the bowels of the hole Tom Hardy as Bane came from —or as the locals call it, Texas— to become one of the first Kanye rants. He did that. Not for us. But for the legacy of his loins or whatever.
Hillary Clinton went from regularly being under a president who she was married to (pun intended or not, you choose) to being a serious viable female candidate for president, twice.
She did that.
If this is chess, not checkers (Hi, Dad), then she managed to be the ultimate underdog rising. No less than Obama coming from the middle of nowhere to be "I know... I won both of them" guy. No less than JFK being the first Irish president in a time when people were afraid of political papacy (kind of like people's irrational fear of 'sharia law'). No less than Bush Sr. shaking enough hands, wagging enough dicks, and making enough money to allow his son to be a folksy, don't-mess-with-Texan, who Rick Perry seemed to be stanning for so hard. No less than Dick Cheney, who wanted to be president as bad as Ice-T wanted to shoot Nino Brown, but was too much of a Cyrus to Fitz's Fitziness. He still managed to be VP despite Gil Scot Heron warning us about him ages ago (see: B-Movie).
Hillary is a shark in the water. In our political climate, that's not a bad thing to be. I would personally be down for one more Obama term, but Roosevelt's wisdom is a double edge sword. *long blink* I would be down with a Michelle Obama term, just on GP. But that's me writing fan-fiction, at this point in the game. Back to Hil.
My value system doesn't think it's okay that she is backed by corporate megalomaniacs. But that is the game. She could be a man of the people and get the little dollars or she can use that Clinton Legacy that she worked for and make that money honey. She can't win an election being the only person with a vagina and no balls. Sorry. Uncle Bernie is the white man everyone loves to love (except BLM, but I'm not even mad at that. *raises fist in solidarity*). People love that he is basically Doc coming in from the year 2015 to bring Marty back to the future with his wild eyed socialist ideas and sass-mouthing of the system. On principal I'm fine with this. But the Raving Right knows all the tricks of old white men, liberal or not. They can and will use their machine to silence that old guy if by some miracle he got the democratic nom. Because they know him. They are him. What they don't understand as their voting and filibuster records prove, is the power of the PU$$...you know the rest.
The right figured with Obama's campaign runs, that they could edge him out with voter restrictions, their harvest of disenfranchised from the school-to-prison pipeline seeds, and that poorer whites would have the memory of a flea. They hoped that the good white folks would just forget the class war that they are constantly pawns so that the trust fund babies can have new Rich Kids of Instagram posts. I actually like RKOI, for reasons I can't quite identify. DJM. But there were lots of things the Right didn't count on in those elections, and alas, faced with no other options the white vote was galvanized and people of color showed up so the Jose Conservos lost. They don't understand how lady parts work, and they won't be able to shut her down. She's lived in that town long enough to know exactly what to do. If we put Bernie up against them, he will not win. We need someone to remain a buffer for us. They could run together, that might be cool, but Bernie shouldn't get the nom. Let Hillary usher us into a new(ish) era.
Aside from her marketing team's crack cultural commentary in my inbox in between donation requests (she called me 'Friend,' I might have to invite her to the next BBQ), I'd say she's impressive, but not really what I'm looking for. If I had to pick a candidate I'd want a bleeding-heart-benevolent-I-don't-see-color progressive who'll sing freedom songs and kiss negro babies in the inner city while dancing off beat to "HELL YOU TALMBOUT" like the next man. But what we have is a politically seasoned, former Secretary of State. She has served in Washington and worked her way from First Lady, to Senator and beyond, is a graduate of Yale and Wellesley, with enough chutzpah to roll her eyes in a congressional hearing and live to tell. She is a giver of no dambs, and will do a fine job in an office ruled by the very people she has been able to persuade to hand her millions of dollars for a job interview.
If we had to bet on a horse, she'd be Secretariat.
*women are not horses or chattel, but I had to end my story somewhere, and I didn't have a Gandalf in my pocket to make that happen.
