An Open Letter to Hillary Clinton
I really like you.
For about a year you were my candidate. Sure, the biggest spike in arrests of non-violent drug offenders happened while you were the First Lady. And in that time, you talked a lot about health care but didn’t connect it to the major problems of drug abuse and addiction. Then, recently, you decried that America’s incarceration rate has landed 1-in-100 Americans in jail, while skirting how that problem is largely caused by strictly punitive drug laws, but your central issue of better health care would be the solution.
But drug policy is my pet issue. And I understand a good politician can’t satisfy everyone. So I was happy to put my agenda aside and support you.
You are competent. Smart. Savvy. Shrewd. You are the most practical leader this country has seen in my lifetime.
I even had dreams about you becoming president. Like, that one about your election night victory party, going out for a snowball fight, because that’s how you celebrate in dreams… And getting hit by snowball by one of your young female staffers, and pelting her right back with a snowball–because women can dish it out and take it. That’s one of the things your victory would means to me. A paradigm shift that affects the way men and women relate. And, God, is that ever overdue.
But your victory, once seemingly possible, ain’t happening. When people started associating your name with the word “deathwatch” this week, it was definitely time to call it quits. If you ask me, the time to quit was in February, when you had fallen past recovery in the polls and I caucused for Obama.
But you wont quit. Today I opened up the New York Times and there you were, talking about what you would do with health care if elected. Tragic; you won’t be elected. Even Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania endorsed Obama today, in his state–where you have the lead in polls, but not enough to save your campaign. But you plod on and drag your party with you, like a megalomaniac and a masochist to yourself, and a maverick and sadist to us. Your are continuing your crusade at the cost of your credibility and potential. Ralph Nader comes loosely to mind.
It’s time to put on your strong suit, Hillary. Park the campaign bus. Run the Senate. Pull the strings of the marionettes. Do what you do best. Be practical.
Truly yours,
Dominic