Why I like Hill: The Ultimate It Girl, August 2007

Maybe ‘like’ is too weak of a word to describe my bewitchment of all things Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Here are my reasons:

“I’m your girl”

“For fifteen years, I have stood up against the right wing machine and I’ve come out stronger, so if you want a winner who knows how to take them on, I’m your girl!”

My whole life I’ve been surrounded by strong, impressive women who’ve picked up the slack of wayward men or shined in their own brilliance. Hillary Clinton does both these things and her desire to win the nomination and general election is about as much as restoring Bill’s presidency and repairing his broken promises to some of his constituents, (i.e. lowering incarceration rates for African-Americans, equal access to federal job protection for gays and lesbians, etc.), as it is about Hill restarting the 21st century with America as a beacon not as a threat, to the rest of the world.

Her recent “I’m your girl” speech during the early August AFL-CIO debate hits upon her secret popularity: the ability to fight back. Although, I believe that conservatism is dead (which I will discuss in a future string), the Republican-right-wing-hate-machine still churns, albeit not as pervasively and effectively as the mid to late 90s.

As a queer man who has weathered social anxiety, addictive behaviors, love and loss, general Irishness and now, chemotherapy, I know, like many others, how the ruthless attacks of bigots can ruin a good party. After reading Carl Bernstein’s biography on the first lady, "A Woman in Charge," it became clearer to me that Bill and Hill had come to Washington to “do good” but much like Deval Patrick in his few months at the state house, the Clintons stumbled.

Part of the fault lies with Hillary herself but part of it lies with the celebrity, expose culture of the 20th century’s last decade. Remember OJ, the rise of Fox News, Waco, Monica? Although my fondest memories are from the 1990s, I believe that television was at its sickest. The boob tube during the 1990s seemed like a free-for-all, a barrage on the American viewer who had no healthy way to respond to the stories and images. The internet is decidedly more democratic, but the net was nascent during the Clinton years.

It was also very this television orgy that the Republican Revolution took its second breath during the election of 1994. Yes, Hillary’s faulty attempts at health care reform from the previous year contributed to the Republican takeover of Congress. But how prescient was she? What other first lady or elected official had the gravitas to take this on? And look where we are now under a do-nothing Republican president with a recently ejected do-nothing Republican Congress.

“Nearly 47 million Americans, or 16 percent of the population, were without health insurance in 2005,” according to the National Coalition on Health Care, a group who lobbies for “better, more affordable health care for all Americans.” Under Bush’s presidency, “the number of uninsured rose 1.3 million between 2004 and 2005 and has increased by almost 7 million people since 2000.” It’s a national disgrace!

This is a battle that Hill wants to win for the American people. She lost the first round in 1993 due to D.C. naiveté and not extending an olive branch to the press. She’s learned from Round One … she knows the tactics of the opposition and has promised to file a bill in the Senate sometime this year or early next year.

In Massachusetts, right now, as most of my readers know, there is a new compulsory mandate for health insurance. Since my salary falls under 300% of the federal poverty line, I started researching ways I could get into this new health care system back in November 2006. After a little bit of correspondence and missing paperwork, the folks over at “MassHealth” gave me a Neighborhood Health insurance plan when I disclosed that I had cancer. So far, neighborhood has been a god-send, fully covering every appointment and procedure related to my illness.

This is what happens when you live in a compassionate society like the one in Massachusetts. When people are sick, they should go to the hospital and not have to go bankrupt in the process. Hillary knows this; she has fought hard for this and that is one of many reasons why she will receive my vote twice in 2008.