Presidential Candidate Review: Hillary Clinton

As part of my political review for this election year, I will be review each of the presidential candidate. I will present a brief bio followed by reasons why I would and would not vote for each candidate. Today I will be reviewing Hillary Clinton:

Hillary Diane (nee Rodham) Clinton was born October 26, 1947 in Chicago, Illinois to Hugh and Dorothy (nee Howell) Rodham. She received her Bachelors of Arts from Wellesley College in political science in 1969 and her Juris Doctor degree from Yale University in 1973. She married William Jefferson Clinton on October 11, 1975 and has one daughter, Chelsea, born February 27, 1980. Hillary was first lady of Arkansas from 1979-1981 and 1983-1992. She was the first lady of the United States from 1993-2001. She was a US Senator of New York from 2001-2009. And she was the 67^th US Secretary of State from 2009-2013. As with Donald Trump, everyone is familiar with Hillary Clinton since she has been on the national stage for close to thirty years. I will briefly touch on a few of her views on the issues.

On the social issues, she support same-sex marriage and a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. She supports limitations on the second amendment including bans on assault weapons. Mrs. Clinton would like to see Obamacare expanded with a public option. She opposes school vouchers but supports charter schools. She supports the Common Core standards. She claims to be personally pro-life but is politically pro-choice with support for partial birth abortions. With economic issues, she supports inclusive capitalism. She wants to rescind the tax reliefs and other benefits for companies that move jobs overseas as well as impose an exit tax for companies which move headquarters overseas. She wants to provide incentives for companies that share profits with employees, communities and the environment. She currently opposed (although previously supported) the Trans-Pacific Partnership. She supports equal pay for equal work. She supports the scientific consensus on climate change and opposes the Keystone XL Pipeline.

The reason why I would vote for Clinton is I do agree with her on some of the issues. There should be equal pay between men and women who are doing the same job. There should be a better road to citizenship. I agree with her that the Keystone XL Pipeline is a bad idea. However, there are more issues that I do not agree with her. The reason why I would not vote for Clinton is I simply do not trust her (to be fair, I don’t truly trust any elected official).  She has been caught in lie after lie after lie. Instead of admitting her mistake, which I would respect more than fault her for the mistake, she lies again. She has lied about the big, important things like her email server, Benghazi. She has even been caught in a lie about a small issue like why her name is spelt with two Ls instead of the traditional one. The list goes on and on. Many have sited one reason to not vote for Clinton is due to a due a rape case. The internet has been buzzing about her defense of a child rapist. In 1975, she was appointed to defend this man, which according to my research, she did so reluctantly. She worked the case as diligently as she should have. In this country, everyone is entitled to a defense even those who are guilty.  She didn’t assert that the accuser made the story up. Other witnesses and even a child psychologist made that claim. Finally, Clinton didn’t get him off. The defendant, Thomas Alfred Taylor, agreed to a plea deal. He pled guilty and was sentenced to five years. Interview in the 1980s, she is on tape discussing the case. She does chuckle when talking about this case, however, I don’t see it as chuckling that she got a guilty man off (because he didn’t get off), I think it was a chuckle of nerves. However, the audio is very difficult to hear clearly, according to some reports.

Overall, I think Hillary Clinton has been proven she cannot be trusted with our country. She has been involved in scandal after scandal. The real estate scandal Whitewater in late 1970s and came to light in 1990s. To Benghazi cover-up in 2012 and the deleted emails of recent events. She has said that she wasn’t aware that anything marked with a “C” meant it was confidential. From what I have seen, she has ran her campaign on why Trump is dangerous for our country with little on how she is the better choice. I would have rather heard her stance on the issues than bashing Trump and his past sins. I don’t fault her, or anyone, for changing her opinions or stance on the issues. Opinions can change over time. I fault her for lying. I fault her for thinking the American people as stupid or can’t handle the truth. Unfortunately, I believe this is the mentality of many government officials so she isn’t alone in that aspect. As I’ve said before, this election will be more closely thought about, prayed over and weighed than any other election before.