A recent RIF post got us into a “lesser evil” discussion about Hillary Clinton. While I disagree with her about a few issues, that doesn’t make her “evil.” Its bad enough the right-wing attack machine has smeared Clinton for so long, calling her “crooked” even though determined, relentless investigations going back to Whitewater, Vince Foster, Travelgate and more have never found anything crooked. For liberal/progressive sites to pile on is crazy.
I think there is no doubt Clinton will defend medicare/medicaid/social security, defend the medical insurance expansion of the ACA, stand up for reproductive freedom, the Iran nuclear deal, rights for immigrants, labor, the LGBT community, appoint reasonable Supreme Court justices, and maybe expand gun background checks, child care and family leave programs if Congress allows. Trump and the GOP will do the opposite on all of the above.
Of course Clinton is not perfect. I don’t trust her on trade, she may approve high levels of immigration that depress wages, she has been too quick to intervene in foreign countries such as Libya and Honduras. But she and Obama did try to wind down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, resisted pressure to do more military stuff in Syria and Iran, and are being criticized for that and for not doing even more killing in opposing ISIS. So I can’t see how putting these GOP critics in charge who got us into Iraq in the first place will do us any good.
On taxes, Trump is a mainstream GOP trickle-downer, proposing the end of estate taxes, big corporate and personal income tax reductions. We’ve been down that road, it would further transfer wealth to the 1%, further starve government programs. Clinton wouldn’t do that.
On the environment, Clinton would likely continue the mixed record of Obama while Trump and the GOP would be all in for coal and oil and fossil fuels, they even say they are. Clinton would resist the GOP assault on pubic land and on wildlife. And Transport Providence of all people should appreciate the Democratic support for bikes, transit, and trains (by the way, VP choice Tim Kaine promoted downtown Richmond passenger rail revival when he was Mayor), the national GOP wants to eliminate all Federal support for that.
Clinton is not a pacifist, socialist, or radical, so those that are have legit reasons for not backing her, but it still doesn’t make her “evil.” Not being in those categories, I see it as an easy choice to back Clinton, and not just because of Trump. Still, in Rhode Island we are so used to civil and reasonable Republicans who often back needed good government programs and watchdog excessive spending, we can forget the extremism of Trump and the national GOP these days.
I also frankly value the idea of finally electing a woman as President. Eight years ago plenty of progressives said that about a first black President, but its not cool to say that now about a real chance to elect the first woman.
As for the interminable e-mail stuff, nobody cared that previous GOP Secretaries of State used a private e-mail server at times, and rightfully so. While Clinton was ill-advised to do this, it doesn’t make her “evil” it is just a political attack point which Sanders himself thought was a distraction.
To sum up, though far from perfect, she is a reasonable and decent choice to support for President.
#NeverHillary is a bit too flippant to me. The point of an election is to pressure a candidate, and get results. We have gotten some movement in the right direction, thanks to Bernie Sanders. Still, for many voters, there are still significant reasons not to want to cast a vote for Hillary Clinton. Instead of yelling “Never Hillary!” let’s take a more nuanced stance. It’s time for #MaybeHillary.
A group of Providence elected officials announced their strong opposition to a proposal by National Grid to develop a new fracked gas liquefaction facility at Fields Point in South Providence. Citing concerns ranging from costs to ratepayers, safety risks and climate impact, the legislators — including Representatives Joseph S. Almeida (D-Dist. 12, Providence), Grace Diaz (D-Dist. 11, Providence), Aaron Regunberg (D-Dist. 4, Providence), Chris Blazejewski (D-Dist. 2, Providence), Edith H. Ajello (D-Dist. 1, Providence) and John J. Lombardi (D-Dist. 8, Providence) and Senators Juan Pichardo (D-Dist. 2, Providence), Gayle Goldin (D-Dist. 3, Providence) and Sen. Harold M. Metts (D-Dist. 6, Providence) — called on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to reject National Grid’s application, and warned the City of Providence against signing a tax stabilization agreement with the utility to facilitate the project.
“No matter how you look at it, this project is a money-maker for the utility at the expense of our community and our state,” said Representative Almeida. “National Grid is asking us, the ratepayers, to foot the $180 million bill for this project, for what? So they can increase their own profits by exporting LNG out of the state! This does nothing to benefit our constituents, and it does nothing to benefit my neighbors on the South Side. All this proposal will do is transfer money from ratepayers’ pockets to National Grid’s coffers, and we’re not going to accept it.”
It’s too easy to make a mountain over Mika Brzezinski‘s mistake in referring to Governor Gina Raimondo as a Republican. (I engaged in this myself on Twitter when I first heard the news, learning the hard way that 
The 
The Executive Board of the Rhode Island Progressive Democrats wishes to express extreme displeasure that Hillary Clinton would name Governor Gina Raimondo as a co-chair of the Democratic convention. While this role is purely ceremonial, it indicates that some of Clinton’s advisors may consider Raimondo an acceptable figure within the national Democratic party, a sentiment that would be deeply chilling. Raimondo’s politics represent a brand of conservatism well to the right of basically anyone of prominence in the national Democratic party. Deeply unpopular in Rhode Island, Raimondo is known for her aggressive push to restrict women’s access to abortion coverage through plans sold on Rhode Island’s exchange. She is also one of the most aggressive proponents of pension cuts, which Democrats just voted to oppose in our party platform. She has been a feisty advocate of expanding fossil fuel infrastructure, and she even opposes repealing Rhode Island’s tax cuts for the rich. A former private equity executive, Raimondo epitomizes an extreme type of Wall Street politician. After the withdrawal of banker Antonio Weiss, the national party has had an informal rule against Wall Street appointees for top posts. Raimondo appears to violate that rule.
