HNV kicks off today with three more big endorsements. First off, an enthusiastic nod from the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBT civil rights advocacy group and political lobbying organization in the country:
HRC today announced its endorsement of Hillary Clinton for President. HRC’s Board of Directors, comprised of 32 community leaders from across the nation, unanimously voted to endorse Secretary Clinton -- an endorsement she will accept next Sunday, January 24 at an event in Des Moines, Iowa with HRC President Chad Griffin and the organization’s members and supporters.
Today’s endorsement comes at a time when the stakes could not be higher for the LGBT community. Over the last seven years under President Obama’s leadership, the nation has made substantial progress on LGBT equality -- from the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” to his Executive Order protecting LGBT employees of federal contractors from discrimination, to his historic support for nationwide marriage equality, to signing landmark hate crimes legislation, speaking out against so-called “conversion therapy,” and working to protect LGBT students. Despite the fact that a majority of Republican and Independent voters today support federal protections for LGBT Americans, the leading Republican candidates for president have threatened to halt progress as well as revoke, repeal, and overturn the gains made during President Obama’s two terms.
And there was even a nifty video to go along with it:
x YouTube VideoThere's more on this to come, so keep an eye out for the endorsement event this Sunday!
Hillary also added to her ever-growing list of labor support with the United Brotherhood of Carpenters:
The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America (UBC) is proud to announce its endorsement of Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic primary for President of the United States.
UBC General President Douglas J. McCarron said that the organization supports Secretary Clinton’s Presidential bid because of her proven track record in supporting the UBC, and the candidate’s position on issues that are critical to the union’s mission to provide a good quality of life for its members.
The UBC is one of the largest and oldest trade unions in the country and represents about 500,000 professional carpenters. The UBC has long-maintained a bi-partisan approach to politics, and supports candidates on both sides of the aisle when they support UBC issues.
“Hillary Clinton is a fighter and has consistently fought for our issues on many levels of government. The UBC believes that, as President, she will govern based on her understanding of the critical role unions play in strengthening the middle class and our country,” said General President McCarron.
“We encourage her to continue her efforts regarding long-term and strategic budgeting for our country’s infrastructure, implementing secure measures for pension reform, and eradicating the payroll fraud epidemic in our nation’s construction industry.”
And here is Clinton's statement in response:
“I am honored to have earned the endorsement of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America.
“Unions like the UBC built the mighty American middle class by creating good-paying jobs and careers across the country. And the Carpenters are doing their part to ensure that the jobs of the 21st century create as much opportunity as the jobs of the past. Earlier this year, I visited the UBC’s training center in Las Vegas, where men and women of all ages come together to learn new skills and crafts—an impressive example of the kinds of investments we need to build the economy of the future.
“As President, I will support unions like the Carpenters by expanding opportunities for apprenticeships and fighting every day to get wages rising again for working Americans. I have always stood and will always stand with unions like UBC against employer efforts to misclassify workers and steal wages, and against Republican assaults on collective bargaining and the right to organize. When unions are strong, families are strong—and when families are strong, America is strong.”
The mayor of Flint, Michigan also gave her support to Clinton. Why her? Why now? Because she's the only candidate who has truly earned it during their time of tremendous need:
Flint Mayor Karen Weaver (D) endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, repeatedly thanking her for the work she and her campaign have done on the water crisis facing the Michigan city.
"We want a friend like Hillary in the White House," Weaver told reporters in a conference call organized by the Clinton campaign Tuesday morning. "That's exactly what we need to have happen."
Weaver didn't necessarily intend to make endorsement news Tuesday. After she praised Clinton, a reporter told the mayor that her comments sounded like she was backing the former secretary of state.
"Yeah, it does sound like it, doesn't it? I want Hillary," Weaver said, chuckling.
"As far as what Hillary Clinton has done, she has actually been the only -- the only -- candidate, whether we're talking Democratic or Republican, to reach out and talk with us about, 'What can I do? What kind of help do you need?'" she added.
With only a handful of days before the Iowa caucuses, we should probably expect a lot more endorsements...perhaps daily. It can be hard to keep up, so if I missed any, or if more come around early in the morning, feel free to add them in the comments!
The Flint nightmare has put in sharp relief the differences between Sanders and Clinton when it comes to handling real-time crisis situations and making real change, as HuffPost Politics notes: On Saturday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called on Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) to resign over the lead poisoning crisis in Flint.Three days later, Snyder remains in office, and Sanders has moved on after generating a fair amount of media attention.
On Thursday, Hillary Clinton went on national television and chastised Snyder for refusing to ask for federal assistance in order to help the affected residents.
Two hours after that interview aired on "The Rachel Maddow Show" on MSNBC, the governor did just that.
Clinton had also already dispatched two of her top aides -- including one with years of experience working for a Michigan senator -- to the state to assist Flint Mayor Karen Weaver (D) with whatever she needed.
The different approaches are emblematic of the ways the two Democratic presidential candidates respond to problems -- and would perhaps continue to do so if they win the presidency. Sanders goes big, not always worrying about whether what he's proposing is politically realistic. Clinton, meanwhile, focuses on the pragmatic instead of the aspirational, using her experience as a guide to what can get done.
Their approaches on health care have exposed this rift as well. Sanders has continued to push for a single-payer health care system -- a dream for many Democrats -- while Clinton has slammed his proposal as too vague and politically unrealistic.
#HillaryMan Peter Daou has written a must-read/must-share piece at Blue Nation Review entitled Progressive Brothers: You Don’t Have to Hate Hillary to Love Bernie (and Don’t Drag Elizabeth Warren Into It)In all my years of online advocacy, nothing has matched the unhinged attacks generated by my unabashed support for Hillary Clinton, someone I admire tremendously and for whom I’ve worked as an adviser. For the first time in my political career, I have a sense of what it must be like to be a feminist on the front lines of politics, where each day brings a new wave of venom from predominantly young men. That so many of these verbal assaults come from the left is deeply troubling.
Here’s my sincere question to a segment of Bernie Sanders supporters: Why do you have to hate Hillary to love Bernie? Why do you have to echo Karl Rove and the GOP in their misogynistic rhetoric? Why do you have to do the dirty work of the far right and tear down one of the most accomplished women in the history of American politics?
...
Nothing in Hillary’s record or positions warrants the kind of wild-eyed rage directed at her in some quarters of the left and right. The rational, the logical position for a Bernie supporter is that Clinton is OK, but they like Sanders more. Not: “Hillary is pure evil and Bernie is pure good.”
I don’t have any doubt that what drives the endless Hillary-bashing on the left and right is institutional gender bias. Were Elizabeth Warren to run for president, she’d slam head-first into the same gender barrier that Hillary is trying to smash. If Warren were subjected to three decades of rightwing negative frames gleefully disseminated by the mainstream media, she’d eventually get the same reactions as Hillary.
Go read the whole thing, it's great.
Here's Jacqui Oesterblad writing for Bottle Magazine:
I’m not, by nature, a pragmatist. I believe in thinking big, and I believe in thinking with our values. But I also believe in thinking about the fact that small policy changes have big impacts on people’s lives. They might bore most civilized people to tears, but debates about closing the Medicaid gap created by Republican governors’ refusal to cooperate with the Affordable Care Act are important because without healthcare coverage, people die.
So it matters to me that I simply do not believe that Bernie can deliver on his promise to enact “Medicare for all”-style universal health coverage. Normally, a president comes out with a plan slightly more ambitious than what they would settle for, and then he (always he) negotiates his way to the center. Bernie is not like that. Bernie does not have work-arounds, or plans for compromise, or any sense that it’s worth settling to get some people some healthcare because that’s lives saved. Time spent trying to force universal healthcare through a reluctant Congress—and pissing them off in the process—will mean fewer people insured than if Sanders simply focused on closing the Medicaid gap.
So while Hillary’s plans might be less ambitious and less progressive on most points, I believe that the actual ground that she will gain is greater than the actual ground that would be gained under a Sanders presidency.
Finally, in a good vs evil Super PAC showdown, Priorities USA pushing back against Karl Rove's dirty PAC attacks on Hillary in Iowa: x YouTube VideoThe GOP just really, really don't want Clinton to be the nominee. Which really is too bad for them, because that's exactly what's going to happen.
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Originally posted at Hillary HQ, an independent, progressive blog committed to the electing Hillary Clinton as the next President of the United States.