This is how you bring about change over 35 years

I see a lot of disingenuous DUers tonight asking isn't it an oxymoron to say you've brought about change over 35 years.

So allow me to break it down to you. THIS is how you bring about change over 35 years:

- Working on children's issues as a member of the Children's Defense Fund

- Reforming education in Arkansas

- Holding the first White House Conference on Breast Cancer

- Listening to ill veterans, and working to get Gulf War Syndrome recognized as a very real and serious disease

- Promoting democracy by staring down the Chinese in their own backyard and saying "Women's rights are human rights, and human rights are women's rights, once and for all."

- Empowering people to take control of their destiny by going to different parts of the world and championing issues like "microcredit," which allows people to receive microcredit loans, which many use to start their own businesses

- Being a champion for the first-responders to Ground Zero, and being one of the first people to recognize the health issues they would face from the toxic air they breathed, and working tirelessly on their behalf

- Forcing the Pentagon to reverse course and helping sponsor legislation which tells the Pentagon no way will we allow you get try to get back the signing bonuses of injured troops

- Demanding a closed-door session with the Pentagon so that you can learn what, if anything, they are doing to prepare for withdrawal from Iraq

- Preventing George W. Bush from privatizing social security


These are only but some of the ways that Sen. Clinton has worked to right wrongs and bring about change over 35 years. It is NOT some oxymoron. It's called WORK.

Thanks for posting!

Pretty vague, and the specifics you cite are relatively minor - important, no doubt, but insuring that injured servicepeople get to keep their bonus is pretty minor compared to, say, keeping them out of a war based on false premises. I'd prefer a Senator and President who did the latter.

And, by the way, Gerry Nadler was the first to recognize Ground Zero issues - she was a relatively late and hesitant convert to the cause. Not that it's done the first responders much good, since the federal pool of money that NYC was given to pay out on claims is capped at $1B and is fighting all claims as though they were a private insurance company. I'm not seeing a lot of follow-up on her part on that issue.

If you water down those terms enough, I could claim about 75% of those things on the list.

loans?

Did you reform the education system in Arkansas?

Did you sponsor legislation to prevent the Pentagon from getting back the signing bonuses of injured troops?

Nor did I "work", "promote", "empower", or "champion" that policy either.

:spray:

I want you to go to the following link:

http://www.zshare.net/audio/60690095bf07c6/

It's the audio I posted on ZShare, of a speech President Clinton gave in Iowa a few days ago.

And I want you to pay particular attention at 48:25. President Clinton tells the story of a Caption in the NY City Fire Department. He told President Clinton "Your wife was the first person who knew, that many of us would get sick, and some of us could die...But she knew, and she fought for us...because of her...some of us who would have died, are alive."

And I can't believe you would say that the Pentagon trying to get back injured troops' signing bonuses is just a minor issue...Amazing. I have no words.

Not minor issues, but not the same as, say, not starting a war in the first place. Or do you think ensuring those wounded because of a vote you now regret is a significant accomplishment?

you can stop beating it.

I'd rather vote for someone who has that list of accomplishments and actually has the balls to vote on issues, as opposed to just voting present on any contentious issue like someone else

1) Working towards the impeachment of Cheney, and/or Bush
2) Doing away with or curtailing NAFTA to bring back jobs rather than have Communist China take them all
3) Speaking out about how we must bring back and promote unions
4) Refusing to fund this war and insisting on ending it within 3 months.

She also needs to say that the poor and disenfranchised in this country cannot bear one more day of Repugnicans, and that they need help above all other people. She needs to say that Haliburton is a company of mercenaries, criminals and that the spigot that feeds them off our taxes needs to be closed. She needs to say things like that. If she does, she'll be elected. But she won't say them. She'll just keep talking about how she organized some breast cancer awareness thingie, and got some benefits for some people, etc.

and everything she does has been to better put that foot forward. edwards on the other hand would make a fine President imo

Recommended.

was encouraged. She pointed to results. I appreciated that - and appreciate your adding more specifics to the meat of what she was saying.

But I also found some encouraging things from the other major two candidates. Still uncommitted, but much more positive towards each.

because its "shrill" and "unbecoming" or one of 50 other pseudo sexist terms that ive read on here in the last 3 hours

and legitimate claims where they try to beatify Edwards for looking down on her and demonize her for making a clear point.

As you point out, Hillary Clinton has done a lot of great, progressive things. She works hard and is passionate.

What some people mean by "change", though, is the idea that good, progressive, well-meaning, humane actions that don't address the FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEMS with the system, might not be enough right now.

There are two distinct points of view:
1) Our system is basically okay, we just need to get Republicans out of the White House, roll up our sleeves, and put some good, Democratic, progressive, liberal programs and policies into place.
or
2) Our system is in serious trouble, the entire electoral and governing processes are almost completely controlled by large monopoly corporations and we need sweeping changes in the way the process is structured, not just incrementally better programs within the process.

It is fair to debate how much change is needed, how fast that change can come about, how much change is really possible, how dangerous it might be to really unleash a radical movemnet, and so forth. But, in your post, you don't really address these questions. You list great things Hillary has done. To me, she has accomplished those things by, basically, working within the system. So are you, or is she, saying it's better to work within the system? Or are you, and is she, saying we need to radically reorganize the current system? I can't tell from her words or from your post, and in that sense I feel like we're "talking past each other". You're responding, I guess, to the perceived question "Is she really a liberal", when the question, perhaps, is "is she a radical?"

Hillary's phrase "35 years of change", and your post, highlight her progressive position and her experience. Where anyone stands on the spectrum from 1) to 2), however, remains a great mystery, at least to me.

I mean no harm, I'm just trying to clarify something.

Interesting definition of change. Besides, she did not single handedly create the change of keeping social security the same.

I desperately need healthcare, a job, school loans paid, my house and city fixed (NOLA), new clothes, among other things.

Now if only people will accept facts like these I'd be grateful.

lacking in frankness, candor, or sincerity; falsely or hypocritically ingenuous; insincere:

I am just a guy who post on DU, I don't stump for a candidate and I sometimes spend what little free time I have posting MY FRANK and CANDID opinion here at DU.

To call it anything else is an insult.

I lived in Arkansas, went to school there and I think they were ranked 42nd or 43rd in the nation...but I have no data to back that up...oh wait, here is a link and I won't pay to drill deeper, looks like 2003 data is free...

http://www.psk12.com/rating/USthreeRsphp/STATE_US_level_Elementary_CountyID_0.html

She reformed education in Arkansas and in 2003 their schools ranked 40th in the nation.

Peace.