
No other candidate in the race represents the crony capitalist, pay-to-play, back-door dealing candidate as much as Hillary Clinton. Rhode Islander's have accepted our own crony capitalist, pay-to-play, back-door dealing candidates for a generation or more - most times without electoral opposition - so why shouldn't we accept the same on a national level?
Hillary Clinton represents everything wrong with the "Democrats" in the U.S. Too focused on the wants of the business "community", and ZERO focus on what is good for the people of this once great (on paper) country. To put one's faith in the corporations that control and guide elections - sometimes down to the local level - whose priorities lie not with the welfare or will of the people, but with the profits of shareholders and CEO's of large multi-national corporations, is beyond ludicrous.
"But Dave, Bernie Sanders is also running for President as a Democrat. Isn't he the anti-Hillary vote," you may ask? Yes, Senator Sanders is definitely a shift away from the "democratic" policies of the past, but the fact that he thinks he can declare as a Democrat, and clean the party form the inside out is irrational. I'm reminded of a Ralph Nader quote from 2000. When asked why he wasn't running as a Democrat, he said something to the effect of, 'You can't clean a trash can if you're standing in it.'
The modern Republican and Democratic parties exist for one goal: To propagate the existence of the party. That's it. They don't care about actually solving problems, they care about driving wedges between us on non-essential or non-existent issues to "solidify the base."
I suppose my frustration with so-called "progressive" democrats is this :
The Green Party has represented your values for far longer that any "democrat' and yet you refuse to acknowledge them; Green party presidential candidates like Ralph Nader (2000), Pat LaMarche (2004), Cynthia McKinney (2008), and Jill Stein (2012). Instead, you continue to waste your vote on "the lesser of two evils" simply out of fear of a Republican in the White House.
So, go ahead, rally the cry for the sheepdog, Bernie Sanders. Progressivism is dead in the U.S. with Hillary at the helm, and Sanders declaration will only funnel votes to Clinton when he inevitably loses the primary.
I'll be voting for whomever is the Green party candidate after the national caucus in July. I'm voting my values.