Reply #60: You express where I'm at quite well.

[LWolf]

I'm trying this week, in the face of some other vivid reminders of what matters, to stay open. I am.

Everything you say makes sense, except that I have this deep, visceral perception that Obama is even worse than Clinton. And I sure as hell don't want to see her as president.

Part of what is feeding that perception is the way people seem to excuse his republican leanings, even adopt them. The attitude that, if Obama says it or does it, it must be good, frightens me. It takes a lot to frighten me, but the vision of another 4 or 8 years under a president who gets away with anything because of people's "faith" does.

Of course, his stance on issues don't offer any hope for real, fundamental change. That would probably be true for anyone we nominated at this point. Still, I find that I have deeper disagreements with some of his stances than I do HRC, and that in itself horrifies me.

If I vote for someone who actually supports the further destruction of my profession, I'm culpable. I've heard his speeches, I've had many well-meaning people try to rationalize it for me, but I'm on the front lines in public education, and I know that merit pay and further privatization, on top of what we are already dealing with, is the final nail in the coffin.

If I vote for someone who will unilaterally send our troops into another nation under the umbrella of the bogus "war on terror," I am culpable.

I can't do it. I can't support HRC, either. I don't know which way to turn.