From: howard@iscsvax.uni.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african.american
Subject: Re: Clinton's support by Blacks
Date: 24 Jul 92 16:51:47 -0500
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of Northern Iowa

I've been supporting Bill Clinton since January, when I voted for 
him in the Iowa Caucuses. Of the 120 people at my caucus, I was
the only person who did. Most people told me then they were not 
voting for him because they thought he was too fiscally conservative. 
Let me tell you why I voted for him then (after a careful study of all 
the Democrats in the race at the time), and why I feel the same way now.

a) his background: 

Clinton's father was killed in a car accident 3 months before he was
born. His mother had to leave him with his grandparents for 2 years
while she finished her nursing degree in Louisiana. She did remarry, 
but Clinton's stepfather became an alcoholic, and beat his mother 
(including shooting a gun once in the house) until Clinton was 14 , 
when Clinton was strong enough to stand up to him and tell him never 
to do it again. His stepfather died of cancer when Clinton was 22. 
His mother remarried a third time and that stepfather died just 6 
years later. His mother had breast cancer and had a mastectomy, but 
has recovered. His stepbrother (the son of the alcoholic) became a 
drug addict and was convicted for selling cocaine, and spent 
1 1/2 years in prison (he is now out and off drugs). His mother is 
now married a 4th time. 

b) his education: Clinton, without any political connections through
his family, got outstanding grades and managed to get admitted to 
Georgetown. He worked his way through school. From there he went on
to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and then to Yale Law School. 

c) his wife: Hillary Clinton went to Yale Law School, and then followed
him to Arkansas, where she has done a lot of work in education and 
the rights of children. She is a successful lawyer as a partner in 
a law firm, and makes about 3 times as much as Bill Clinton does. 

d) his record in Arkansas: Arkansas is one of the poorest states in the
nation, with a large amount of conservatives in the state. Clinton
has made the state an attractive tourism (for lakes and parks) and
retirement area. He imposed standards for teacher competence in 
the public school system (and his 13 year old daughter attends a majority
black Little Rock public school). He has a good record on civil rights, 
and balanced 11 budgets in a row, including the difficult task of 
raising taxes on the middle and upper class to do so. All this was
done during the time when the Federal Government, under the Reagan 
administration, drastically cut funding from the federal to the state
governments. 

e) his positions: Clinton addresses the health care problems, stating
that all persons should have access to health care and especially
to preventive medicine care. He is especially concerned about the effect
of health care costs on the budget, in terms of financing Medicare
and Medicaid (which is the greatest drag on the deficit), and says
he is willing to stand up to the insurance companies. He supports 
a human rights approach to foreign policy, believing that democracies
do not go to war with democracies (and peace means we can spend more
money at home). He believes in investing in business, especially
in new technology (such as computer backbone networks, and high
speed rail). He has proposed a educational loan program where every
student would be eligible for a loan, and then would have the option
of doing 2 years of service in the U.S. instead of paying it back
(such as being a teacher or a drug counselor in an inner city). He
is pro-choice, but believes that abortion should be "safe, legal, 
and rare", presumably by promoting birth control and responsibility. 
He does not believe homosexuals should be discriminated against, 
and has said that "we should have a tolerant, but not a permissive
society". 


f) his choice of Vice-President: Albert Gore is a senator that is
known for spending large amounts of time researching issues. He
is an expert on the environment, and the author of the book 
_Earth in the Balance_, published in Febuary, 1992. He has promoted
sustainable agriculture. Gore has encouraged the development of manufacturing
jobs in producing products that use less energy and are less polluting, 
such as refrigerators that do not use CFC's, wind and solar power, 
more energy-efficient homes, cars, etc. 



Comment: I'm already tired of the labels "liberal" and "conservative". 
What I see in Bill Clinton is a moderate person, who believes in 
having balanced budgets and reasonable taxes, but also is strongly
anti-racist. Maybe some blacks would not be satisfied with anyone
who is not black. I believe that this ticket is a good one. The 
perfect candidate does not exist. The scrutiny it takes to become
president, as Ross Perot found out, is something very few people in
this country would be willing to do. Why does Bill Clinton do it? 
I think he does it because, after your father and 2 stepfathers have
died, and you have nearly lost your mother and your brother, you might
start to think that God put you on this earth for some purpose. 


-Mary Howard

Newsgroups: soc.culture.african.american