The whole "We need a woman as POTUS" theme

[pinebox]

Many are supporting Hillary only because she's a woman and that is it.








That's a very dangerous position to take in a society where people are literally dying because they don't have health insurance, an issue which is a hot topic in this debate. There's real issues at hand in this election and some of which will decide a persons fate & I wonder if anybody really stops to think about that.

Look, in the entire realm of things, Hillary isn't Elizabeth Warren and she never ever will be. Trying to re-brand Hillary as some progressive and who is against single payer and a living wage disgusts me. I'm not going to lie, it does. These are core progressive values and yet she's against both.

People say Hillary is strong on health care and she's on the record as saying that the ACA is basically good enough and she's against single payer (something which I've actually seen people here on DU laugh about with Bernie and his support of it.) Sorry but I don't think that being for single payer is funny, not one damn bit when people are literally dying in a county because they don't have insurance.

This is Hillary's plan. http://time.com/4043242/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-health-care/



And now I'm going to tell you all a story which I've debated long & hard on about every bringing up because well, it's rather personal but in the end it's something I have to do.

I'm an ACA success story. A very BIG ACA success story and I was contacted by POTUS's HHS when he came to my city in 2014 to speak, hoping they could meet with me to get my story. I wasn't able to because I was still sick at the time. I did however write it all out for them and I told them everything.

You know what else? I lived in Germany for 10 years as a ex-pat (non-military) as I married a German who happens to be an RN. I've seen one of the worlds best single payer systems in action, up close and personal.

I have a pretty rare perspective on everything having been exposed to both.

Here's the deal folks.

I was allowed into the high risk exchange pools very early on, one of the very first in the entire country due to a very rare non smoking related lung disease. I was dying, literally. On January 2nd 2014 I was allowed to have the life saving surgery I needed because of the ACA and ONLY because of the ACA. Without the ACA I wouldn't be here today typing this. I'd be in the ground. My surgery took 16 hours and I was in PT/OT for a month afterwards in the hospital. I also had 270 staples in me. Fun, eh?

I'm one of the very lucky ones who's been given a second chance in this thing called life. I know this, I thank the good Lord above day for this chance.

But I also know that I am an exception to the rule. I know right now that people will continue die under a Hillary presidency because they don't have insurance. Now people may say that's a little harsh BUT it's also blatantly truthful. Millions are still uninsured under the ACA and millions can't afford the monthly premiums for health insurance.

The stickler?

Hillary isn't for a living wage, where Bernie is. A rise in minimum wage would help people afford the cost of health insurance and often it's those workers who fall through the donut hole, the ones who make too much to be on Medicaid and too little to afford insurance. Welcome to the paradox wormhole that is Camp Clinton!

This is a real issue that will ultimately decide peoples lives and if they live or die.
You think that's funny? It isn't because when you're laying on your death bed, sick as shit, unable to get the care you need, having a woman as a president is the last damn thing that's on your frickin' mind.

True story.

[99th_Monkey]

1. No wonder Hillary is constantly playing the gender card & smearing Bernie as 'sexist'

she knows her demographic .. and why they support her ...
and she plays it to the hilt, whenever she'e not playing the 9-11 card to justify
her huge Wall St. donors.

[pinebox]

2. Quite true

and that whole 9/11 thing last night was disgusting.

[sabrina 1]

18. Mostly privileged women. They can afford the luxury of voting for someone simply to

satisfy a personal desire. But that won't get her elected. I suspect that out of the entire female population that is a very small demographic, limited to Dems, which is no longer the largest registered voter demographic in the country. Independents are now in that position.

[merrily]

3. If I liked all candidates equally--unlikely--I would decide in favor of a woman.

It really is past time for a majority of America. But I would never decide whom I like on that basis.

[pinebox]

4. To me it's about the issues

and only the issues. That's a pretty clear cut thing this election.

[Hepburn]

9. Exactly.

I don't like the resort to gender. I am voting not on someone's gender, race, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religious heritage, etc.

It's the issues. I am so embarrassed by the suggestion that as a female I MUST support Hillary. Please stop it. It's insulting that some think that I would based a vote on the gender of the candidate -- i.e.,being female, I would HAVE TO support the female.

[NaturalHigh]

5. You will never hear me say we need a woman as POTUS.

I will say loud and long to anyone who will listen that we need Hillary Clinton as POTUS.

With that said, if my fellow Democrats choose Bernie Sanders as our nominee, I will gladly vote for him.

[azmom]

6. My surgery cost over $150,000

Everyone needs insurance not a woman president.

[pinebox]

10. Ya mine was $450k & that includes my 6 week stay

[azmom]

26. Yikes. Happy that you are alive and giving us

Great posts.

[Faux pas]

7. Kickin'

[pinebox]

11. appreciated

[Faux pas]

25. Anything

for Bernie and my fellow Berns!

[zappaman]

8. Ok. n/t

[bravenak]

12. We need women in more positions of power.

Historically we have not had much power, so I feel that a woman leader will help fight sexism. It will be a win for feminism to have a female running the nation. Yay!

[2pooped2pop]

53. yeah that's our biggest problem all right.

Not! There are life and death issues out there. More of the same in a female body is not going to change it.

[bravenak]

57. Ummm hmmm.

[leftofcool]

62. Woosh!

Do you ever get the feeling that some statements go right over the heads of people?

[Rosa Luxemburg]

13. I care about the issues

[sabrina 1]

19. Issues are far more important. If we were to be presented with a woman who is as good

as Sanders with as long and consistent a record as his, I would support such a woman. So far, that hasn't happened.

[madamesilverspurs]

14. Don't worry.

There are plenty who will vote against her just BECAUSE she's female.

[pinebox]

15. But those aren't Dem voters to begin with

[madamesilverspurs]

16. Actually,

yes, some of them are registered Dems.

[pinebox]

17. I haven't seen that myself

Scary if true

[madamesilverspurs]

21. I honestly wish

I hadn't heard it. Guess we just need the occasional reminder that no group of humans can claim absolute homogeneity of thought; that said, among Dems I have not personally encountered the misogyny as often as among the GOPers that prevail locally.

[72DejaVu]

58. Wrong.

Just take a look at the next Dem primary between a male and a female candidate in a gubernatorial or senate race and see how some Dems respond to the female.

[sabrina 1]

20. Those are votes no Dem will ever get.

[DanTex]

22. Another straw argument. Some people support Hillary because she's a great candidate

and also because she's a woman. I've never heard anyone support her solely because she's a woman.

For example, those tweets you cited.

[pinebox]

27. It's straw man that people care about health care?

And Dan, you obviously live solely on the bubble on DU if you think that's not a thing.
Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Tree falling in forest scenario.
Meanwhile, in the real world https://twitter.com/search?q=time%20for%20a%20woman%20hillary&src=typd

[DanTex]

28. LOL. The straw argument is "Many are supporting Hillary only because she's a woman and that is it."

Nice try.

[pinebox]

32. Dan, forest through the trees

because understanding my whole argument is obviously hard for you.
Now go read the rest of what I said.

There are REAL issues in this election and they are huge. Peoples lives literally depend on them.

[DanTex]

33. If you want people outside the Bernie bubble to listen to you, try not starting them out with

straw arguments. Burning your credibility in the first sentence isn't a strong persuasive tactic.

[pinebox]

35. No staw arguments Dan

and I do just fine with getting my argument across, as you've clearly seen in the past.

[leftofcool]

63. Actually, you don't

To say that most women will vote for Hillary because she is a woman is insulting to women. Somehow, you just don't see that. But, I am not surprised. I have seen that same type of statement all over the net made by Bernie supporters so you are not alone in your thinking. In fact, I firmly believe you should keep saying it and keep posting it everywhere. The more you do, the higher Hillary's poll numbers climb.

[2pooped2pop]

54. I thinke there is more than straw in that argument.

Hopefully it will get Berned.

[senz]

23. Hillary lacks empathy.

That should be abundantly clear.

[azmom]

29. From my daughter's all women's college

We need women who are so strong that they can be gentle, so educated that they can be humble, so fierce that they can be compassionate, so passionate that they can be rational, and so disciplined that they can be free. - See more at: https://www.mtholyoke.edu/media/kavita-n-ramdas-85-citation-and-speech#sthash.Wpo2WAsz.dpuf

[senz]

39. Your daughter is receiving a first-rate education, azmom

and you must have done a great job of raising her for her to be there.

I loved Kavita Ramdas' speech to the Mount Holyoke graduates. This part is certainly applicable to the OP:

"the notion that there are not separate categories of human rights and women’s rights, but one category of human rights that includes, centrally and urgently, the rights of women."

So true. Thanks for sharing!

[azmom]

41. The women there are big Bernie supporters too.

Mount Holyoke women rock!

[senz]

42. So glad to hear that.

These quality women do indeed rock!

[passiveporcupine]

50. I love this

[Hydra]

24. It's past time for us to have a Woman President

But that doesn't mean voting for Carly Fiorina or Diane Feinstein in my book.

Hillary Clinton is a perfectly qualified, but she has views and policies that are better suited to a Bush Administration than a Dem one. Where President Obama shouted "Yes, we can!" all I hear from her and her camp is "Nope! Can't! Won't! Never! Well, maybe..."

Not really encouraging there- we have big problems right now, and we need big solutions, not "As little as possible!"

[2pooped2pop]

56. Elizabeth Warren

would do.

[MisterP]

30. "identitarianism" is the word (even if it's a bit controversial as an analysis)

she's "the women's candidate" because she is one, she's "the Black/Latino candidate" because she's female, or at least because she isn't an Old White Male

it's supposed to be something one hardly even thinks about, just a bunch of easy, implicit connections somewhere in the skull--just a slogan, "It's time for a woman!" digging into the candidates' stances on women's issues is just "mansplaining" or "white fragility" (until of course people who aren't cishet white guys speak up, and then they're ejected while the human wall chants)

[CharlotteVale]

31. I'm a woman and it makes me sick the way Hillary plays the woman card.

The only kind of woman I'd want for president would be like Elizabeth Warren.

Hillary is not on my side and she cannot be trusted.

[trueblue2007]

34. I WANT HILLARY TO BE NEXT PRESIDENT OF THE USA

[pinebox]

36. So you want people to still be uninsured

and some will die because of that. That's quite a strategy.

[trueblue2007]

44. Pinebox. STOP LYING. I said NOTHING about insurance or people dying IN MY POST

I simply said I am supporting Clinton. AND I SUPPORT SANDERS. AND I SUPPORT O'MALLEY.

I am a DEMOCRAT. I do not call anyone who supports any of our Democrats who are running for President names.
Stop hating on me. I don't even know you.

I SUPPORT DEMOCRATS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[pinebox]

45. Drunk DU'ing?

[trueblue2007]

47. no i WAS NOT DRUNK SMART ASS. leave me alone.

[leftofcool]

65. Ignore this and this poster.

When people have no point to make, they resort to silly remarks. It is quite telling don't you think?

[pinebox]

66. lol.....

because you don't do that do you? Hi pot meet kettle

[passiveporcupine]

52. That was totally uncalled for.

I would ask you to please reconsider and self-delete.

[leftofcool]

64. Try making an actual point instead of an accusation.

[passiveporcupine]

51. Maybe posting a gif of her doing the bobble head

isn't in your best interest then?

Sorry, but that bobble head just cracks me up.

Just wanting to clarify. I'm not wanting to diss Hillary here...that gif just makes me crazy...I think my eyes were bouncing for awhile after watching it.

[moondust]

37. Not in the same league as "first black President." n/t

[XemaSab]

38. Thatcher was a woman, too

n/t

[Sheepshank]

40. So much bullshit, so little time

Would you be surprised that there are people voting for Bernie or O'Malley simply because they are NOT a woman?

If women as a whole only voted for Hillary based on her gender, can you explain why Bachmann didn't fair better? Or why Fiorina is tanking?

And finally so sick of the sexist reasoning from Bernie supporters. The sour grapes, the constant whine that women constituency are finally truly excited for a woman that also has a strong viable platform. Hillary is the whole package, not the sum total of her xx chromosomes.

I'm beginning to think there is a faction of non Hillary supporters that are offended that a woman is leading the Dem race.

[sibelian]

61. I wish Bernie WAS a woman.

How awesome would it be to have a female progressive?

First minister of my country gender balanced her cabinet.

[dsc]

43. First let me say I am glad the ACA helped you

but you are wrong on several points. Neither Medicare, nor Germany, are examples of single payer systems. Medicare has deductibles and co pays for which patients are responsible (or for which they get other insurance) and doesn't cover many things (such as nursing homes). Germany also isn't single payer.

http://www.pnhp.org/single_payer_resources/health_care_systems_four_basic_models.php

The Bismarck Model

Named for the Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who invented the welfare state as part of the unification of Germany in the 19th century. Despite its European heritage, this system of providing health care would look fairly familiar to Americans. It uses an insurance system — the insurers are called “sickness funds” — usually financed jointly by employers and employees through payroll deduction.

Unlike the U.S. insurance industry, though, Bismarck-type health insurance plans have to cover everybody, and they don’t make a profit. Doctors and hospitals tend to be private in Bismarck countries; Japan has more private hospitals than the U.S. Although this is a multi-payer model — Germany has about 240 different funds — tight regulation gives government much of the cost-control clout that the single-payer Beveridge Model provides.

The Bismarck model is found in Germany, of course, and France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Japan, Switzerland, and, to a degree, in Latin America.

end of quote

In short, it is perfectly possible, and many country do, cover their citizenry without using single payer. Medicaid is single payer. Canada is single payer. The UK is single payer and government owned providers, that is similar to what many veterans have. Again, single payer isn't the be all end all. Many countries have universal health care without having single payer systems.

You also weren't all that rare to have benefited from ACA though the extent to which you did is likely unusual since, thank God, diseases requiring the level of care you had are rare. But there are literally hundreds of thousands of people who got coverage and either had their quality of life saved or their very life saved by that coverage.

[pinebox]

46. Technically Germany is multipayer

and "Medicare for all" is single payer. I also think you misread or misunderstood me, I didn't say it was rare to be helped by the ACA but rather I have a rare lung disease. Have people been helped by the ACA? Yes they have but one also can't deny that there's millions who are still uninsured http://kff.org/uninsured/fact-sheet/key-facts-about-the-uninsured-population/ and many cite cost as being the biggest problem. Who can blame them really? As I cited, many are caught in a hole because they make too much to be covered by medicaid but too little to afford $250/mo for health insurance. Hence my point on why Hillary's $12/hr minimum wage is a huge factor vs Bernie's $15/hr minimum wage.

What has been happening to the uninsured under the ACA?

As of 2014, the ACA expanded coverage to millions of previously uninsured people through the expansion of Medicaid eligibility and establishment of Health Insurance Marketplaces. The ACA also includes reforms to help people maintain coverage and make private insurance affordable and accessible. Evidence through 2014 and the beginning of 2015 shows substantial gains in public and private insurance coverage and associated historic decreases in uninsured rates in the first full year of ACA coverage.

Why do people remain uninsured?

Even under the ACA, many uninsured people cite the high cost of insurance as the main reason they lack coverage. In 2014, 48% of uninsured adults said the main reason they were uninsured was because the cost was too high. Many people do not have access to coverage through a job, and some people, particularly poor adults in states that did not expand Medicaid, remain ineligible for public coverage. In addition, undocumented immigrants are ineligible for Medicaid or Marketplace coverage.

Who are the remaining uninsured?

Most uninsured people are in low-income working families. In 2014, over 8 in 10 were in a family with a worker, and over 5 in 10 have family income below 200% of poverty. Reflecting the more limited availability of public coverage in some states, adults are more likely to be uninsured than children. People of color are at higher risk of being uninsured than non-Hispanic Whites.

Now about Germany.

Germany technically has 2 systems, one of which is private and the second is private. Everybody has insurance, period. At the basic core, everybody has public insurance or "Gesetzliche Krankenversicherung" however people if they wish can have "Private Krankenversicherung". I had the latter although I didn't really need it. My insurer is AOK and because I have rights in Germany, I will always be insured within Germany, in fact, I looked into going back there to have my surgery but my doctor's here at National Jewish Health said it was too risky. At its roots, public and private are the same however with private you basically get extra perks like the ability to have you be paid for the work which you miss during your hospital stay.

Is the care better? Yes by far and away and an example of how is how striking the average hospital stay is. In Germany this is around 9 days where as here in America it's roughly 5 days and one factor in this is because health insurance companies in America tend to push people out of hospitals so they don't have to pay for the continuing cost. Here, health care is a service in America. In Germany, it's considered a right.

Coverage is universal for all legal residents. About 85 percent of the population is covered by social health insurance (SHI) and 10 percent by substitutive PHI. The remainder (e.g., soldiers, policemen) are covered under special programs. Undocumented immigrants are covered by social security in case of illness. All employed citizens (and other groups such as pensioners) earning less than €4,237.50 (US$5,422.80) per month (€50,850.00 [US$65,074.00] per year) as of 2012 are mandatorily covered by SHI, and their dependents (nonearning spouses and children) are covered free of charge. Individuals whose gross wages exceed the threshold, civil servants, and the self-employed can choose either to remain in the publicly financed scheme on a voluntary basis (and 75% of them do) or to purchase PHI. http://www.commonwealthfund.org/topics/international-health-policy/countries/germany

It is a vastly superior system and one which blows ours out of the water. Yes, the ACA was a good start but people are still going to die because they can't have health insurance which means they're unable to get the care which they need. In the so called "greatest nation on earth", this shouldn't be happening and is both an embarrassment and disgusting.

[davidn3600]

48. Not quite sure what they think is going to be so different

She's a mainstream, establishment Democrat...definitely to the right of Obama on many issues. And she'll have a hostile Republican congress that doesn't trust her and hates her guts. So not quite sure what kind of feminist stuff she's going to get through. It'll be a cold day in hell before this Congress passes anything that has to do with abortion rights or birth control.

[pinebox]

49. Precisely

And she is absolutely hated by the right. You know what's going to be different? The amount of obstruction we see.

[tblue37]

55. I am guessing your user name reflects what you saw as your probable future before the ACA.

I am glad your prediction was wrong. Thanks for telling your story in support of universal healthcare.

[pinebox]

68. Actually

my name is about this, they're a local band

[tblue37]

70. Well, I am glad your imagination is not as morbid as mine--

and especially glad that the ACA helped you survive.

As Joe Biden would say, that's a big F-ing deal!

[MaggieD]

67. So you would be dead if not for Hillary's push for healthcare

.... And you still despise her? Wow, that's powerful.

[NCTraveler]

69. I love the fact that both messages you outline.

Differentiate between her being a woman and being the best person for the job. I wonder why you aren't able to recognize that. In both they are literally put forth as separate thoughts. Hmmmmm.