Barack Obama vs. Hillary Clinton: the fight for the rights
This year promises to be quite exciting in the United States. Not only will many things undoubtedly change with the election of a brand new president after 8 years of Republican reign under Mr. Bush junior, one of the more contested presidents of the United States so far, but – at least – two of the current candidates for the presidency are both unique in that they represent a group of society seriously neglected in the U.S. history. Of the 43 presidents the States have known, not a single one was a woman or an African-American. This seems to show an ever increasing progressiveness in political thinking, which in itself is not a bad evolution. Too bad it comes a bit late. But then again, wars have been waged for the rights of women and African-Americans, so this feels to me as a giant step for the part of mankind roughly located to the West, from where I’m sitting. Who knows it might change a bit of the rest of the world, as the U.S. seem to have an increasing influence on the (political) evolution of the planet. As a reference point for the comparison between these two candidates, I will take their health care plans. This choice is not random, health care is a very important issue, well taken care of in my own country, and after seeing Michael Moore's movie "Sicko", this is one of the issues of American politics I’m most familiar with.
Let’s start off with the first Democratic candidate, Barack Obama. As a computer nerd, I cannot help noticing the slickness of this candidate's website, located at
www.barackobama.com. The first picture you get to see is that of Obama with his seemingly extremely happy family – I wonder what Hillary Clinton's first website picture will look like, not a Bill in sight? But let’s get back to that later. After deciding to skip the registration for the mailing list, it's time to get a new invitation, this time to contribute. Only 10,000 contributors to go before the goal of one million is reached. For a second my mouse pointer hovers over the link "Donate Now", when I suddenly realize I don't have my Visa at hand, and the pointer quickly jumps to "Issues". This opens a neatly arranged menu bar, with the issues important to Mr. Obama. A quick glance at this list shows a concern for issues important to people's well-being. Apart from the obvious issues, such as ending the war in Iraq and ensuring a clean environment, it strikes me that equality and civil rights are very important to this candidate. Of course, the top position of "Civil Rights" and "Disabilities" in the list of issues might be due to the alphabetic order of this list.
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As opposed to the Belgian health care system – which is entirely government-regulated, and mandatory, though free for everybody – the U.S. system of private health insurance would not be changed with Barack Obama for president. Of course, this would be a very sudden shift in politics, and it has to be said, the points of action of Mr. Obama are a step forward. Important to him are the affordability of health insurance, and the threshold to affordable health care. In the future, uninsured Americans – 47 million people, a staggering statistic – would be able to benefit from health plans similar to those for members of Congress, without any discrimination or ineligibility due to pre-existing conditions. The establishment of a watchdog group called the National Health Insurance Exchange would further ensure a comprehensible and standardized health care system. Furthermore, health care would become mandatory for children, and safety nets such as Medicaid and SCHIP (State Children’s Health Insurance Program) would be endorsed. Health care should also be partly financed by employers, and should be portable from job to job. This is a step towards what I think should end up in a government-regulated health care system, which has proven its benefits in several European countries.
And now for Hillary Clinton: upon visiting her website (www.hillaryclinton.com), there’s indeed no Bill in sight, only a dynamic picture of a smiling Mrs. Clinton. The site has the same structure as Mr. Obama’s; the first page is an invitation to register for the mailing list, the second an invitation to contribute to the campaign. I’m starting to suspect presidential candidates’ websites all have the same structure, which is pretty logical, considering their primary target of gaining as much people as possible for their cause. A first glance at the list of issues shows a non-alphabetical order in the issues; therefore I assume these are listed by descending priority. This is confirmed by the second place for health care, which I know to be a very important issue to Hillary Clinton, demonstrated by her earlier activities as senator. Among others, she created the SCHIP safety net. The points of action in her health care plan are about the same as those of Mr. Obama. Although the explanation of these points is more elaborate on Mr. Obama's website, skimming through the text of Mrs. Clinton's plan offers a much clearer view on things, with a comprehensible division of responsibilities, and possible actions to redistribute these. She also offers an extensive range of measures to be taken on the front of taxation, to redistribute these in a fair way to everybody. This is a point which indicates a rather leftish attitude, which I like in politicians, since this is a fundamental means to a social system where everybody is taken into account. To use the words of famous stand-up comedian Bill Hicks, who had a very 2
strong view on (poor) U.S. politics: “I’m slightly leaning to the left there.” Luckily, the McCarthy days are long gone, or I could’ve been brought before a commission for writing this essay. But let’s get back to the matter at hand: Hillary Clinton’s policy seems to be a little bit more left-wing than Mr. Obama's. This leads her course of action further away from the Republican side, which is something I tend to approve in her.
And thus it’s probably already clear who I would vote for, if I were an American citizen. As my vote goes to the more socially engaged parties in Belgium, it would go to the more socially engaged presidential candidate in the U.S. too, which seems to be Hillary Clinton. It's a close call compared to Barack Obama, but my impression of both politicians is that Mrs. Clinton seems to be the sincerest of both. Along with former president Bill Clinton, I think she has a very humane charisma, which always attracted me in politicians. I'd say, go Hillary!
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