Congressman Jim Clyburn Firmly Believes that Hillary Clinton is the best choice for our nation
There are only two days until South Carolina’s primary,
when voters across our state will converge at the polls to make their voices
heard.I believe that Hillary Clinton is the best choice for our nation. She’s the fighter that all Americans need and she believes in progress.
In recent
months, things have been a little tense in my household. I’ve been getting
pressure from several of the women in my family to get behind the candidate who
could be our first woman
president..
But my heart and my head have converged, and last Friday I made public my support for Hillary Clinton. I honestly believe Hillary will fight to protect and preserve the progress we have made under President Barack Obama.
In the early 1970s, my job in the office of Gov. John West took me to some of the most remote corners of South Carolina. I didn’t know it at the time, but Hillary wasn’t far away. She had just graduated law school, and instead of going to a big law firm, she worked with Marian Wright Edelman – a native of Bennettsville – and the Children’s Defence Fund, coming to South Carolina to investigate the conditions juvenile offenders faced while incarcerated in adult prisons.
Her efforts helped change the system, so young people who made mistakes would have a better chance for the second chance they deserved. She even went to Alabama to expose segregation in schools and started a legal aid program at the University of Arkansas.
Since then, much has changed. But not all those changes have been for the better. Today, in South Carolina, many of our students and teachers spend their days in dilapidated classrooms and using malfunctioning restrooms. Health disparities in communities of color are worse than ever. Many diseases – including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, certain types of cancer and infant mortality – more severely impact minority communities and kill African-Americans at much higher rates than their white counterparts.
Our state is still scarred with too many pockets of poverty and the I-95 corridor is not our only “Corridor of Shame.” In rural areas, many poor and minority residents have been neglected for decades and are struggling against nearly impossible odds trying to pull themselves out of poverty.
Hillary agrees this is not right and has gone on for too long. That’s why her campaign has repeatedly shone a spotlight on cities like Flint, Michigan, and towns like Denmark, S.C. – places where African-Americans have faced neglect and indifference for generations. Last week, she went to Harlem, New York, and spoke out against the systemic racism that still exists in our society. She challenged white Americans to interrogate their own privilege and perspectives, in a way that I’ve never heard a public figure do before.
She has matched her words with concrete plans, including a serious strategy for creating jobs in struggling communities. Her “Breaking Every Barrier” agenda will invest $125 billion in jobs, infrastructure and housing, specifically in places where people have been left out and left behind. It’s a strategy modelled on my own 10-20-30 plan (direct at least 10 percent of investment to places where 20 percent or more of people have lived in poverty for more than 30 years). This formula was tested in the “Recovery Act” and it worked beautifully. In making higher education more affordable, she will not jeopardize the stability and viability of HBCUs (historically black colleges and universities).
Disparities in wealth, jobs, education, health care and access to justice cut across racial and ethnic lines in profound ways. We can’t put all our faith and efforts in just one solution.
Hillary agrees we need to rein in the excesses of Wall Street, but she also understands that alone won’t solve the problems of systemic racism. It won’t fix deteriorating schools, or cure chronic disease, or reduce rampant gun violence. For those problems, we need different solutions. We need a presidential candidate who has been fighting to make progress against all these issues for her entire career.
Although the problems we face sometimes seem insurmountable, progress is still possible. Just look at the 18 million people who can afford to see a doctor, thanks to Obamacare. Look at the millions of Americans who have found new jobs since the Great Recession and the record- setting sales in the automobile industry, thanks to President Obama’s policies. Hillary Clinton will build upon Obama’s tremendous record of economic growth and progress.
Hillary Clinton is a fighter, and she’ll keep fighting for what’s right. With her in the White House, my spouse, daughters and granddaughters will have a reason to be proud, and so will yours. We all will.
But my heart and my head have converged, and last Friday I made public my support for Hillary Clinton. I honestly believe Hillary will fight to protect and preserve the progress we have made under President Barack Obama.
In the early 1970s, my job in the office of Gov. John West took me to some of the most remote corners of South Carolina. I didn’t know it at the time, but Hillary wasn’t far away. She had just graduated law school, and instead of going to a big law firm, she worked with Marian Wright Edelman – a native of Bennettsville – and the Children’s Defence Fund, coming to South Carolina to investigate the conditions juvenile offenders faced while incarcerated in adult prisons.
Her efforts helped change the system, so young people who made mistakes would have a better chance for the second chance they deserved. She even went to Alabama to expose segregation in schools and started a legal aid program at the University of Arkansas.
Since then, much has changed. But not all those changes have been for the better. Today, in South Carolina, many of our students and teachers spend their days in dilapidated classrooms and using malfunctioning restrooms. Health disparities in communities of color are worse than ever. Many diseases – including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, certain types of cancer and infant mortality – more severely impact minority communities and kill African-Americans at much higher rates than their white counterparts.
Our state is still scarred with too many pockets of poverty and the I-95 corridor is not our only “Corridor of Shame.” In rural areas, many poor and minority residents have been neglected for decades and are struggling against nearly impossible odds trying to pull themselves out of poverty.
Hillary agrees this is not right and has gone on for too long. That’s why her campaign has repeatedly shone a spotlight on cities like Flint, Michigan, and towns like Denmark, S.C. – places where African-Americans have faced neglect and indifference for generations. Last week, she went to Harlem, New York, and spoke out against the systemic racism that still exists in our society. She challenged white Americans to interrogate their own privilege and perspectives, in a way that I’ve never heard a public figure do before.
She has matched her words with concrete plans, including a serious strategy for creating jobs in struggling communities. Her “Breaking Every Barrier” agenda will invest $125 billion in jobs, infrastructure and housing, specifically in places where people have been left out and left behind. It’s a strategy modelled on my own 10-20-30 plan (direct at least 10 percent of investment to places where 20 percent or more of people have lived in poverty for more than 30 years). This formula was tested in the “Recovery Act” and it worked beautifully. In making higher education more affordable, she will not jeopardize the stability and viability of HBCUs (historically black colleges and universities).
Disparities in wealth, jobs, education, health care and access to justice cut across racial and ethnic lines in profound ways. We can’t put all our faith and efforts in just one solution.
Hillary agrees we need to rein in the excesses of Wall Street, but she also understands that alone won’t solve the problems of systemic racism. It won’t fix deteriorating schools, or cure chronic disease, or reduce rampant gun violence. For those problems, we need different solutions. We need a presidential candidate who has been fighting to make progress against all these issues for her entire career.
Although the problems we face sometimes seem insurmountable, progress is still possible. Just look at the 18 million people who can afford to see a doctor, thanks to Obamacare. Look at the millions of Americans who have found new jobs since the Great Recession and the record- setting sales in the automobile industry, thanks to President Obama’s policies. Hillary Clinton will build upon Obama’s tremendous record of economic growth and progress.
Hillary Clinton is a fighter, and she’ll keep fighting for what’s right. With her in the White House, my spouse, daughters and granddaughters will have a reason to be proud, and so will yours. We all will.
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