Reasons That I Like Hillary Clinton, Number 425: The Pulse Massacre, Orlando

When I heard the news about the attack on Pulse in Orlando, I took a pill with anti-anxiety side-effects, made this image, went back to bed, and cried. After a nap I felt like getting up again but encountered my recurring "morning sickness while not pregnant" problem, and ate "something oh god what does it matter?"

Then I saw the Log Cabin Republicans require that Obama omit the anti-LGBTQI hate crime aspect of the incident and claim that radical Islam was to solely to blame, hiding any culpability to the anti-LGBTQ climate endorsed by the far right wing of the GOP. Having an LGBT group demand that the homophobic nature of this crime be erased turned me into Madeline Kahn in Clue.

I knew that the day was going to get worse, especially as the death toll increased, but then I saw the candidates reactions.

Trump

Trump, of course, used the incident to inflame fears of Muslims, to justify his plan to disallow them entry into the US, and do other things to "crack down" on Muslims. But only after he attacked Clinton to say that she's easy on terror. Could someone please explain to me how she is easy on terror while catching Bin Laden and being a supposed Middle East warhawk. You don't get to have it both ways, people.

Apparently, he thinks that we can catch them with racial profiling (aka racism), like Israel uses, but Israel uses psychological profiling, which is actually useful. When called on that Islam isn't a race, he replied that they are almost always Middle Eastern. It's almost like he doesn't know that people from the Middle East are Caucasian or that there are sizeable Asian and East Indian Muslim communities.

Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism, I don't want congrats, I want toughness & vigilance. We must be smart!

Then he said "I told you so," which is ridiculous, because how difficult is it exactly to predict that at some time in the future, there will be an Islamic terror attack on US soil? This is some sort of accomplishment?

But of course, the real villain here, according to Trump, is Obama. Because Obama. Thanks, Obama!

I bet Trump doesn't even like shawerma.

Sanders

Sanders spent several minutes talking about the tragedy, with respect for the victims and their families. Then he spent another several minutes talking about forcing his platform on Clinton and the Democratic party, and promoting his upcoming speech. Can we stop with the "forcing things on the woman that she doesn't want" thing yet? Because seriously, dudes, this is so far past ok that I cannot even cannot even. That's how much I cannot even.

While he claims to be consistently pro-gun-control, he's voted anti-background checks repeatedly-- after getting donations from the NRA. That's not to say that the NRA loves him, but background checks? So we can agree to disagree on whether or not I should have rights but we can all agree that background checks are bad?

Clinton

She expressed sympathy for the victims and their families, treating them with respect. Then she discussed some plans that she thinks could lessen the frequency of this kind of attack. She didn't attack the other candidates or use the press conference as free campaign advertising. Unlike the other two candidates, she acted presidential and with nothing but grace.

Is that really so hard, Trump and Sanders?

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In respect for the victims of the Pulse Massacre, primarily Latinx LGBTQI people, I will not be posting this in other social media and ask that you don't either. Their voices are the most important ones right now, so please read what they have to say about the incident. Please share their voices instead of mine.