Graphic by Suncana Pavlic.
By KATY MAYFIELD – Print Viewpoints Editor
Print Viewpoints Editor compiles Democratic Presidential Nominee Hillary Clinton’s stances on Immigration, the environment, gun control and other controversial topics.
Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) has been in public service for over four decades. As a young woman she was a lawyer with the Children’s Defense Fund and served as a public defender before becoming First Lady of Arkansas. She continued to practice law and push for health care for children before Bill Clinton was elected President in 1992.
As First Lady Clinton spearheaded a comprehensive healthcare plan and Bill’s welfare proposals, both widely criticized. In 2000 Clinton won the New York Senate seat, where she garnered praise for her response to 9/11 and scorn for her vote in favor of the Iraq War.
In 2008 Clinton ran for President but lost the Democratic primary to now-President Barack Obama. Serving as Obama’s Secretary of State, Clinton oversaw the killing of Osama bin Laden and strengthened ties to Southeast Asia, but became embroiled in scandal over her handling of the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya and her use of a private email server for State business.
This year, Clinton beat out Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination, but still struggles to win over young people, many of whom supported him. She would be the first woman elected President of the United States.
IMMIGRATION
“If we claim we are for family, then we have to pull together and resolve the outstanding issues around our broken immigration system. The American people support comprehensive immigration reform not just because it’s the right thing to do—and it is—but because they know it strengthens families, strengthens our economy, and strengthens our country.”
In 2003 Clinton sponsored the DREAM Act, which would grant conditional residency and then citizenship to immigrants who came to America before the age of 16. She’s in favor of a path to citizenship and promises to defend President Obama’s Executive Actions on immigration, which give parents of U.S. citizens three years of protection from deportation and immigrants who came to the country before they turned sixteen two years of protection.
Clinton has stated immigration reform “strengthens families, strengthens our economy and strengthens our country” and vows to stop deportation raids and establish a National Office of Immigrant Affairs to facilitate reform and subsequent support for immigrant communities.
GUN CONTROL
“If you’re too dangerous to get on a plane, you are too dangerous to buy a gun in America.”
Clinton supports the second amendment, but seeks to enact common sense gun control measures. As First Lady, she fought for the Brady Bill, which expanded the background check system.
Clinton believes that “weapons of war” have no place on American streets and that people should be unable to buy guns using the gun show loophole or if they’re on any terrorist watchlists.
She has also noted that the “gun epidemic” is the leading cause of death among young Black men, a problem she aims to combat by improving relations between communities and police and by limiting military-style assault weapons.
THE ENVIRONMENT
“We do not have to choose between a healthy environment and a healthy economy.”
Clinton enthusiastically supports continuing President Obama’s environmental programs, stating that initiatives like the Clean Air Act must be “protected at all costs.”
She believes water and air pollution disproportionately impact communities of color, and plans to combat this “environmental racism” with her Clean Energy Challenge, which provides competitive grants to states who reduce pollution and energy usage and develop innovative transportation systems.
In 2001 she launched an Environmental Protection Agency study of air quality at Ground Zero.
LGBTQ+ RIGHTS
“To LGBT men and women worldwide, let me say this: wherever you live and whatever the circumstances of your life, whether you are connected to a network of support or feel isolated and vulnerable, please know that you are not alone.”
Clinton was the first First Lady to march in a gay pride parade in 2000, in the Senate voted against various sexuality-discriminatory measures, and announced favoring gay marriage over civil unions in 2013 after previously supporting her husband’s Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) which defined marriage as between a man and a woman.
As President she plans to end “conversion therapy”, carry on President Obama’s executive actions on LGBTQ rights, and work with Congress to pass the Equality Act, which would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Clinton came out against North Carolina’s HB2 “bathroom bill”, stating her intention to protect transgender people from violence and promote transgender rights around the world.
