Want to understand the current state of the Democratic Party? There's a tweet for that:
How is the one Democratic candidate with an actually pending scandal also the one leading the polls.
— KStreetHipster (@KStreetHipster) July 31, 2015
Great question. The leading Democratic candidate for president, Hillary Clinton, is facing a number of scandals, including one that involves the potential mishandling of classified information over an unsecured network. It is a scandal of Clinton's own making, stemming solely from her insistence on using a personal email address on a private server to conduct her work at the State Department, an arrangement the department's chief transparency officer has called "not acceptable." It's safe to assume that Hillary deleted any emails that would be politically damaging, but who knows what new information may come out down the line. Seems a bit risky, to say the least.
Scandal aside, Hillary is also out of step with the Democratic base on a number of policy issues, such as Keystone XL, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and the minimum wage. She called the selectively-edited Planned Parenthood hoax videos "disturbing," and suggested that critics of the Iran nuclear deal have a "respectable argument." In many cases, she outright refuses to take positions on key issues. She doesn't care, though, because most Democrats will vote for anyway. Right, Democrats? Even after you emphatically rejected her back in 2008 because she was a "candidate of the past"? What, exactly, has changed?
Hillary voted for the Iraq War, and didn't change her mind until it was politically convenient. She's still more hawkish than the average Democrat, and thinks Edward Snowden is basically a traitor. She didn't support gay marriage until it was politically convenient. Her campaign is funded by Wall Street, lobbyists, and massive corporations, something liberals have generally considered to be a bad thing. She pals around with billionaires, and may even become one herself (becoming president is a great way to drive up speaking fees and book advances). She is constantly doing favors for powerful institutions, who then show their gratitude in the form of donations to the Clinton Foundation, whose major backers include foreign governments with abysmal human rights records. She travels by private jet to give speeches on climate change and inequality, because YOLO.
Hillary has shown an utter disdain for the press, and for the very idea of government transparency. Maybe that will change if she's elected. (It won't.) Maybe there won't be a bunch of shady shenanigans in a Hillary Clinton administration. (There will.) Who knows? Maybe the email scandal will blow over. At the end of the day, Hillary is running an "historic" campaign. She'd be the oldest Democrat to win the White House, and (presumably) the first president to identify as female. Nobody trusts her, but who cares?
Republicans are evil.