I know many won’t agree with me. Honesty and integrity are perceived to be her biggest weaknesses. After this primary season, I have come to the conclusion that this notion should be flipped on it’s head.
She has been vetted to an unheard of degree. Over the past decades, Hillary Clinton has been shredded by opposition research teams and a hostile press. Six million dollars has been spent by the openly partisan Benghazi committee in the past few years alone. By some estimates over 500 million dollars has been spent in total in the attempt to discredit her. All that research, digging, flailing, finger pointing, has all come up with diddly squat but conspiracy theories and wishful accusations. Has there ever been another public official whose life both private and public have been dissected, analyzed, and critiqued to this degree? If there is, I’d be very surprised to hear about him/her. This leaves me with one conclusion. Her past is clean.
But the past is only as important as where it takes us in the future, and this is the area where she has really impressed me this year. Clinton is the first political front runner in my memory who hasn’t gone red in the face trying to blow proverbial smoke up my butt. Like many Americans, I’ve grown skeptical of politicians. After decades of every presidential candidate promising the moon on the campaign trail and then delivering crumbs in the oval office, I’m refreshed that one comes along with the audacity to say, “You know what, maybe crumbs are all that’s attainable, but I’m going to do my damndest to get the most crumbs possible.” I’m glad she hasn’t looked us in the eye and promised a giant wall, a single payer health care system, a national $15 minimum wage, or any other number of fantasies with a straight face. As Ezra Klein writes:
...she's best suited to handle this war of partisan attrition — she knows how to work the bureaucracy, defend against a hostile Congress, and find incremental gains where they exist. This is a realistic vision of a Democratic presidency after Obama. It's a vision, as best I can tell, that's shared by Obama.
I realize Hillary Clinton is a hard sell for many liberals, we naturally want politicians with easy answers not complicated ones. Politicians who say things like “read my lips, no new taxes”, or “make America great again”. It would certainly be easier for her politically to give simple answers framed in black and white views of the world. Unfortunately that doesn’t reflect the world we actually live in.
Our political system is unpredictable and messy. Republicans are not going to magically become any less obstructionist after this election season. Any major legislative effort will be twisted and shaped in ways no politician can predict ahead of time. The outcome of major political goals is often uncertain before the process of attempting them. Accomplishing one goal can often push another back. Sometimes one step backwards is necessary to take (what we hope is) two steps forward. In the end, I respect that she doesn’t push that inconvenient reality under the rug. I respect that she doesn’t put forth a vision of a pristine new future in politics, where progressives finally get everything we have wanted for the last few decades, attainable by simply electing her. It feels like she is leveling with us, and not taking the rhetorically easy way out.
Unexpectedly, I have ended up appreciating her as a uniquely honest politician.