I just finished watching a half-hour of morning cable news and the hay being made of a chance meeting between Bill Clinton and Loretta Lynch. And I am disgusted.
I have watched Secretary Clinton for the past 30 years. I have researched the good she has done. I have researched the alleged “scandals” and accusations lodged — or rumors repeated enough to be accusations — against her.
Not until today have I marveled at how this woman, who has done so much for this country — for children, for women, for minorities, for veterans, for 9/11 first responders, for LGBT — has found the strength to withstand the massive pile of bricks thrown at her. I marvel that she still cares enough — STILL — to run for president. She doesn’t need the money. She certainly doesn’t need the “power” — she has enough all on her own.
But somehow — despite efforts by the GOP, conservatives, and men (yes, men!) to tear her down, to slander her name, to break her — she still cares. In her shoes, frankly, I would be tempted to tell America to go hang itself with Trump, buy a place on a nice tropical island and watch it all fall apart.
But she still cares.
Let’s list a few of her accomplishments: her work for the Children’s Defense Fund; her work (undercover) in 70’s Alabama to uncover discrimination in schools, the CHiP program, the 9/11 1st Responder’s Bill, the diplomatic work to bring Iran to the negotiating table, the Pediatric Research Equity Act, the START Treaty.
Those speaking fees? They were earned as a private citizen. They were in line with others — including former officials of Democrats and GOP — were charging for similar fees. Good grief — Trump charges $1.5 MILLION per speech and nobody’s asked for those transcripts.
Moreover, the bulk of them were donated to the Clinton Foundation, which has an A+ rating from CharityWatch, primarily for the work it has done in stemming the spread of AIDs.
She showed this country dignity and dedication by fulfilling her role as First Lady at a time (during the Lewinsky scandal) that most women would have gone into seclusion.
She showed unprecedented patience while being grilled by a pack of hate-filled morons that sat on the Benghazi committee. Men and women who had a fraction of her brain power and a list of achievements that wouldn’t fill a pin-head.
Does she avoid the media? Hill Yes! So would I. Night after night, day after day over the last year the talking bobbleheads have dregged up long debunked rumors, questioned her honesty, her integrity, her motives for wanting the presidency. They have reinforced her “trust” issues, mocked her voice, her smile, her lack of smile, her laugh, and her clothes.
So why? Why would she, a wealthy, accomplished, powerful woman run for a job that pays, in salary and perks, what she can well afford to get on her own, as a private citizen?
Why would a woman, who was reported — by the media — to come up short against the then-grossly unqualified Senator Obama in 2008 and (based on primary coverage) again in 2016 against the grossly-underachieved, totally-outmatched Senator Sanders.
Because, by God, she still cares. She believes she can help. That’s been her life. Helping. Making it better.
Where did all those conspiracy theories, hatched by male-dominated conservative culture go? Vince Foster — nowhere. Whitewater — nowhere. Benghazi — nowhere.
So why? Why do people with a modicum of intelligence, still believe the propaganda? Because the idea of a qualified female President is scary.
Stop and think about this. Women make up 47% of the workforce overall and hold 51% of professional and technical jobs. Yet women’s bodies are STILL the subject of hundreds of proposed legislation on a state and federal level a year. Women can work, pay taxes & raise children but aren’t considered informed, intelligent and worthy enough to control their own bodies.
It’s 2016 and there are STILL people willing to go on camera and admit that they don’t think a woman should be president.
It’s different. It’s as progressively different as it’s ever going to get.
Men like the Koch brothers & Roger Ailes, who are so bored with all their money, they dabble in playing kingmaker. Men like Gingrich (who was censured for fraud while serving), Starr (who covered up rape at Baylor), Limbaugh (a drug addict), Pat Robertson (who’s completely nuts) and, lately, Donald Trump — probably this country’s “yugest” unindicted con-man -- who not only is duping the less informed into forgetting that he shipped their jobs overseas, or that his bankruptcies & scams cost taxpayers billions of dollars, but who has spent the last 12 months as a lying racist, bloviating asshole with no consequences. A guy who has actually managed to have ½ of America “waiting for him to act presidential” so they have justification voting for him.
What do all these men have in common? They were all complicit in the battle to knock her down and keep her down.
The patriarchal culture of conservatives and Republicans recognized, as early as 1993, that she was a force to be reckoned with. She didn’t back down. She didn’t take her seat like a good little girl and let the men do the lifting. She didn’t retreat to cry in her bedroom when they were mean to her.
And that drove them insane. Truly insane. Insane enough to make up stories where there weren’t any. It frightened them. For the first time, they came up against a woman they couldn’t control, couldn’t subdue, couldn’t break and who wouldn’t be quiet.
Yes, there were trailblazing women before her, but they played within the parameters drawn by their male counterparts. This Hillary — who used her maiden name! — wasn’t afraid to challenge them.
And that terrified them. It threatened the entire fabric of the “Make Room for Daddy”/”Father Knows Best” society they were trying to maintain. A structure where wives were subservient & devoted to family & husbands got to run the show; where women were secretaries or stuck in corporate support roles.
Too bad.
Even now — after winning the majority of popular vote, delegates, superdelegates and primary races — Secretary Clinton is expected to “be nice” or cede to the demands of the aforementioned lifetime back-bencher Sanders.
I find it insulting. I find it demeaning. I find myself wondering what would have been thrown at Secretary Clinton had she made those SAME demands in 2008 for her endorsement. But know what? She didn’t.
Because she cared then. And she’s playing nice with Sanders (who has NO leverage at this point) because she cares now.
And for the life of me, I don’t know why. Should I ever get the chance, that would be the only question I’d ask her.
I’m not, nor have I ever been, a raging feminist, but by God, I’m turning into one.
Because I watch the media reporting, the pedantic punditry, and the artful smear it for what it is.
Fear. The fear of a patriarchal culture desperately clinging to THE last frontier in this country that has not been polluted by equality. Where a woman hasn't invaded.
Too bad. If by some bizarre, sick twist of fate she doesn’t win in November — and assuming there’s a country left after Trump’s psychotic-ridden four years — there’ll be another woman. And another. And another.
But each one will have to thank Hillary Clinton for taking the bricks. For getting up. For leading the charge. For sacrificing what could be a really comfortable, pleasant existence to take on America’s male establishment.
And I’ll start. Thank you Secretary Clinton.