I had a wave of information and emotion about Hillary Clinton. It was mostly about unfairness. This happened to me after reading and thinking about articles reporting calls for House Minority Leader Representative Nancy Pelosi to step down-- and it hit me like a club over my head. These women were demonized by the Republican Party for doing their jobs because they are good at them. They are not perfect, not necessarily nurturing types -- they are competitive and sometimes arrogant but have the goals of doing good for others. I don't know why I got this feeling. I had had some negative ideas about Hillary in the past for what I considered as having war mongering opinions and a lack of imagination in regard to what can be accomplished for the working poor. This wave of insight made me reconsider that perhaps she had more information than the rest of us in regard to what and how certain goals can be accomplished overseas-- what the real barriers were. As we see now in Syria, there is not a diplomatic answer. She is also very politically astute in regard to the players and those she would need to negotiate with to achieve things for the American People and just seeing what they came out with as a health care bill telegraphs to all of us, that is is merely a realist. I loved Bernie Sanders and still do but I am feeling now, a little chagrined. Earning large speaking fees was a way to earn campaign money in the climate of Citizens United and they then injected monies into state Democratic Parties that were virtually bankrupt. It is to me, she was given a 1970's lemon to drive. Even their donor database was so vulnerable the Bernie campaign was able to take advantage of it, never mind the Russian hackers. I now have such a deep well of compassion for Sec. Clinton and feel remorse for judging her harshly. This insight feels like a veil lifted from my eyes and gave me some understanding on Republican/Trump supporters, how they can turn against themselves and their neighbors to vote for these craven greedheads-- the power of propaganda.
Thank you, Kathy for your post! Just a few hours ago my husband said to me, "I'm starting to feel that the hardest thing for me and many others will be to fully admit and accept the fact that we have been manipulated." Progressive, Center, Right. I believe there was a playbook for all of us....
I totally get what you mean and appreciate your post. What you said means a lot to me.
Back in the 90s when Hillary first came on the scene, I thought she was kind of abrupt and gruff. Then after working in a male dominated profession for 20 years, I totally got her. I now understand she had already walked the path of discrimination and villainization that lay ahead for most women in a male dominated professions. You pretty much have to be hard to survive the junk they throw at you.
Now I admire her for having the determination to stay with it. Most people with good intentions would walk away after a few years of that kind of blow-back. To have gotten the full brunt of it for 25 years takes someone who cares about a cause. She could have easily have succeeded in the corporate world with her skills and made a fortune. But she stayed put in politics all while being demonized.
I know I couldn't and wouldn't have done it no matter how much I believed in a cause. I briefly got involved in politics early in my career and was astounded how thick a skin you have to have to stay in it. I walked away even though I was supposedly succeeding (it didn't feel that way). And for women like Hillary and Nancy, they have taken all sorts of abuse that few can imagine. Men who had achieved what they did are generally lauded, not criticized. I know they have much more strength than I can imagine.
I'm with you all on this issue of how Clinton has been vilified because she is a woman, along with Pelosi and Warren - the three most powerful women in American politics. I shudder at the epithet "crooked Hillary" used on a woman who has given her life to politics, and never ever for personal gain, but from the beginning, to help our world. Yes, she earned big speaking fees, as you said, and it was to build the presidential war chest she would need.
As the first lady in the nineties, she fought hard for National Health Insurance for our country. That should say enough about what this woman cares about. She was never a business person; she was never out to live a cushy life. I preferred Sanders because Clinton is a centrist and my politics are more liberal. But never have I doubted her brilliance and her commitment to making a better world.
Just listen to her college speech -- she was the first student ever to speak at her college commencement. What the president of Wellesley College said about her in way of introduction says so much about the respect she commanded back then. But nothing tells us more about who Hillary Rodham Clinton is than this speech gave at a tender age. Clinton's 1969 college commencement speech
I have personally met Hillary Clinton. She is very warm and wonderful in person. I think if everyone could meet her in person they would have a very different opinion of her. She's the real deal. It saddens me how badly her campaigns went. But it wasn't totally her fault.
I almost went for her in 2008 but I adored Obama. It was a tough choice.
All of these posts break my heart. Believe I am still in mourning...the mourning that began election night eve 2016. I weep whenever her name comes up.
Since then, I have been doing much reading abut Hilary Clinton and am listing two books here if any of you are so inclined. I highly recommend.
"Hillary Rodham Clinton: A Woman Living History" by Karen Blumenthal
(2016 - HRC beginning with her childhood)
"The Destruction of Hillary Clinton" by Susan Bordo
(2017 - the vilification of HRC during 2016 election)