From Race to Gender

The decision for the topic of this blog post was between new presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. Socialist Bernie Sanders, according to many analysts and polls, doesn't have a chance at winning the presidency, so it’s time for another post about Hillary, and it’s time for a history lesson.

The presidential election of 2008 seems like an eternity away. Every student in this class was about half a decade away from voting age, yet our memories of ‘change’ and ‘progress’ seem to never fade. 2008 was a year of an overwhelming sense of accomplishment and satisfaction for many and disappointment for some. There are many reasons why President Obama won that election. You could go on and on about how McCain ‘wasn't a good speaker’ and something about him ‘just didn't sit right with you’, or ill feelings towards Bush pushed voters left, but one thing you can’t deny is that race played a key factor. Many people voted for Obama because he was black and ignored his policies, whether they agreed with them or not. Race was the key issue to many people, they thought that his election really did mean ‘Change’ and made up for the terrible past. This was even evident in the international community, as Obama won a Nobel Peace Prize for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples” just for being elected, an award that Obama even said he didn't deserve.

Now the 2016 election is right around the corner, and these feelings of ‘change’ and ‘progress’ are reemerging all over again. Hillary Clinton, who barely lost the nomination to Obama in 2008, has already surfaced as the Democratic front runner. Now, the history lesson.

 Hillary Diane Rodham was born on October 26, 1947 in Chicago, Illinois. She was raised conservative in a Methodist family. She was very politically active, and supported the election of Richard Nixon in 1960, and Barry Goldwater in the following election. She attended Wellesley College majoring in political science, and was even President of the Young Republicans club there. Conservatism was deep in her blood and beliefs, she remained active in her church. But her beliefs took a 180 degree turn when her leftist minister introduced her to a protégé of Al Capone’s right hand man. This man spent extensive amounts of time with Capone’s criminal organization and brought their scare tactics to politics. That man was the father of modern community organizing, and his name was Saul Alinsky.

Hillary then went on to Yale Law School, where she met Bill Clinton in 1971, and they got married four years later. In 1978, her husband was elected Governor of Arkansas, where he maintained that position until 1980, and then re-assumed it in 1982 up until his presidency. This is where Hillary’s scandals began. First there’s the Whitewater Scandal, in which she and her husband had invested and became partners in the Whitewater Development Corp., which allegedly, under her influence, engaged in tax fraud, unethical practices, and ultimately failed. Next there’s the Travelgate scandal, in which she had the head of the White House Travel Office wrongfully fired so he could be replaced by her friends. The victim, Billy Dale, was later cleared of all charges, but his career was still ruined. A couple of scandals later emerges the Chinagate scandal where the Secretary of Commerce, Ron Brown, sold seats on Department trade emissions to China, under the direction of Hillary.

After Bill’s presidency, the couple stole a play from what is now considered Scott Brown’s playbook and moved to New York so she could run for the US Senate. Clinton serves eight years as a Senator, though during those eight years not a single bill had her name on it and her voting record included supporting the Iraq War. After narrowly losing the Democratic presidential nomination to Barack Obama in 2008, she became the Obama administration’s Secretary of State. Her four years as Secretary of State yielded no major accomplishments and two new scandals: Benghazi and her emails. Benghazi occurred because repeated requests for more security at the US Embassy were denied and ignored by her and her State Department. Libya was and still is a hot zone in the Middle East, all calls for more security should not have been ignored, and the US Ambassador died because of her negligence. Upon investigation, Hillary’s emails were demanded by subpoena and then subsequently deleted. Deleting evidence while under subpoena is a third degree felony. Hillary has also made the claim that she was “dead-broke” upon leaving the White House despite purchasing a million dollar mansion upon becoming a former First Lady and continuously having an average net worth in the millions. Finally, and more recently, is the scandal of the Clinton Foundation accepting millions from foreign governments that abuse human rights and women’s rights.

Why is any of this important and how does it relate to gender in the presidential election of 2016? Hillary’s positive accomplishments are existent, yet none of them occurred while she was First Lady, Senator, or Secretary of State, other than a voting record that might appeal to you. What is present though, is a variety of scandals. Take a second and imagine what would have happened if a male Republican directly caused an ambassador to die in Libya, withheld information from a subpoena, used his private email while Secretary of State while citing carrying two phones as a hassle, and associated with someone formerly (and formally) involved with an associate of Al Capone. Remember that many Presidents get excessive amounts of grief for something that was not their fault or that they were not directly involved with. Hillary’s misdeeds, alleged misdeeds, and lack of accomplishments are ignored simply because she is a woman, and similarly to Barack Obama in 2008, her supporters want change. All political views aside, Hillary would not be a plausible candidate if she was male, or even a Republican. Lesser things than a single one of Hillary’s scandals have sunk entire presidential campaigns, if the American people really want a woman President then why not wait for a better option?