Another Day, another Hillary bashfest. As Clinton ramps up for her announcement that she's running for president, this time through a social media video expected to be released at noon today, everyone can't help but envision another lackluster campaign from a dynastic nominee. The campaign hasn't officially begun yet, but the attacks on her candidacy have proceeded as though she has been running for months, which is fair to say she has.
The cycle of love for Hillary when she is least involved in the political fray, is quickly being overtaken by the 24/7 criticism from the right and the left as she prepares to run again in 2016. But what's truly disturbing is the enthusiasm that can be found on all sides waiting for the official go-light to analyze, criticize, and dehumanize Hillary before she has the chance to establish herself as the Democratic candidate for 2016.
This trend is something we're used to by now. Within the Democratic party, she enjoys wide-ranging support, yet if you go by the talking-heads in the news-media you would think that no one within the party is very happy with the idea of Hillary Clinton running for president again.
A little personal information: I am not particularly enthusiastic myself about having Hillary running nearly unopposed. I am to the left of Hillary on most issues, especially domestically and economically. I find her at times abrasive and far too hawkish. Though many of those complaints are on issues that, as a woman, Hillary feels she has to be tougher then men just because of who she is (the pundits surely remind her of this on a daily basis). It's not Democratic votes she'll be courting, though she knows better than to ignore her base, it's independents and swing voters who tend to be more hawkish and less supportive of re-distributive policies. Her campaign will be a tough one. She cannot alienate her democratic supporters, but nor can she ignore those in the middle.
As a woman, Hillary has to work that much harder to to appear tough as the men while avoiding upsetting her many feminist supporters. Remember 2008? Hillary was looked at as castrating towards men and practically ignored her female supporters who left her primary campaign in droves to join the Obama camp. She also came across as robotic during large rallies, further adding to the media-spin as an out-of-touch technocrat.
Already, pundits are trying to pick apart some kind of meaning behind her choice to announce her candidacy through an online video. Many are already calling it a mistake. But had she announced her candidacy at a large rally like her Republican counterparts Ted Cruz or Rand Paul, the criticisms would have likely been just as loud if not louder.
The fact is, Hillary Clinton is often a far better speaker when trying to connect to small groups of voters. In these small settings, she has an easier time being herself. In a small cafe, or other smaller venues, she can show her intelligence without the constant feeling that she has to act like a presidential cardboard cutout, and believe it or not, she can actually come across as affable and considerate of the issues of which she is surprisingly knowledgeable.
When in 2008, in a debate with then-senator Obama, she counted off a list of issues important to her, but the media reaction was terrible. The problem wasn't that she was uneducated on the issues, to the contrary, she was clear about many of the problems facing the country, but coming from a woman, her list sounded robotic and unbecoming. Quickly the journalistic spin confirmed just that, especially for undecided voters. Reports from pundits like Chris Mathews and Keith Olbermann criticized for being stiff. But in reality, she sounded intelligent, well educated on the facts and had many excellent common sense answers to many problems facing the country, this media-spin at its worst.
The problem was more related to the way these lists sounded coming from a woman. To many, she sounded like a lecturing mother scolding the country. To many of the men in the crowd, and those watching on television with the Chris Mathews' of the world repeating what many of those men were thinking, she sounded crude and castrating.
The question this time, is whether Hillary Clinton can avoid those chauvinistic attitudes from becoming prevalent, ascribing many of the preconceptions men have of female politicians, especially a female politician that has been so involved in politics for the last three decades, the same preconceptions that doomed her last campaign.
The 2016' campaign cycle will be one of the most important of our time. The House of Representatives isn't in play and the Senate is barely in play at all if Democrats lose the presidency. Plus, if a Republican wins the presidency, the Budget recently passed by Republicans, including the privatization of Food Stamps (SNAP), Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and the complete repeal of Obamacare will all become the core of the Republican agenda from day one. These nightmares will become a reality. The very programs that saved our economy during the Great Recession, will not be there for the next crises.
This election will determine the future direction of our country for decades to come. Inequality will be pushed to the side as tax-cuts for the rich are expanded and new ones are implemented. Cuts across the board to programs for the poor and middle-class will devastate the majority while the rich minority reap the benefits of having the entire Federal Government in their pockets. What's the point of lobbying when your corporation already gets everything it wants?
This is why the 2016' elections are more important than any in my lifetime. We need more than ever bold Progressive ideas. Hillary Clinton isn't perfect, but it's not the leader that matters so much as the movement behind her. It is up to us, more than ever before, to push for change, and save and salvage that which created and maintained the middle-class in America. The progress we've made under President Obama, meager as it may be, must be protected at all costs. Hillary will do just that and more, her dedication to women's equality, her strength on public education, healthcare and her experience with politicking is second to none.
Hillary Clinton may not be a strong liberal on every issue, but neither was Franklin Delano Roosevelt before he took office. The man was a model of the status-quo, but the movements of struggling Americans during the Great Depression moved him to make the changes that created the America we know and love. We all must make a stand in 2016, to say resoundingly and unequivocally that we will not stand by and watch the extremists in the Republican party degrade and destroy our country. And so, I support Hillary Clinton, not as a model of change, but as an intelligent, brave woman willing to take all of the abuses that come with running as a woman for president.