Politics November 3, 2016
By sheer virtue of being the first female United States presidential nominee, this campaign was never going to be a breeze for Hillary Clinton. Like Barack Obama before her, Hillary faces the backlash of a nation struggling to make major social change. Throughout the duration of Barack’s presidency, he patiently answered the racist vitriol of the “Birthers” (those citizens who maintained that Barack was foreign-born, despite a birth certificate proving he was born in Hawaii) who called for his impeachment time and time again.
As a high-ranking politician, Hillary has long-endured sexist commentary from the opposition to the press which would often inquire about her hair rather than her policies.
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Sadly, it’s not surprising that in Hilary’s 2016 bid for president there would be an outspoken contingent uncomfortable with the idea that a woman might become the next President of the U.S. — especially in the Twitter-verse where anonymity makes it easy to be brutally honest about your thoughts and feelings. What is surprising, however, is to see that in addition to being criticized simply for having an X chromosome, Hillary has also come under fire for the philandering misdeeds of two men whose transgressions are used as ammo against her by a third philanderer: Donald Trump.
It’s no secret that Donald Trump has a history of cheating, beginning famously with his split from first wife, Ivana Trump and subsequent marriage to Marla Maples. Despite his own fraught sexual reputation, Trump continually reminds his constituency of the sexual indiscretions of Hillary’s husband, former president and cheater, Bill Clinton.
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Bill’s notorious affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky nearly caused him to lose his presidency; since then other women have surfaced accusing Bill of sexual misdeeds. But when Trump criticizes Hillary for staying with her husband, he is effectively blaming her for Bill’s mistakes. For like-minded Trump supporters, the controversies surrounding Bill’s affairs add fuel to the anti-Hillary wildfire.
If taking the heat for the poor choices of both her competitor and husband wasn’t enough, in the final weeks leading up to election day, yet another man’s sordid sexual scandals have interrupted Hillary’s path to the presidency. Anthony Weiner, the disgraced former Congressman and estranged husband of Clinton’s top aide, Huma Abedin, finds himself in the news once again. This time Weiner is under investigation for sexting a minor.
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The computer seized in Weiner’s investigation also contains emails between Hillary and Huma, which FBI director James Comey believes are “pertinent” to Hillary’s closed email investigation. Without releasing any additional information as to the contents of the FBI’s findings, Comey’s vague remarks have already caused Trump supporters to come to conclusions about Clinton’s presumed guilt, as well as making voters who are on fence very uneasy.
Through it all, Hillary – as one ought to do when faced with a bully – ignores Trump and his mud-slinging supporters and continues steadfastly along her path to the Oval Office. If we can make it to the voting booths today without anymore sexual misconduct on the part of Hillary’s male colleagues, perhaps we can finally have our first female president.
