LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Hillary wasn’t really gutsy at all

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To the editor:

I read an excellent review in MSNBC/The Print which Rama Lakshmi writes that Hillary Clinton’s “Gutsy” on Apple TV+ is a feel-good Hallmark card tribute to feminists.

My take is different. I am quite offended by the program about two entitled women traveling the world to meet women who are truly gutsy. Hillary, the woman who never misses an opportunity to dump on Bernie Sanders. 

Wake up, Hillary! Bernie was not the reason you lost the election to Trump.  You were. Yeah! We all knew that Bernie was the favored, but the Democratic National Committee, in its incomparable wisdom, chose you, a person whom many had begun to really dislike — some even to despise you. 

That, because of the very deeply felt repugnance to you, many chose to not vote. That many others left the Democratic Party — myself included — was the reason Trump won. 

So why is Hillary still dumping on Bernie for not being sufficiently supportive of women?

Jacobin magazine hits the nail on the head when it reminds us that Hillary,  “by contrast, in 2016, chose a running mate, Tim Kaine, whose views on abortion were described politely by the media as ‘complicated’ and ‘evolving.’ In 2005, his state’s NARAL Pro-Choice chapter had declined to endorse him even against a right-wing Republican because he was not sufficiently pro-choice.

“That means Hillary Clinton knowingly decided that it was OK to risk putting an anti-choice Democrat in the White House.” 

The Jacobin article goes on to say that “with neoliberal Democratic men failing women so badly — and Republicans waging an all-out war on our basic rights — Sanders, a four-decade champion of women, is a counterintuitive target of feminist ire. But Clinton’s attacks aren’t actually about Sanders’ failings as a feminist, nor his alleged toxic masculinity. Her moves here are ideological, part of a long-running, but not notably successful, effort by the ruling-class wing of the party to discredit socialism among women, especially the young and progressive.

“The accusations are just as ridiculous now as they were in 2016 and 2020. But the effort seems so strained this time around — a panicked, last-ditch effort to save neoliberal feminism from irrelevance.”

There are numerous other economic issues that affect women even more than men. Sanders has always supported a higher minimum wage than Clinton, and far more women than men work for low wages. Sanders has championed legislation to strengthen union organizing rights — opposed by many neoliberal Democrats — and unions are one of the most proven remedies to pay disparity and other forms of discrimination that women face in the workplace.

In the criminal justice segment, for example, no one, of course, mentions Clinton’s own role in advocating for crime legislation that lengthened sentences and greatly increased mass incarceration.

So, let’s talk about gutsy. I can think of many gutsy women: Malala Yousafzai, Gloria Steinam, Dolores Huerta, Rigoberta Menchu, Frances Perkins — who witnessed the Triangle Shirtwaist fire — Rosa Parks, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Amelia Earhart, Greta Thunberg, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

My list goes on and on. It does not include Hillary Clinton.

What really sticks in my craw is the incredible machinations of these Clintons. With the extensive, ad nauseum coverage of how the Russians helped Trump get elected, apparently no one bothered to read the April 23, 2015 article in The New York Times about how cash flowed to the Clinton Foundation as Russians pressed for control of a uranium company.

Irene Diaz-Reyes

Hillary Clinton, Gutsy, women, Irene Diaz-Reyes

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