Hillary Clinton wanted to be the woman to break the highest glass ceiling in our nation and lead women forward. However, her disrespectful comments about women and this past weekend’s “sorry (not sorry)” apology she posted on Facebook remind us of why she is not a real champion for all women.
In India recently, Clinton attempted again to explain why she lost the 2016 presidential election. Her exact words were different, but the sentiment was the same as it has been since she lost unexpectedly to Donald Trump in November 2016: a “basket of deplorables” voted against her.
{mosads}Although disgusted with the electorate in general, Clinton had a bone to pick with white women specifically. If you listen to Clinton, these women aren’t intelligent enough to make up their minds. According to her, they caved to ”ongoing pressure to vote the way that your husband, your boss, your son, whoever, believes you should.” As the candidate who supposedly represented women, what an insulting way to talk about female voters.
It was only a matter of time before the backlash and criticism from even her own party would force her to apologize. But instead of truly being contrite, she put the blame on others and doubled down, noting in her Facebook post: “I understand how some of what I said upset people and can be misinterpreted.”
Just because you apologize doesn’t mean you mean it. Clinton is about as sorry for her deplorable comments (pun intended) as Madeleine Albright was sorry for warning that there is “a special place in hell” for women who don’t help other women (i.e., who don’t vote for Clinton). There is no misinterpreting her explanation that some women don’t vote for other women because of their gender and not issues.
Clinton is not alone in her elitism and feelings of superiority. Other supposed feminists have echoed similarly dismal views of women.
Michelle Obama enlightened us that any woman who voted against Hillary Clinton “voted against their own voice,” because “you don’t like your voice. You like the thing you’re told to like.” Gloria Steinem belittled Democratic women supporting Sen. Bernie Sanders over Clinton, saying they did so just because they wanted to attract men. So much for supporting independent thinking.
Women on the political left can’t fathom why many female voters prioritize issues unrelated to their gender when choosing elected officials to represent them. This attitude will continue to turn off American women because they know that the gender of a candidate has nothing to do with his or her ability to lead the country or represent them in government.
Generic ballot polling indicates that the top few issues for women are the economy, health care, security and senior citizens’ issues including Social Security. Regardless of whether women identify as Democrat, Republican or independent, these issues remain consistent. On who is trusted to handle the economy, Republicans in Congress maintain a narrow edge over Democrats among women overall and with both independent and right-leaning women.
Women may consider how the policies a candidate supports would impact their spouses and families when they vote. It’s not caving to masculine control; it’s calculated decision-making based on what they value.
Some women preferred what was promised by a Trump administration to continuing President Obama’s legacy under Hillary Clinton. Looking at the economy, that bet is paying off. With the addition of 313,000 new jobs in February, the total number of jobs added to the economy since Trump took office is nearly 2.5 million. A Quinnipiac Poll shows slightly more women credit President Trump (46 percent) with the current state of the economy than President Obama (43 percent).
Clinton had nothing new to offer the hard-working people she said were shut out of the economy and politics but a continuation of Obama’s policies and agenda. Millions of Americans, including women voters, were smart enough to decide that is not what they wanted.
Espousing conservative philosophy or supporting a limited role of government doesn’t make another citizen backward. Many on the left ignore the elitism of their own thinking and denigrate others with whom they disagree, rather than trying to engage intellectually with an open mind.
Clinton could have used the opportunity of her presidential campaign and its aftermath to bridge the divide between Americans, but instead she continues to belittle those who do not share her views.
Patrice Onwuka is senior policy analyst for the Independent Women’s Forum.