Before the New Hampshire primary on Feb. 9, Madeline Albright and Gloria Steinem, pioneering, feminist dynamos of the 1960s, had some choice words for young female voters. At a rally for Hillary Clinton in the state on Feb. 7, Albright took to the podium to address undecided backers, saying, “We can tell our story of how we climbed the ladder, and a lot of younger women think it’s done. It’s not done. There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other.” To which, Clinton laughed.
If it was not bad enough that Albright equated eternal damnation with the tick of a box on a voter card, Gloria Steinem echoed similar sentiments on Feb. 5 on the Bill Maher Show. “When you’re young, you’re thinking, ‘Where are the boys? The boys are with Bernie.’” By this logic, it seems that Albright and Steinem believe that female voters not in favor of Hillary Clinton are reprobates solely seeking male attention.
Steinem has gone on to apologize for her remarks through Facebook in recent weeks, but her and Albright’s words still raise controversy in a revolutionary election. The United States of America has never in history been this close to electing a woman for president. Many wonder if this does call for some solidarity among women with the Clinton campaign.
However, it is important to examine if Clinton herself has demonstrated or exemplified solidarity in her own actions in her path to the White House first as first lady, then Secretary of State, and now as the country’s potential executive leader.
At the height of investigation into her husband during his tenure as president and the assault accusations made against him by Juanita Broddrick, Paula Jones, and Kathleen Wiley, it is alleged that Clinton was instrumental in diminishing the credibility of these victims to save face for her powerful husband. In an article by Mark Hensch and Jonathan Easley for The Hill published on Jan. 6, Juanita Broaddrick claimed “Hillary tried to silence me,” in regard to the allegation she made in 1999 that Bill Clinton, then Attorney General in Arkansas, raped her.
As additional information is uncovered, this twisted dynamic sounds more like the plot of an episode of House of Cards.
An article in the Washington Times by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. gives similar insight. He claims, “Hillary’s ruthlessness knew no bounds.” Citing passages from David Brock’s book, The Seduction of Hillary Rodham, he quotes the political editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, as recalling, “Women were called and told they’d make them look like whores if they came forward” during the peak of investigation into Mr. Clinton’s indiscretions.
As additional information is uncovered, this twisted dynamic sounds more like the plot of an episode of House of Cards than the lives of our former president and potential future president. If it were not enough that Mrs. Clinton downplayed the accusations from these women, it should be enough that they were threatened not to come forward.
Mrs. Clinton’s so-called “ruthlessness” leads many to ask whether she truly is just a part of the establishment. She is repeatedly accused of vacillating between opinions to garner the vote of whatever group she is targeting at the moment and is currently under fire for withholding the speeches she has made to Wall Street.
Additionally, the Democratic National Convention is endorsing her as their pick for the Democratic nominee, making it difficult for nay-sayers who are a part of the Convention to voice and act on their true leanings in the election. The vice-chair of the DNC, Representative Tulsi Gabbard, resigned from her position on Sunday, Feb. 28 in order to support Bernie Sanders.
With the momentum that Clinton has raised, it seems difficult or even ridiculous to not support her as the most viable Democratic candidate. At least that is what the Clinton camp wants voters to think. Ironically, David Brock, the author of her somewhat defamatory biography, now heads a super PAC for her campaign. Is he trying to jump onto Clinton’s right, er, left side of history before it’s too late?
Hayley Dott is a sophomore writing seminars major from Baltimore.
