Road to the White House for Hillary Clinton, the feminist-in-chief
Feminism is largely used as a tool by the Democratic Party to promote its own interest. It is the focus group sculpted political package justifying their exploitation of people; racial minorities, women, middle class, abortion issue, immigration policies, and the whole enchiladas. No one is more qualified to exploit the system than Clintons. When Bill Clinton’s tenure as president ended, Hillary swapped roles seamlessly. They parlayed decades of public service into a fortune; for them politics is a “family business.” There is no distinction between business careers and political careers. Holding and serving in public office provides a platform from which they can monetize experience, connections and prominence. The 2014 family Income was $28 million; the estimated family net worth was $110 million; and Hillary’s personal wealth was valued at more than $30 million by Forbes Magazine. She pulled in a reported $14 million advance for her memoir of the Obama era, “Hard Choices.” In 2013, she gave 36 speeches for about $8.5 million, most at about $225,000 a pop, to customers like Goldman Sachs Group and Fidelity Investments.
How much does Hillary care about common people? For example, her State Department paid men $16,000+ more than women, even after accounting for education and job category. Laura D’Andrea Tyson, former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Bill Clinton, noted in the New York Times that women aged 25 and over constitute one-third of all minimum-wage workers, compared to teenagers of both sexes combined, who constitute about one-quarter. In addition the female minimum-wage workers are principal wage-earners in their homes where the husband/boyfriend is making enough to buy six-pack. The family is counting on money to pay the mortgage and put food on the table. As one can see that this a stark contrast to what the elite of the Democratic Party is cashing in.
This book argues that Hillary Clinton is not the feminist working women are looking for. The political and economic environments require a politician to understand the challenges of working women who are struggling to support their families and a build a future. The deprivation created by the extractive neoliberal governments benefit millionaires like Hillary Clinton. The discontent among young women is so strong that this became visible in 2016 democratic race, where majority of them are supporting Senator Bernie Sanders.
With regard to individual essays in this book; I found the articles by Maureen Tkacik on abortions and politics; Kathleen Geier on the policies of Hillary Clinton; and on ending poverty by Frances Fox Piven and Fred Block are interesting. Author Maureen Tkcik’s essay is profoundly educational as it illuminates the politics of abortion. According to the author, both the sides of the aisle are taking political advantage of this very painful process for women. It turns out that democrats are more wrong than republicans on this issue. As a man, I understood the emotional side of abortion and also believed in the woman’s reproductive rights. But there is another side very few men understand, it is the physical damage and pain caused by the anti-abortion drugs and surgical procedures. According to the author, less American abortions are performed at physician’s office compared to abortions in West European countries, Access to abortion pills and proper health care in the event of abortion-induced complications, the European model outshines the American model.
Zillah Eisenstein’s essay entitled, “Beyond Hillary: Toward Anti-racist, anti-imperialist feminisms,” and Mede Benjamin’s essay entitled, “Pink-slipping Hillary,” is little to do with feminism, and more to do with war in the Middle East. The problems in the Middle East started long before Hillary was even born; the royal families of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain are run by families of despots did not deliver the social justice to its population. The Islamic militants came on the horizon and quick to capitalize the popular discontent among its masses. Hillary Clinton did not create or exacerbate these problems. Belen Fernandez’s article entitled “Hillary does Honduras” is largely out of place in this book as it is completely devoted to June 2009 coup in Honduras, and how Hillary could not stop the injustice done to the Honduran people. Donna Murch’s essay and the essay by Tressie McMillan Cottom are about African Americans; it is very little to do with faux feminism.
The sad irony is that if Hillary Clinton wins 2016 presidential race, we will be told by elitists like Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and other feminists that the glass-ceilings are broken and we are in a post-feminist era. The depressing part of this saga is that this is a victory for very few; women who are too rich, too white, and too capitalistic. An average working woman has no place in this circle.
The quality of the writings is average, and Editor Liza Featherstone has performed an inadequate job.
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