Like most people, I’ve been following the absolute madness that is the 2016 election. Not only are we living witnesses to history being made with the “dreaded” Hillary Clinton winning the Democratic-party nomination. Also, many will tell you that we’re apparently on the brink of the apocalypse with the Republican nomination going to everyone’s favorite xenophobe who loves to be hated, billionaire Donald Trump. I think it’s a safe bet that there aren’t too many people excited about the next couple of years.
So, where do I stand on all of this? As a writer and editor, surely I must have strong opinions on all of this right? Journalists have always seemed to be the natural enemies of politicians, from Hunter S. Thompson’s unrelenting hatred of Richard Nixon to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein breaking the Watergate Scandal. Isn’t it my duty as a journalist to chronicle the rapidly approaching demise of the human race that is sure to follow the 2016 election? Well, I suppose it is, though to be perfectly honest, I’m not really that worried.
Most people look at Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and see a pair of antichrists, ready to lead the human race to its doom. All I see is just another politician and a cartoon character.
For this article, I’ll be covering my thoughts on Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump is a bear that I’ll wrestle at another time. I’ll be honest; I haven’t paid much attention to Hillary Clinton. There’s honestly been more interesting people to watch in this election. I have noticed that when I get on Facebook I see a lot, A LOT, of people that absolutely despise this woman and demand that she be put on trial and sent to the deepest, darkest prison cell they can find, and then have the guard swallow the key, and then have another guard fry that guard with a flamethrower so that both the original guard and the key to Hillary’s cell are nothing but ashes and Hillary just has to stay in prison forever. That’s a slightly paraphrased quote from my Facebook newsfeed.
I don’t feel like I need to get into the whole minutia of the Bengazi scandal and deleted emails and all that. I’m sure a quick look at Wikipedia can fill in anyone who’s interested. Something that I have found regarding Hillary is that all the angry memes, criticism from journalists and hate all over social media really isn’t all the different from all the angry memes and social media hate the President Obama received.
People have been calling for Obama to be imprisoned and impeached since the first minute he was sworn in. They’ve accused him of all sorts of scandals and crimes. Remember all that drama around his birth certificate?
Before that we had George W. Bush. Remember how bad his approval ratings were? Aside from being the butt of every joke from Saturday Night Live to Family Guy, there were people calling for him to be put on trial for war crimes. People were not happy about the Iraq War.
Before that there was another Clinton and another Bush but I was still a kid back then and didn’t pay any attention to politics. The thing that I noticed is that Hilary is pretty much already being treated like a President: she’s hated by a large number of people who are demanding that she be tried and imprisoned and at the center of assorted jokes, conspiracies and scandals.
I think this is because, despite the big progressive step forward that we’ve taken by having a woman as a potential future President, at the end of the day she is still just another politician. She isn’t anymore insidious, dishonest or evil than any of the other people in Washington. I think this is the thing that will ultimately work against Hillary in her campaign. People know what they’re getting with Hillary Clinton. She’s part of the establishment and has been for many years. Most people will agree that if Hillary Clinton takes office, it will just be more of the same.
You can’t entirely say the same for the person that Hillary is running against, but that’s an article for later this week.
So, those are my thoughts on Hillary Clinton. Sorry it isn’t the most in depth or scathing review but like I said earlier, I really don’t find her that interesting. She’s just another politician. The Republican nominee on the other hand, is a gold mine. I’ll have an article sharing my thoughts on Donald Trump later this week, but until then, feel free to share your opinions on Ms. Clinton. I am by no means an expert in any of this, merely another opinionated college student with a right to vote. Perhaps I’m missing something. Should people cut Hillary some slack, or is there a real reason for all the hate she gets? Is the historical milestone of having a female Presidential candidate overshadowed by Hillary’s reputation? Let me know what you think.
