Recently, a visitor here posed a question along with a few
unsubstantiated (and untrue) comments about Hillary Clinton. The
question was, "Why support Hillary Clinton?" The allegations were,
"Hillary only wants to become President to satisfy her own selfish
ambitions, and has no sincere intention to serve whatsoever." I did not
approve the post because of the comment which is evidence-free.
I
would turn the question around and ask why Hillary would put herself
through this punishing process yet again. Aside from the grueling
schedule of campaign events, there is the substantial homework that
comes with the territory and is executed outside the public eye and
consciousness.
Like any student attending lectures, Hillary's
campaign style consists of meeting many voters one-on-one in thousands
of rope line encounters and hearing - no
listening to - folks
with concerns, problems, plights that they hope a candidate might be
able to address if elected. She then must take home all of this raw
content and find policy answers for the problems posed in the public
arena.
Yes, she has advisors for economic, domestic, and foreign
policy to help her wade through the weeds, but the policy decisions are
hers. It is lonely and selfless work done out of the public eye when
she is not in front of crowds and is out of camera range. We do not see
her doing this homework. We do see the results.
Since she announced her decision to run and hit the campaign trail, we have posted her public events, speeches, and her
policies and
issues
on these pages. Her campaign day typically includes multiple events
plus travel. It is when she is not on the public platform that she
attends to the heavy homework schedule of figuring out how she can
address the problems posed on the trail. Often the result is a new
initiative, a new plan based on research into the problem and how that
issue can benefit from a policy proposal. These plans come integrated
with others and with a payment plan. Hillary does not say what she will
do without also telling us how she will do it and how is will be
financed.
It is easy to throw accusations and slogans around. It
is easy to dismiss and insult people. It is harder to put yourself in
the boots of another and imagine the burden of caring for a disabled or
autistic child, a parent with Alzheimer's, raising a family on
insufficient income, living in fear that your parent might be deported
for being undocumented or fired for being gay.
Hillary Clinton's
heart has always been open to the marginalized and voiceless. When we
gather to support her it is because of her diligence. Hillary Clinton
has always been the star student in the class, not just because she is
smart, but also because she does not rest on the laurels of being the
smartest one in the room. She respects everyone around her and wants to
hear their stories. She wants to use her gifts to solve the problems
and make life a little easier.
Buzzfeed's Ruby Cramer has
been on the trail with Hillary from the word "go." She also does her
homework and took the time and trouble to conduct interviews with
Hillary and her closest staff. The result, in case you missed it, is
this prodigious article. If you read nothing else published about
Hillary Clinton during this primary season, you should read this.
In
the early days of her husband’s administration, Hillary Clinton tried
to start a national conversation about basic human decency, only to be
mocked. In the midst of the most mean-spirited presidential campaign in
memory, she talks with BuzzFeed News about the unchanged way she sees
herself — and if she’ll ever be able to communicate it.
Ruby Cramer
BuzzFeed News Reporter
Here is Hillary Clinton
as seen by many: calculating, lacking principle, lacking conviction,
driven by power and ambition. After eight years in the White House, two
Senate races, and a term as secretary of state, she is followed by the
popular image of a candidate willing to do whatever or be whoever, so
long as the polls say she should.
Here is how Hillary Clinton sees
herself: radically consistent, motivated by a core philosophy — voiced
now through two words rarely associated with her. “Love and kindness.”
If this sounds unlikely, she knows it. For 50 years, she’s struggled to
explain the values that motivate her — in public life, as a candidate,
as a person. The one time she really tried to, in the early 1990s, she
was brutally mocked. In the view of some of her closest aides, Clinton
never fully recovered from the critical backlash.
Now, Clinton
doesn’t talk about this much, not like she did then. On this particular
day, after a routine campaign event at a college in Manchester, New
Hampshire — after taking photos and giving a speech, after getting a
question from the audience about the women who’ve alleged they were
sexually assaulted by her husband and answering it without hesitation or
alarm, after moving onto the noise and chaos of a crowded rope line
—Clinton is shepherded away to the quiet of an available room: the
building’s industrial-style kitchen. And it’s in this setting, seated in
a fold-out chair at a small table, that Clinton seems almost surprised
by the most basic line of questioning: why she runs.
Here is another perspective from a dear friend.
The Clintons at the 10th annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting in 2014. Jemal Countess / Getty Images
WASHINGTON
— Hillary Clinton said in a private meeting with Black Lives Matter
activists that the current plight of violence against trans women of
color is a “national crisis” she hopes to help end should she become
president, according to activists who attended the meeting.
Hillary Clinton 
