CE Week #12: “The World of Hillary Hatred”
By Rich Lowry
It’s a paradox of this election season that the most conservative candidate in the Democratic presidential field is the one most hated by conservatives. Hillary Clinton will not make extravagant promises about pulling American troops from Iraq, defends declaring elements of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization and won’t endorse massive new payroll taxes to fund Social Security. For this, she is attacked by rivals to her left, who are then cheered on by conservatives.
Welcome to the world of Hillary hatred, which will be a fixture of our politics for at least the next year if she wins the Democratic nomination. The animus against her is the latest round in a revenge cycle out of a classic Greek tragedy. First there was the conservative hatred of Clinton of the 1990s, avenged by the liberal Bush hatred of today, to be repaid in kind with four or eight years of rollicking Hillary hatred should she be elected President.
Liberal, Phony–Same Difference
With conservatives, she is caught in an inescapable trap of acrimony. The two things they most dislike about her are her liberalism and (what they consider) her phoniness. When she adopts a standard left-wing position, it is taken as confirmation of her plans to impose a Euro-socialism on America. When she takes a more moderate position, it is taken as confirmation that she is hiding her true plans behind dastardly artifice. Either way, she evokes conservative scorn.
Hillary has a history with the right. She didn’t merely stand by her man during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. While “everyone else was crying and helpless” (as she put it to a friend), Hillary smote Bill’s accusers with her famous “vast right-wing conspiracy” appearance on the Today show at the scandal’s inception.
Her marriage is one of the chief conservative counts against her. Whereas her supporters see a messy union that Hillary has valiantly preserved under extreme provocation, conservatives see a corrupt bargain. She has certainly been as much enabler as victim of Bill’s infidelities; her instinct has always been to attack any of his paramours who go public.
Her style of liberalism grates in a way that Bill’s doesn’t. His liberalism seems practical, in keeping with his “can’t we all get along?” bonhomie. Hillary’s liberalism has a more admonitory edge, in keeping with her buttoned-up demeanor. In her memoir, Living History, she writes that she was tasked in grade school with keeping the “incorrigible boys” in line, a role that seems entirely in character. Conservatives bristle at the sense of being told what to do, and they detect a tone of moral superiority in her advocacy of children’s programs and health care. When she says, “It takes a village,” they hear an implicit threat to have government impinge on their prerogatives as parents.
Stuck in the Middle
But Hillary hasn’t exactly been a provocative liberal lately. Her primary campaign has been marked by her careful avoidance of any positions that would swing her too far left for the general election. Conservatives fasten on her caution and stiff demeanor as proof positive of her fakery and insincere maneuvering. Prior to her widely panned performance in Philadelphia, she met practically every verbal challenge at debates with a studied laugh, which might have softened her image but galled conservatives more than anything she could ever say.
One might expect at least a little grudging respect from conservatives for how Hillary has managed to hold the right flank, such as it is, in the Democratic field. And one might expect some grudging respect for her record since the 1990s as their hardened enemy combatant. Alas, it won’t happen.
Conservatives might hate Hillary desperately–quite literally. They want to believe that her sheer unlikability will make up for all the Republican Party’s weaknesses going into 2008, that the public is as vested in hating her as they are. They may despise Hillary Clinton, but it’s on her that they now pin their hopes.
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There is no doubt in my mind that hilary is a threat to the republican party. I think it is because she leans toward the middle she has a better chance at gaining moderate or independent votes and taking away the republican chance of victory. The far liberals of course naturally would prefer another candidate and as they see Howard and Obama close the gap in the polls they have viciously begun attacking her campaign. Her recent set backs is starting to show the beginning of a possible loss of lead in the polling for the democratic candidates.
The republican party also has the downside of having weaker candidates. No one candidate fits perfectly into the republican vision, the closest fit have divorces and remarriages impending upon his moral slate.
As for Bills blunders in their marriage I think that shows how strong she is, I bet she would love to divorce her hubby but when your in politics you have to make sacrifices in the love department (hence all the republican gay scandals). She had the strangth to accept her husband back for the sake of her carrier knowing that one day if she would run for president she would need him, because let’s face it. Bill Clinton wasn’t a bad president. He just cheated on his wife.
I think the women of this country might understand and for the rest they’ll just have to know that Bills wonderings have nothing to do with Hilary’s ability to lead.
I think that this article really shows the multiple side of Hillary’s campaigning. It shows the specifics of campaign that her antagonists hate about her. And in fact…there are many reasons. Her every-now-and-then liberalism paired up with her off-and-on-again conservatism. Her marriage for starters and her inability to take a firm stance on issues are other factors why some of America’s voters don’t particularly like Hillary Clinton. Personally, I don’t think even Hillary knows her “ideology” or her position on issues! For all we know, she could be b-s’in her way through this campaign. I hope not though! Her politics and life in general take her from the left of the spectrum to the right and then back again. She’s all for giving illegal immigrants driver’s licenses but then wants to get rid of all illegal aliens. Hillary… pick a side!!! Maybe more people will like you then! I’m not really sure if she is trying to take after her husband in his way of politicking and schmooze her way into votes…I have no clue. But to help us all out, it would be great if she sort of straightened out that way we can actually keep up with her.
Hillary Clinton is in quite the bind it appears. IT seems that everybody hates her. Her party hates her, the other party hates her, even moderators at debates hate her. I personally don’t like her and its for most of the reasons that were stated in this article. The fact that she is very conservative on a lot of things and then liberal on other things. She is trying way too hard to garner votes from every corner of the spectrum and it could end up backfiring on her. People are realizing that she is not really a liberal and not really a conservative when they can actually decipher what her positions are. This is why she is so polarizing because it feels that you can’t trust her. Really the only thing she has going for her is her last name and then again she doesn’t even compare to the politician of her husband.
The main thing I hate about Hilary is the fact that she is hated so much. It gives her publicity. The reason the Republicans hate her I think is so that people will think she is the front runner. I think that this is what they want, because it makes her the one they have to beat instead of a stronger candidate like Barack or John would be. I also hate the fact that everyone calls her Hilary instead of Clinton. Everyone else pretty much goes by their last names in the Presidential races, and I’m fairly certain that no one is going to mistake her for her husband. What makes her so special that she can be a first name basis candidate? I don’t see anything that does. Lastly, but probably most importantly, I don’t like her because she won’t give me any reason to like her. She won’t tell me what her views are so that I can know whether or not she would be a President I would want to see in the white house. I think that’s one of the main reasons the conservatives are placing all their hope in her winning the democratic nomination. Well, hopefully things don’t turn out that poorly.