Randi Kreiss

Hell, yeah! We nominated the first woman!

Posted

It’s way early for a victory lap, and daunting obstacles hinder the path ahead, but a pat on the shoulder seems just right for America today. Last week the Democrats put forward Hillary Clinton as their candidate for the American presidency.

It’s been a long time coming. And, as with most challengers to the biases of the status quo, she had to be over-qualified, tested by fire and superhumanly tough, resilient and determined. Just like our first African-American president.

Clinton’s nomination is writ large, personally and publicly, locally and globally, socially and culturally. While other advanced countries have accepted women presidents and prime ministers, America has insisted, instead, on seeking the best president from less than half the gene pool. We have some 125 million women in our country, and close to 119 million men. Sometimes we have elected mediocre men rather than opening the race to potentially better-qualified women.

President Hillary Clinton, bolstered by decades of experience, will enhance our country’s standing across the globe and reveal us as a people not easily seduced by cynical flimflam. Her work in the world, from the early days as a child advocacy lawyer, to first lady, to New York senator, to secretary of state, to presidential candidate, and now to presidential nominee, simply blows any other candidate, past or present, out of the running. Her accomplishments are legion and enduring. She just doesn’t give up.

And she will truly be president of all America. Just recall the lineup of speakers at the Democratic convention last week. Black and white, gay and straight, Republican and Democrat and unaffiliated, men and women, physically challenged, celebrity and main street, Muslims and Jews and Christians, soldiers and generals, daughters and husbands, Gold Star mothers and fathers and President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, who could not have been more eloquent or emphatic in their support.

All this is true. And yet it is also true that Clinton has somehow lost the support of some potential voters. Whether it’s the emails or Benghazi or her ties to Wall Street, or the real and virulent sexism that still exists (among both men and women), the Republicans are flogging the negatives and urging us to abandon the excellent in favor of . . . what? A fast-talking egomaniac? They put up a cardboard strongman and urge us to invest our children’s future in his reckless words and frightening promises.

Hillary Clinton is a genuine wonk, and she is our wonk. She will sweat the details, as she said, and will not give up on doing the best job she can.

She is a tremendous candidate. Witness the convention. Witness the Americans from every religion, social stratum, calling and profession who stood up for her.

Some opponents ask, how can she champion gender issues like abortion and contraception? How can she condemn the sexist talk by Donald Trump when her own marriage is a veritable glass house?  They suggest she is somehow complicit in her husband’s profligacy. And that claim of complicity, I suggest, is deeply sexist in itself. She is her own person. She will stand or fall on her own in this election. I never admired her more than when she made the choice of moving forward in her marriage — an act of courage that played out in the unforgiving public spotlight.

I’m with her because she is the best candidate to lead us forward. This is not the time to roll over for self-appointed dictators.

Simply, she is the best person for the job, and I fully believed Obama when he said that she is better qualified for the office than either he or Bill was in his time.

Beyond that, I find myself thrilled at the prospect of a woman president. As Joe Biden said when the Affordable Care Act was passed, “It’s a big deal.” Well, I cleaned that up a bit, but I fully agree with his sentiment.

I hope that someday it will not matter whether the candidate is white or black, male or female, gay or straight or trans or physically challenged or any iteration of sane and skilled humanity.

I was disheartened to hear some woman at a nearby lunch table last week talking about Clinton and saying, “Did you see her outfit? How heavy she got? No wonder Bill cheated.”

We have enough stones to roll uphill, my friends. Let us not defeat ourselves with our own brand of sexism and bias. Hillary Clinton could have stood up there at the podium in her pajamas, and I would have jumped to my feet and cheered, as I did last Thursday night. Hell, yeah.

Copyright © 2016 Randi Kreiss. Randi can be reached at randik3@aol.com.