SHIKHA DALMIA: Hillary Clinton: Feminism’s False Prophet.
One does not have to be a Clinton basher to point out there is something screwy about her whole posture toward women. She now insists that all victims of sexual assault deserve to be taken seriously and chastised Trump for not apologizing to the women he’s insulted and allegedly assaulted. But at the Wednesday debate, when asked about her own husband’s sexual misdeeds, she pretended like she didn’t hear the question. And she herself hasn’t been exactly easy on her husband’s victims. Indeed, there is no denying that one reason Trump is getting away with his sexual misconduct is because her husband, whom she enabled, got away with his.
Nor did she play fair to get a plea deal for a 42-year-old who raped a 12-year-old girl in 1975. Granted, she took the case only very reluctantly. However, after she did, she resorted to every trick in the book — including suggesting that the girl fantasized about older men — to get her client off the hook. This would be fine if she believed that accused rapists deserve strong due process protections. Or that it is the duty of lawyers to defend their clients in the most aggressive way possible. Or if she at least explained that her position has evolved and she has come to understand that the victims of sexual assault bear a special burden and therefore deserve special protections (debatable though that is).
But she has done none of that and feminists have not pushed her to clarify.
The conundrum for feminists is that if they ask Clinton to reconcile her actions and positions, they risk exposing her hypocrisy and making her vulnerable in the face of an intolerable alternative. But if they don’t, they end up undermining their own credibility and effectiveness.
Actually, as even Maureen Dowd noticed, feminism died in 1998 after being converted into a groper’s support group for Bill Clinton. Hillary’s just reanimated its corpse to stagger around until November 8. And no, I’m not sure if that’s nihilistic fatalism or fatalistic nihilism.
Related: “He’s got beautiful blue eyes.”