Clinton: People Calling For Me “To Go Away” Are Sexist
jonathanturley
After a year of blaming sexism for her defeat, Hillary Clinton argued this week that people begging her to stop her public appearances are themselves sexist despite former supporters among those objecting to the negative impact that she is having on efforts to regain power. Even her most passionate supporters like Sen. Claire McCaskill have publicly rebuked her. Clinton refuses to acknowledge polls from before her nomination showing that she was the most unpopular candidate to run for president in history. Nevertheless, Democratic members and power brokers forced through the nomination — ultimately losing to the second most unpopular candidate to ever run, Donald Trump. Virtually any other leading Democrat would have likely won the election but Clinton has struggled to blame others — including self-hating women — for her loss.
We have previously discussed how Clinton has compiled a long list of people responsible for her loss to Donald Trump with the notable exception of herself. This includes her explanation (and her supporters) that it was not Clinton but self-hating, misogynistic women who could not vote for any woman for President. Despite the criticism over her past statements and additional polls showing that she remains hugely unpopular with many voters (and would still lose to Trump), Clinton continues to blame others for her loss. Thus includes her recent speech at the India Today Conclave where Clinton repeated her view that white women are under the thumb of their husbands and vote as they dictate.
Ruth Mandel, director of the university’s Eagleton Institute of Politics, was blunt when she asked Clinton what her response has been to people who call for her “‘get off the public stage and shut up.'” Clinton responded “They never said that to any man who was not elected. I was kind of struck by that.” Clinton insisted that male candidates have never been told to fade away. That is entirely and demonstrably untrue. Losing candidates often adopt a low profile in the interest of their parties. None have been so unpopular as Clinton, who has long been viewed by a majority of citizens of being dishonest. Nevertheless, Clinton said this week”That began to happen after the election. … I was really struck by how people said that to me — you know, mostly people in the press, for whatever reason — like, ‘Oh, you know, go away, go away.'” She fails to mention that this was coming from a variety of Democratic leaders who she promptly ignored despite warnings that she was undermining efforts to rebuild the Democratic party before the critical midterm elections. It was more important for Clinton to continue to deflect blame for her loss than yielding to those trying to oppose Trump and retake the Congress.
She cited Gore, Kerry and McCain. However, Gore did take a lower profile immediately after the election and later focused on the environment — not retelling his election defeat over and over again. Kerry became Secretary of State and spoke within that limited context. McCain is a sitting U.S. Senator with an ongoing political office. Putting aside these obvious points, Clinton ignores that Democrats are asking her to stop her speaking tours because it is harming their efforts to retake one or both houses.
Before the establishment all but anointed Clinton as their candidate in the primary, polls clearly showed that the voters did not want an establishment figure so the DNC worked to guarantee the nomination to the ultimate establishment figure. However, it clearly goes deeper than that. Even against one of the most unpopular figures in history (Trump was even worse at 63 percent unfavorable), Clinton could not even maintain a majority of women with favorability ratings. Clinton prefers to blame women as being weak or self-loathing than the more obvious reason: she was a terrible candidate who seemed incapable to dealing directly and honestly with criticism.
What is interesting is the Clinton appears to be convincing no one, but her diehard supporters (who continue to invite her to these events). Her polling numbers are getting worse with her speaking tour, but she travels from insular enclave to enclave. It is the same delusional bubble that led so many diehards to push through her nomination. In her shrinking circle, she remains popular while every poll (and increasing criticism from Democratic leaders) show that she is singing to an increasing isolated (and shrinking) choir.
