Relishing My Special Place in Hell

It is very unfortunate that older women Democrats are showing their authoritarian side by claiming that younger women voters should vote for Hillary Clinton simply because the time has come for a woman president. It will simply add to our alienation from her.

Let's face it: her record on women's rights since Beijing shows that her famous statement in Beijing "women's rights are human rights" was nothing more than an attempt to gain a political platform. Many women my age and younger are facing either the same challenges our mothers did or worse despite the fact that women like Hillary Clinton have been in key positions of power in the past decades.

It is precisely for this reason that I am already relishing my special place in hell that Madeleine Albright says has been reserved for women who do not help other women. Women of that political stature should understand an important element of politics by now: quid pro quo. You don't just get my vote: you earn it.

If you position yourself as a champion of women's rights, you have to have the courage to alienate the most powerful segment of society worldwide: white men. Up until now, that generation of women in political power has been reluctant to do just that. The result is my generation and younger are faced with righting wrongs that should have been taken care of eons ago. 

Hillary Clinton did not address equal pay for women. President Obama did. Hillary Clinton did not address sexual assault in the military. Newly-elected women legislators did. The list goes on and on. Since I, personally, was affected by an antiquated State Department policy that adversely affects women and children during her tenure as Secretary of State, perhaps I have a little bit more personal insight into the machinations of a particularly arrogant form of power.

I met with the State Department numerous times on the issue and despite Secretary Clinton's order to State Department employees to engage on women's issues locally, it became very clear, very quickly that they were only going through the motions. Their reports back to Washington were rosy despite warnings from numerous experts, the UN and even after the most conservative Supreme Court in US history had raised eyebrows about it.

Bernie Sanders has a very valid argument when he questions Hillary Clinton's judgment on certain crucial issues. A woman's right to self-determination, safety, social and economic justice go far beyond just abortion rights, but you will have to step on a great many male toes to achieve it, and the courage, not just the patience, to do so. Resting on laurels is just not an option. It resembles the tactics of the segment of society she should be alienating instead of emulating.

Minority voters, women or otherwise, are particularly distrusting of politicians who pander to their vote. They ask themselves, "Why should I set myself up for disappointment again?" Banking on their patience is not only arrogant, it is a dangerous political game when your electorate is heterogeneous and less homogeneous than the Republican vote. It is a game that can rapidly result in apathy.

Hillary Clinton's calls that voters should be realistic by choosing her is just an admission, that under her, politics will be business as usual and we should curb our expectations. It is exactly for this reason that I would vote for Loretta Lynch or Elizabeth Warren; they have proved time and time again that they have the courage to use their positions of power to actually make change. It's not just about the symbol of shattering a glass ceiling; it's about what you've done once you have transcended it. 

On this point, Hillary Clinton has completely lost my trust, and Bernie Sanders, an elderly white male, is a risk I am willing to take, not just for myself but for my daughters.

If I'm lucky, God will allocate me to Limbo. What He does with Clinton and her contemporaries, is His prerogative. 

#FeelTheBern #Intrepid