Starting in 1993, Hillary Rodham Clinton's Flame began to burn when she became First Lady of the United States of America. Since then, year by year, that flame has started to dwindle under mounting pressure. Clinton's book, "What Happened," seems like the last exhalation of a dying beast. The time spent meandering amongst her thoughts has left her with little more than unsubstantial musings, narcissistic blaming, and still no knowledge as to how weak of a candidate Hillary Clinton is in modern politics.
The Big Question
As I was listening to an interview on NPR between Clinton and the radio host, one question struck a chord in me as to how lost she has become.
The NPR host asked about her career coming to an end, and Clinton guffawed as if to tell the listener, how dare you think I should leave politics! She replies, "I'm not going anywhere. I have the experience, I have the insight, I have the scars that I think not only give me the right but the responsibility to speak out." She lost though. Not just once to an inadequate candidate with no prior political career, but also to former President Obama. Before those losses, she was assigned to Task Force on National Health Reform, a bill that was abandoned and never went to the floor. The fault in these failures cannot lie anywhere but upon her shoulders with blame on who she is as a person. Resoundingly, contemporaries have said she was the better candidate on paper, but they could not stand her as a person.
There is no need for her anymore in the continually changing political landscape. If Clinton wanted to grab hold of the reins to control her ride into the presidency, then why did she not make the necessary changes to do that? This question we may never know, but there are a few things that she does mention as to why she lost.
Why she lost
Clinton blames her loss on email blunders, Democratic Nomination Committee leaks, Russia, sexism, and misogyny. I blame it on Hillary Rodham Clinton. It is 2017, not the 1900's. Women have the ability to do and be anyone or anything they want. Women can and have been powerful figures throughout history such as Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, Margaret Thatcher, Queen Victoria, and Elizabeth the First.
Clinton was the Democratic candidate, preordained to win by everyone, even the Republicans. Yet, she lost. Her lack of leadership to overcome the obstacles put before her and the lack of charisma let Donald Trump sneak through the gates to win the battle.
Being an idealist cannot substitute for the real action and labor needed to win the hearts and minds of the fickle masses. As an idealist, Clinton was never able to put her thoughts into practical applications. As she talks about in her book, there were many discussions during her campaign of hardcore thinking about all the data that was polled. With such think tanks, Clinton could never delve into the realm of action and labor. Numbers mean nothing if there is no proper analysis beneath the surface.
Human beings are rational while at the same time irrational making their thoughts and actions indecipherable to numbers and polls. Being a qualified idealist does not mesh together unless you have the charisma to make your ideas come to fruition.
Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in "American Scholar," "When the mind is braced by labor and invention, the page of whatever book we read becomes luminous with manifold allusion." Clinton's mind lacked the specific labor and inventiveness to overcome Trump. She relied on data compared to intuition. This was evident in every word she utters in her speeches with measure emotion and timely diction. As a Democrat, she did not reinvent the meaning of that political party.
Her lack of inventiveness made Clinton, who is the "book" in regards to Emerson's quote, not become luminous. This has been her whole career. Every "merit" given to her has never given a sense of "luminous with a manifold allusion." These meritorious achievements Clinton has written within her book of life have never given an allusion to a grander ending to her story. Her book has been riddled with pratfalls and hints to step away from the path she has thrust herself upon. Blind ambition hidden within her book, but seen on her face with every terse look and pursing of the lips could not illuminate her fading light of her life. There was never going to a breaking of the glass for her because she had nothing left.
No climax, only falling action.
In Memoriam
With all of that being said, Clinton has had an extensive career in politics of nearly 40 years. She has had her ups and downs, but never let them make her give up hope. This latest loss though should have told her to hang it up. There have been no moments of lucidity within her comments that indicate a changed woman. Clinton keeps going back to the same topics over and over again like a broken record. This country and the world are changing more rapidly than she can adapt. Politics has closed their heavy curtains on Hillary Clinton. Take a bow, for you have nothing to be ashamed of for you have fought valiantly. Let your flame go to embers, but still held high to signal for others to bear their flames higher than yours.
