“That” Hillary Clinton will officially arrive on Wednesday night
The Democratic Convention starts today. I am proud to stand with the Biden/ Harris ticket and will battle anyone who threatens disunity. And while the country has changed immeasurably from the convention in Philadelphia four years ago, it is hard for me not to look back and imagine what could have been.
What if there had been rousing, unequivocal support for Hillary Clinton? Imagine for one moment if the former lawyer, former First Lady, former Senator, Secretary Clinton, had been treated as a monumental candidate, running a beautiful, inclusive, thoughtful campaign, instead of the bored, ho-hum establishment candidate.
What if we didn’t have to listen as the Bernie-faction booed and jeered and the cameras glorify his supporters as they sat with tape over their mouths protesting the “TPP?” What could have been if they had realized the importance of the moment instead of needing Sarah Silverman to walk on stage and chide her fellow Sanders supporters?
Imagine if we, as a people, had rejected the sexist slogans of “Bern the Witch” and “Lock Her Up.”
What could have been if MSNBC didn’t employ the SNL cynics to host a special “Weekend Update” and roast her every word, after she had accepted the nomination?
If you can picture those changes, you can envision a world where we would be celebrating the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage with a woman being saluted as she walked to the White House. A woman who was the most qualified person to ever seek the highest office, being our president. That was the dream.
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On my desk sits a snow globe filled with pieces of confetti that should have fallen at the Javits Center on November 8th, 2016. Through the painful years since that horrible night, there has been an endless lob of arrows to the heart. I have never watched the concession speech. I have felt deep sorrow as the elderly women, faithful supporters and believers, those who were born before women could cast a ballot, all slipped away. After that stinging election loss, they knew they would never live to see a woman president. I am 42-years old, and have had the same thought.
Through it all, Secretary Clinton had to endure. She was blamed. She was told unequivocally that she was the one who failed, not the voters. Her campaign was deconstructed and even when she apologized and explained What Happened, it was never enough. People always want one more swipe at Hillary. Sure, enjoy those walks in the woods and stay there. Or, as an ignorant Vanity Fair writer suggested, “take up knitting.”
The large swath of Hillary Clinton supporters had to watch as many of the other Democratic 2020 presidential hopefuls used her as a cautionary tale or a punchline. We have witnessed the not-so-slow erasure of her accomplishments. (Even now, the ads for the DNC, do not show her name and her image is buried behind other people.)
For her supporters, there is one awful moment still to come. One more needle in the eye. A last round of dirt in the face that is heading our way. On Wednesday night, Hillary Clinton will appear at the DNC Convention. She will talk about the entrenched and traumatic struggles we are facing as a nation and the need for Joe Biden to be elected. She will speak eloquently, with genuine care, about the heartaches the coronavirus has brought to her fellow citizens. She might mention the honor of being the last nominee and the fights that women have won, especially in the 2018 midterms. She will do this with the kindness and empathy that she would have brought to the Oval Office. On that night, Hillary Clinton will show us all again the amazing leader that history will remember. But…
But, the hateful moment will have arrived. The time when all the pundits and opinion writers and twitter flowers, the faux-gressives and the no-gressives will say: “Oh, where was THIS Hillary Clinton four years ago.” “She should have given a speech like this. What was she thinking?” “She might have been President, if only…”
And it will hurt all over again.
Secretary Clinton will go on, because what choice does she have, and as President Obama said four years ago, “she never, ever quits.” The media will blind themselves further from the actions that prevented her presidency. And what of her supporters? Her supporters that cannot bear to remove the stickers from our cars and wear our “H” pins proudly whenever we vote, the supporters who first chanted “I believe that she will win” and those of us who will never forgive the treatment she weathered, we will feel this cut, feel the hot rage, and bank those fires deep. We will turn that anger into action, because we are the “progressives that like to get things done.” And we will be in awe, once again, at her strength.
On my desk sits a snow globe with confetti that should have fallen at the Javits Center. Inside are the words of Maya Angelou, etched in metal: “And Still I Rise.” We supporters will go on for her. Because if Hillary Clinton can stand it, we can too.
