On November 4, 2008, I was in Chicago, watching a black man
walk on a stage in Grant Park to accept the US nation’s decision for him to be
the 44th President of the United States. No eye remained dry as people knew
that what had just happened was extraordinary: no other black man had ever been
able to do what Barack Obama did that night! I am not black, and could never
attempt to comprehend what that meant for the black community of the US. Then,
I knew that a minority had become the most powerful man in the world, and even
without belonging to that minority, that fact touched my heart and made me feel
like this biased, sometimes cruel world had made a huge step towards progress.
This year, on November 8, 2016, I will potentially grasp what that night in 2008
meant to black people: A woman could be up on that stage, again for the first
time, and make another of these huge steps for the world possible.
I am not black, but I am a woman. Coming from an all-girls
Catholic private school, I didn’t fathom why being a woman would put me in
minority status: I was really good at all subjects, especially physical
education, and I was getting all the things boys could have, at least as far as
I could observe. Only after school it finally dawned on me I had been protected
from reality. In that reality, I am not equal, I can do less things physically
than a man and I do not always get the same thing boys get, at least at the
same price. As much as I can never understand what discrimination against a
skin color feels like despite my experiences with reverse racism in Kenya, no
man will ever be able to tell me what discrimination against my sex feels like.
It doesn’t feel good! It feels unfair and it is unfair. It feels wrong and it
is indeed very wrong most of the time. So for a woman to become the most
powerful person in the world, whether she’s a crook or not, will be good for
women, if only in symbolic terms. Period!
I can make a valid case for Hillary Clinton to become the
next US President without even having to mention her catastrophic opponent. In
fact, I have been doing just that as I have endorsed Hillary Clinton for the
gig since November 5, 2008. Obama was fantastic, and my narrow first choice,
the last time around. But for me, it was always going to be Hillary next. One
day, not even a long time ago, I watched her defend her choice to oppose gay
marriage in the past, and I heard her say “I was wrong!” Just like me, there
were days when Hillary did not see the necessity for gay marriage, and through
exchange and consideration she had, just like me, changed her mind. To me this
character trait was more worth than her past disapproval. Unlike her reputation
of being a robot, I felt that Hillary had there and then proved that she was a
human being. One who fails sometimes. Unlike many, however, she had the
strength to admit it, too.
Throughout the democratic campaign, I was with her. Bernie
Sanders caught my attention but, being a political scientist who simply knows
that the influence Hillary had been working to gain for 30 plus years would not
be challenged by a revolutionary, even in a democratic system, was palpable
throughout. Bernie would have been great for the US, but the US President has a
big challenge that most people just simply forget: Congress! Unfortunately,
being an effective president has nothing, or little, to do with finding out what the people
want and making it possible. The moment the election is over it is about
Congress, influencing it to think that what you, the individual, wants is
what’s best for everybody. Bernie, a fella so far left from almost every single
person in Congress, would have hit a freaking wall. Hillary, on the other side,
played this game for decades. Sister knows how to influence people, how to
maneuver through the Washington elites and who to call when something big needs
to happen. Funnily enough, that behavior exactly earned her the villain status.
It’s true: an effective politician usually doesn’t wear a
white jacket. Bernie fought many fights I admire way more than I admire any
fights fought by Hillary, and certainly her opponent, but Hillary has already
proven to make a difference whereas no other candidate running had the platform
to show that they actually can do that. Sometimes, her work had quite the
negative by taste which certainly applies to her Middle Eastern policy which
left much to be desired. But Hillary, unlike any other candidate, was not only
part of an actual presidential administration before, she was also married to
the President. There is arguably no other person on this planet who knows this
job better than Hillary. And yes, in all these years there have been incidents
that are not amusing about Hillary, I, myself, have made mistakes in fewer
years w
ithout making them up at all. Not all of Hillary’s steps were missteps. Those
expecting somebody to do a job for 30 years without failures are, quite
frankly, idiots. Now it boils down to a job being up for grabs and there being
the choice of somebody who has never done as much as an internship n the role
and someone who is the epitome of qualification. That’s the choice this year.
And yet, Hillary’s path to the White House was so damn tough
that I could never have done it. Injustice like Midwestern women calling me
incapable of being commander-in-chief because I have uncontrollable hormones
and my opponent, and former friend, publicly accusing me of only being with my
husband, who caused me so much pain but who I just love and sacrificed almost
everything for, for political gains only would have broken me. And this lady
listens to it, doesn’t blink, and barely ever hit back on the same level. And
that despite her emotional, female temperament. I have been a Hillary fan for
over a decade now, and even as a young girl of 14 I thought that one day this lady
was going to be President even before I actually realized that being a woman one
CANNOT do whatever a man can do. Today is this day, and I can’t wait because it
will most likely change my life, and that of half the people on this planet:
women!
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