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By Andrea Peyser
July 29, 2016
I'm a feminist - and I'm tired of Hillary's sexist campaign
Some glass ceilings should never be cracked.
Hillary Clinton’s massive head beamed onto a video screen in the main hall of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia Tuesday night, as if the Joker had escaped from a “Batman’’ movie and dived into a mosh pit of leftist celebrities.
So as not to muddy the fact that Something Really Big was happening, her on-screen appearance was preceded by a photo montage of portraits of all the men who have served as president of the United States, from George Washington to Barack Obama. All dudes. Get it?
Then, Hillary’s face burst out of a cartoonish depiction of smashed shards of glass.
For sourpusses like me who still weren’t jazzed, Hillary came right to her tiresome point. “I can’t believe we just put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet!’’ she enthused. A TV camera focused on a female conventiongoer in tears.
“If there are any little girls out there who stayed up late to watch,’’ she prattled on, “let me just say: I may become the first woman president, but one of you is next.’’
And there you have it, estrogen fans. Hillary’s long, exhausting quest to assume the role of Leader of the Free World was never based on her smarts, skill, experience or fitness for the enormous undertaking.
Hillary is playing the chick card from the bottom of the deck.
We were reminded, ad nauseam, that her selection as the Democratic Party’s standard-bearer has made her the first female ever to be nominated as a presidential candidate by a major political party.
“Historic,’’ crowed the approving New York Times. (Herstoric?)
Hillary’s message is “empowering,’’ raved Entertainment Weekly.
But I, for one woman, find it insulting that Team Hillary is attempting to shut down debate by shoving the candidate’s XX chromosomes in our faces, essentially accusing critics of sexism.
Rubbish. Her entire campaign is sexist.
I’d welcome a woman president who is qualified for the job, irrespective of gender, not because of it. Don’t blame that mythical glass ceiling for, as Hillary claims, once preventing an entitled, morally and legally corrupt woman from getting ahead.
She’s using that ceiling as a metaphor for her struggle against a supposedly rigged “system’’ that, in reality, paid her handsomely financially and ensured that she moved ahead professionally. She never had to smash anything to smithereens (except, perhaps, her philandering husband’s head.) I think it’s a shame that no glass ceiling exists that’s capable of keeping Hillary Clinton down. That one should be shatterproof.
As she delivered the most important speech in her 68 years of life so far Thursday night, Hillary’s girl-power spiel may have been dampened by several new polls. Her Republican rival, Donald Trump, gained ground among likely voters after the GOP convention and Hill’s skate from federal prosecution over her e-mail lapses. In her worst showing, she had the support of just 40.4 percent of voters, compared with The Donald’s 47 percent in a USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times survey released Wednesday.
But even if Hill, as expected, gets a poll bump after the Democratic confab, this should send her scrambling for the Maalox: Her standing with voters who don’t hold college or university degrees was a crummy 23 percent to Trump’s 62 percent in a new CNN/ORC poll. Yikes.
Plus, a CBS survey shows that her support among whites who’ve earned degrees from institutions of higher education, a demographic which she has owned, is now even with Trump’s.
Trump’s popularity with white blue-collar guys, perhaps un- or underemployed and struggling to pay the bills, has been attributed to their resentment of Hillary Clinton’s and the Dems’ lectures against “white privilege.’’ There’s no privilege in losing one’s house to foreclosure.
Some of Hillary’s less-educated foes are women. Nancy Saunders, 56, a white, single mother from New York City who works in retail and holds no degrees, told me, “I have a lot of sympathy for people worse off than I am, but I’m sick of being told that every problem in this country is my fault.’’
She’s a Democrat. And she plans to vote for Donald Trump.
Hillary Clinton must stop using the imaginary glass ceiling as a shield — or a crutch. I consider myself a true feminist, one who believes in gender equality without the whining. And to me, her shtick is a major turnoff.