In an age of political calculations where the long shot is almost always the loser, where most pols pack it in the moment it is in their best political interest to do so, Hillary Clinton has persevered long beyond mere mortals. While Barack Obama’s well-funded political machine was able to deftly out-maneuver her, you cannot take away from her the fact that she has resisted the temptation to drop out and fade away. Hillary Clinton isn’t like that. She says she’s a fighter, but that’s misleading: she’s a survivor, first and foremost.
Plenty of folks have tried to get inside her head and theorize about her motivations, but despite whichever post-feminist blogger feels about her early childhood, whatever Hillary has been through has tempered her internal landscape to the point where, by now, she can survive anything and keep on slogging. That’s a hard quality to find in a politician. Many went into this election cycle convinced — either because of her gender or her history — that Hillary would fold if things got hot. Instead, she’s the second-to-last kid standing, bloodied and bruised but not broken. She may not have run the most brilliant campaign, but in the face of a strong challenger, she gave at least as good as she got. It will be interesting to see what role she will play in feminist folklore, now. The pundits are split between condemning her for wallowing in the mire of masculine political culture with the boys, instead of embracing femininity as a political philosophy, and praising her for her willingness to stand toe-to-toe with said boys and go the distance. Regardless of the outcome, this was no cream-puff campaign, and if a few hundred thousand votes and a few score delegates are the only things standing between her and the presidency, then random factors not falling in her favor are as much to blame as any deficits in her candidacy. It very easily could have gone the other way.
She is so close to the office she can taste it, and losing the distinction of being the first elected female president — not to mention becoming the de facto most powerful woman in human history — must tear at her. But it’s obvious where the chips are falling, thanks to John Edwards’ endorsement. Jimmy Carter and Al Gore will be behind them, closing ranks and consolidating the party before the convention, before long, waiting a respectful time to do so — no one wants to pile on. She’s earned more than that. Love her or hate her, you cannot doubt the steel in her spirit.
So many of her people have done heroic things to keep the race going for her that for Clinton to stop now, when the finish line is only two weeks away, wouldn’t be fair, to her or her supporters. When you suddenly realize that you’re in a marathon and not a sprint, you don’t go 25 miles and then stop. She got West Virginia, she’ll win Kentucky, she might do well in Puerto Rico and she’ll have a strong showing in Oregon, but that’s not the point. Calling for her to drop out gracefully now misses the point: she has earned the right to soldier on. She’ll go the distance, and that is admirable.
She owes it to her people to keep going — and she owes it to all the little girls in America right now who might grow up to be the third or fourth female President. She owes it to my little girl, to show her that girls aren’t quitters. That they are as tough as nails, as hard as rock, as flexible as leather when they need to be. That they are just as good as boys — if not better — and they don’t automatically run inside when it starts raining. Sometimes, they grin into the storm and keep playing — and that’s a very good thing.
I’m no feminist intellectual, but when Hillary finishes this fight she will have helped forge the feminism of the next century by her tenacity. For her or against her, she has brought the scourge of sexism out into the open as much as Obama has revealed the curse of racism in America, and neither of those things go back into the closet very easily. She will help redefine what it means to be a woman — and a feminist — in American society, and regardless of what position she will have in the new political cycle, even her greatest opponents will have to look upon her with respectful awe, after what she has accomplished.
Politics is full of silver medallists. Remember Al Gore? Jimmy Carter? Ted Kennedy? Believe it or not, they aren’t quite languishing in obscurity, and each of them was the second-place candidate at some point — as was John McCain in 2000 and George HW Bush in 1980. Just as they have helped create the next generation of candidates, so will Hillary’s legacy be the advance of hundreds of women into political office, inspired by her groundbreaking.
The next time it will be easier, and the time after that. By the time my daughter can vote, one of them will make it — and she (and my daughter!) will have this woman of steel to thank.
