Bitch might not be the new black…but it sure is grey: Why everyone seems to hate Hillary Clinton

How do I hate thee, let me count the ways:

1) Universal Health care
During Bill Clinton’s first year in the White House, Hillary spearheaded efforts to try and get universal health care. Republicans were in control of Congress back then and they went all-out against Hillary. HMOs weren’t paying these Congressmen for nothing. She was labeled a socialist, supposedly wanted to tax the hell out of Americans, and was using her status as first lady to do what should be left to elected officials. They even burned a puppet of her in effigy. This is YEAR ONE. After the Republican onslaught, her health care initiative died and she went into hiding.

2) Bill’s blowjob
Most people remember the story, but for those that don’t, here is a quick recap: Bill gets a blowjob from an intern named Monica Lewinsky. Subsequently lies about it on national TV, almost gets impeached for lying about it, and then confesses that he lied about it. Not only does this tarnish Bill’s legacy and reputation, but it also tarnishes Hillary’s as well. Everybody was wondering how Hillary is dealing with this whole event (which by the way lasted several months) and what, if anything, was she going to do once she found out that her husband cheated on her. We never heard from her and so we were left to speculate. What we do know is that she stayed married to him. So, was she simply being a careerist, thereby pissing off those who prize integrity and dignity? Was she playing the humble housewife that forgives her husband’s transgressions, thereby pissing off feminists? Is this basically comeuppance for trying to be a working woman, thereby validating social conservatives disdain for her?

3) Foreign Policy
She voted for the war in Iraq and has refused to acknowledge the mistake. She has said she is open to attacking Iran. Also, she hasn’t ruled out torture. She doesn’t want to make any firm commitments about closing Guantanamo Bay. She criticizes Barack Obama for wanting to talk to foreign leaders who we disagree with. She even says that she would make the better democratic nominee for president because she is more of a hawk than Obama and that is what is needed to beat John McCain. She is a hawk. And in foreign policy parlance, that just draws the bitter ire of any and all doves, diplomats, and deliberative democrats.

4) Presidential Campaign
Firstly, no one likes a frontrunner, particularly one who says she is the ‘inevitable’ candidate. Anybody who is a frontrunner for as long as she was, was inevitably going to get some flack. Her campaign is not inspirational. She was the first to go negative. She actually seemed vindictive and bitter at times. (Her comment about Saturday night live during the ohio debates was just so junior high school). Other than her cry in New Hampshire, her campaign is like the bitter version of Kerry’s campaign in 2004. Both Senators from the Northeast, (the last senator to become president was kennedy, and I can’t remember the last northeastern president) and it is more about being anti-bush than pro-them. Senators are not well-liked. Northeasterners are not well-liked. And being anti-bush is really likable either.

5) She is a she
Many people don’t like uppity women. Uppity women tend to inspire more uppity women. It’s contagious. Even more people don’t want no woman as president. First the WNBA,now this. There are fears of what she might do when she is PMS-ing. There are fears that if she were to win, she would unleash some sort of femi-nazism and just start hating on men. There are fears that she wouldn’t make a good commander-in-chief because women are too maternal to be good fighters, let alone military leaders.

I can’t think of anything else, although I am sure there is more. But to sum up, here are the people who hate her: Republican Congressmen, HMOs, feminists, social conservatives, sexists, doves, diplomats, deliberative democrats, underdogs, people who hate careerists, people who like clean campaigns, people who didn’t like Kerry, people who don’t like Senators, people who don’t like Northeasterners, people who don’t vindictiveness and bitterness. That is a lot of people. A lot of diverse people, scanning the ideological spectrum, the political spectrum, and whatever other spectrum you can think of. Some of it seems justified; some of it seems ludicrous; and some of it seems fucked up. Some of it is her fault; some of it is not her fault; and some of it is anybody’s guess. She is both good and bad; victim and oppressor; vanguard and rearguard. But because it is so complex, I take caution when people try and regard her candidacy as some sort of bellwhether for the status of women. It is not that simple. As much as we want to hold on to identity politics; we also don't want to fall into the trap of completely falling into and defining people solely via identity politics.

But it is fascinating to see how hate can make for some strange bedfellows. One thing beneficial from all of this is that it has forced those that lean to the left to distinguish their criticisms of Hilary from those that lean to the right. The wide range of bedfellows has forced people like me to focus and justify their criticisms. When I criticize Hillary, it is solely around a certain policy stance or something she has said during the campaign. In other words, it has forced me to make my criticisms substantive. Because she carries so much baggage, it forces people to make the kind of criticisms that are political and not petty. That is healthy. This is how politics should work. When it comes to politics, I shouldn’t care how you look, what gender you are, what your personal life entails. When it comes to politics, it should be about your policy stances, your voting patterns, and your stump speeches. So in that sense, the hatred of Hillary has in some ways reinvigorated the public sphere, honing criticisms to be more political than personal.