*This post of mine is also published on The Daily Ittefaq.*
It feels like Independence Day here in Washington as America wakes up to history with Hillary Clinton securing the Democratic presidential nomination, officially becoming the first woman in America’s 240 year history to lead the presidential ticket of a major political party, as CNN describes:
After three decades at the center of American politics as a pioneering — and deeply controversial — feminist icon, the victory brings Clinton within reach of finally cracking the “highest, hardest glass ceiling” she lamented eight years ago when she conceded the Democratic race to Barack Obama. The former first lady, senator from New York and secretary of state will officially become the Democratic nominee at next month’s convention and will face presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump in a general election battle that is already shaping up as one of the nastiest campaigns in modern U.S. history.
There is no doubt that Hillary Clinton is ready to take on Donald Trump in the race for the White House, and in recent weeks she intensified her efforts to do so, despite having to simultaneously fight off Bernie Sanders.
Many said her speech last week, which was initially advertised as a major foreign policy speech that ended up being a series of carefully crafted attacks on Donald Trump, was the best of her career. Clinton called Trump unprepared and “temperamentally unfit to hold an office that requires knowledge, stability and immense responsibility.”
But despite these major victories for Clinton’s campaign, polls show that Hillary remains one of the most unpopular nominees ever, much like her opponent, Trump. Americans are still not over her email scandal, which just received a terrible report from the State Department’s Inspector General. In addition, many Bernie Sanders supporters are furious over what they think was a Democratic Party conspiracy to essentially hand Clinton the party’s nomination.
“Let me just talk to you after the primary here in California, where we hope to win,” Bernie Sanders said told reporters. “Let’s assess where we are after tomorrow before we make statements based on speculation.”
Despite it being mathematically impossible for Sanders to win his party’s nomination at this point, he remains an annoyance at Clinton’s side for much longer than most political pundits predicted. The 74 year old democratic socialist has become an unlikely hero to the young and highly coveted progressive democratic voter base.
The importance of these supporters switching over to Clinton’s camp, when it is time to cast the ballot in November, is critical for Hillary. The passionate Millennial voters are the most educated voting generation in U.S. history, and for the first time are also a larger voting block than the “Baby-Boomers,” the generation born after World War II. Millennial voters are intensely loyal to Sanders, and with the announcement that Hillary is the Democratic nominee, these educated, informed young voters are becoming increasingly angry.
Hopefully, they will change their attitude by becoming more accepting of Clinton and hopefully they do it fast. Democratic sources on Capitol Hill are reporting that President Obama has already spoken to Sanders over the phone since Hillary’s nomination was announced, and he is expected to make his public endorsement of Clinton this week.
Clinton is making no secret that her primary attention and focus, now that she has seized her party’s nomination, is to take down Donald Trump. But she still did take a moment to again send her message to the American voters and Sanders of the importance of party unity and working together to put back a Democrat in the White House.
“I certainly am going be reaching out to Senator Sanders and hope he will join me in that because we have got to be unified going into the convention and coming out of the convention to take on Donald Trump,” Clinton said.
In addition to Clinton being the best candidate, it is also time for America to elect a woman president, plain and simple. The United States has terrible statistics when it comes the number of women in government, and Clinton could save the major global superpower from a Hitler-like administration with Trump.
Let’s not forget that America needs a feminist revolution, especially when it comes to women in elected office. America currently ranks 75th out of 189 elected governments in the world for female representation in government, and in the current 114th Congress, only 20 women serve as senators and 84 women serve as representatives, making up just 19.4% of the total 535 seats in Congress. And of course, to top it all off, the US has never had a female Head of State.
Symbolically this week, Hillary Clinton also received the endorsement of Former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, the current highest ranking women in government in the U.S. Pelosi once described her own rise in American politics as “breaking the marble ceiling,” to reflect how much harder it is for women to make a career in politics than it is for men.
“I can only speak of my own experiences, when I was elected whip and leader and then speaker, and the response I got from all over the country — from fathers of daughters saying, ‘Thank you for breaking the marble ceiling, now my daughter has more opportunities,’ Pelosi said. “I think the presidency is so far beyond that, it would send a message to the world.”
Hopefully in Hillary, America has finally found its messenger.
*This post of mine is also published on The Daily Ittefaq.*