Jesus and Hillary and God

If Jesus Christ descended from heaven today, placed a halo on Hillary Clinton’s head and declared, “This is my sister, with whom I am well pleased,” those who detested her yesterday would still detest her tomorrow.

I have never seen this kind of hatred.  The intensity is beyond belief.  No matter what she does, the right wing Republicans will find some way to twist it into yet another example she is untrustworthy and concoct another weird conspiracy theory.  The latest example is Hillary’s pneumonia.

And yes, Republicans, your party is sexist whether you will ever admit it or not.  Just imagine if the exact same pneumonia incident happened to Donald Trump, or any other male Republican politician for that matter.  You would hear things like “Wow, what a guy!”  “Hey, he wanted to tough it out and go to the ceremony to show his respect for those who died on 9/11!”  “A real patriot, putting honoring the country before himself!”  “Great example of leadership!”

Instead, Hillary is slammed for “withholding information” about her health.  The Trumpundits are all grumbling and saying “Well, if she had just been honest and come out on Friday about her pneumonia.!”  Has anyone among you ever gone to work not feeling well without making a big deal of it?  I went to a sales presentation once with a 101 degree fever!

Assuming she was examined by her doctor and that her doctor is competent, the pneumonia was not life threatening and it was, indeed, important for Hillary to attend the New York City ceremony.  She was, at the time of 9/11, a Senator from New York.  But of course when it came out she had pneumonia on Friday, “She lied!” screamed the Republicans.  (It has become a knee-jerk reaction for them.)

Now for the absurd conspiracy theory:  After she left her daughter’s apartment waving to the crowd, the dopey wing of Trump supporters circulated a story, complete with side-by-side photos of Hillary claiming she had an exact look-a-like to stand in for her so the Democrats could hide her real condition.  That’s so dumb it is not even worth further comment.

If you are in any way curious as to why Hillary is so despised, one theory traces it back to a William Safire column in the NYT, January 8, 1996, where he called her a “congenital liar.”  Although a lot of what Conservative columnist Safire wrote has been discredited since, the handle stuck and has been used by the right to vilify her any chance they get for the last 20 years.

As I said at the beginning, I don’t think even Jesus Christ could help her.  But perhaps this story about God and the farmer might help explain why people hate her.  It is attributed to Sally Quinn, Washington Post contributor and wife of the newspaper’s legendary editor Ben Bradlee in a New Yorker article by Henry Louis Gates, February 26, 1996.

There’s this farmer whose crops always fail.  One year, he’s wiped out by a blizzard, and the next year there’s a rainstorm, and the next year there’s a drought, and so on every year, year after year.   Finally, he’s completely bankrupt—he’s lost everything.

He says, “Why, Lord? Why, why me?” And God says, “I don’t know. There’s just something about you that pisses me off.”

It’s not transparency and truth that’s Hillary’s problem, she just pisses people off.   Probably because she’s a tough, smart, talented, experienced, successful woman, something the Republican old white men just can’t stand.