Part 2: Why Hillary Clinton Is So Much More Than “The Lesser Of Two Evils”

Note: This post is a little on the long side, but we appreciate you taking the time to read it. We tried to shorten it, but Hillary Clinton’s life has been so impressive, it’s hard to do her justice in just a few paragraphs.

Now that we’ve talked about why supporting Hillary Clinton isn’t a bad thing, let’s talk about why it’s a good thing. I trust Hillary Clinton to be my President. In fact, I’d like for Hillary Clinton to be my President and I’ll tell you why. She’s been serving the public and fighting for good her entire life and she will continue to do so as President of The United States of America. Throughout her career Hillary has shown that even if you don’t support her or vote for her, she will still fight to protect you and your rights. Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look at what she’s done so far.

Hillary Rodham Clinton was raised with conservative values by two hard-working Republican parents. She worked diligently throughout her public school education and was admitted to Wellesley College, where her classmates would go on to select her as the first student commencement speaker. While introducing her, the president of the college described her as “cheerful, good humored, good company, and a good friend to all of us…” This goes to show that even at a young age, she was widely acknowledged and respected for her hard work and positive attitude, and she has managed to maintain that positivity even when facing difficulties both large and small. For example, the freshmen at Wellesley were required to carry heavy trays of milk, water, and food to the dining tables. While most students complained about this task, Hillary joked that it was good exercise. 

While in college, Hillary expanded her worldview and began to develop a passion for social justice that has persisted throughout her career. Her fellow students at Wellesley College even predicted that Hillary would become the First Female President, so let’s prove them right! Hillary and her fellow students grew up in a time of segregation, so for many of them, college was the first time they had an opportunity to have meaningful interactions with people of other races. Hillary’s friend, Janet Hill, was one of only 8 black women in her freshman class, and she remembers the culture shock she felt upon arriving at a predominantly white college campus. She also remembers Hillary making her feel welcome. Even though Hillary’s only interactions with black people up until that point had been with employees of her parents, she did not “other” her non-white classmates. Another of her classmates, Nancy Gist, has said that one of the things she liked about Hillary was that she seemed less “mystified” by her black classmates than did many of her white peers. The discrimination that her black friends faced upset Hillary, so she lent her support to their efforts to encourage school officials to recruit more black students and faculty and establish an African American studies major in a letter to the administration.  Her new experiences and broader knowledge of the world helped to shape her current political beliefs. At Wellesley College Hillary started to transform from the Republican her parents sent to school to the Democrat we know today.

After graduating from Wellesley College, Hillary went on to attend Yale Law School, where only about 15% of students at the time were women. In a “Humans of New York” post in September, Hillary described the sexism she faced as one of only a few women taking a law school admissions test. She remembered many of the men in the room saying things like “You don’t need to be here” and “If you take my spot, I’ll get drafted, and I’ll go to Vietnam, and I’ll die.” This experience and others in her early career contributed to her tendency to keep her head down and just do the work, which is a quality that many perceive as aloof or cold. But I think most women can relate to the phenomenon Hillary describes here; I know I can. Show emotion and you’re considered weak. Maintain a calm exterior and you’re considered cold or uncaring. I was in a job once where a boss offended me by yelling at me in an unprofessional and condescending manner. I wasn’t sure what to do. I had heard him yell at another woman like this and when she got upset with him he described her as “mentally unstable.” So I knew that if I said something he would just see me as “emotional” or “crazy,” so I kept my head down and got back to work, just like Hillary and so many other women have been forced to do. By most accounts Hillary is warm and welcoming in her personal life, but her early experiences in a male-dominated industry taught her to be tough in her professional life.

While in law school Hillary took a summer job with the esteemed children’s rights activist Marian Wright Edelman researching the problems faced by migrant farm workers and their children, which is when she first started to realize that children needed her help more than anyone. She took an opportunity to help children again when, shortly before her graduation from law school, Hillary went undercover in cities across the South to determine if private schools were discriminating against black students.

In 1973, Edelman founded the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) and Hillary went to work for her as a staff attorney. Her first project was going door-to-door to collect testimonials about schooling options for children with disabilities. The testimonials she collected helped in the passage of a law requiring Massachusetts to provide quality education to students with disabilities. Throughout her time at the CDF she rose through the ranks to become a board member and ultimately the board chair at a still very young age.

After moving to Arkansas, Hillary joined the Rose Law Firm, where she would eventually become the first female partner at one of the oldest legal firms west of the Mississippi. Shattering glass ceilings since the 1970s, anyone? She continued to practice law even after becoming First Lady of Arkansas while also pursuing other ventures that would help aid women, children, and the less fortunate. As First Lady there, she made it her mission to improve Arkansas’ healthcare and education systems. She co-founded the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, one of the first organizations to fight for children in Arkansas.

When her husband, Bill Clinton, became President in 1992 (fun fact: this is something she predicted to her boss in the 1970s when she was just his girlfriend), Hillary took the opportunity as First Lady to continue her work on behalf of women and children. In a speech to the UN in 1995, Hillary famously argued for the importance of a focus on women’s rights by saying, “Human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights.” She also advocated strong support of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which was created in 1997 and which now provides health insurance to over 8 million low-income children. The late Senator Ted Kennedy said in 2007, “The children’s health program wouldn’t be in existence today if we didn’t have Hillary pushing for it from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.” She did all of this even as issues in her marriage became painfully exposed on the national stage. Some have said that Hillary’s decision to stay with her husband and support him through his impeachment trial shows that she’s a Lady Macbeth type who will do anything for power. I disagree. I see the difficult decisions Hillary made at that time as proof of her commitment to her family and her love for them. Public sympathy for her was extremely high; she didn’t need Bill in order to be successful and she could have gone on to a successful political career without him, but she loved her husband and wanted to make her marriage work. Even now, it’s obvious that Hillary and Bill have a deep affection for one another. If you need proof go back and watch his face in the audience when she was being praised by speakers at the Democratic National Convention this year. Pure pride and joy.

In 2000 Hillary continued to break down barriers when she was elected as the first female Senator from New York. In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attack, then-Senator Clinton helped secure over $20 billion in funding to rebuild New York City and introduced a bill that was later signed into law to help first responders who got sick from working at Ground Zero obtain quality health care. She co-sponsored the Pediatric Research Equity Act that requires drug companies to study the effects of their drugs in children. She also co-sponsored the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 that states that the 180-day statute of limitations for filing lawsuits on equal pay violations resets with each new paycheck, thereby granting more women the opportunity to pursue judicial recourse when they find out that they are being compensated unfairly. These are just a few of Hillary’s accomplishments as Senator, but they provide a look into her priorities and demonstrate her desire to do all that she can to help anyone who needs her as well as her ability to work across party lines.

Finally, when President Obama asked Hillary to serve as his Secretary of State, she did not hesitate because he had beaten her in the 2008 Democratic Primary; she simply said yes and got to work serving the American people. She visited 112 countries in 4 years, making her the most-traveled Secretary of State in history. And people say she doesn’t have stamina! Hah! She negotiated a ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. She fought for the rights of women and girls abroad. She is widely credited with restoring international relationships that had been damaged during the preceding 8 years and improving the United States’ standing abroad.

And with all of these accomplishments under her belt, Hillary says that it is her role as mother and grandmother that makes her most proud. Awww. Hillary Clinton is an inspiration to women everywhere. She shows us that feminism doesn’t have to be the working moms vs. the stay-at-home moms. That whatever we choose to be – Mother, CEO, or both – that choice is our right and we can be successful in everything we do. Her idealism has a long history and is genuine, and it shows that idealists can make good things happen in the world.

Hillary’s long history of public service is seen as a bad thing by some, but in fact it makes her one of the most well-equipped people to assume the role of President. Her work in government has taught her how to work with both allies and opponents to do the most good possible. After defeating him in the Democratic Primary, Hillary did not necessarily need to listen to Bernie Sanders, but she recognized that he had good ideas with broad support and worked with him to come up with the most progressive platform in party history. In addition to listening to her opponent from the Primary, she has spent the 18 months of her campaign traveling across the country listening to regular families and average people about the challenges they face so that she could put together a platform that will help all Americans. She also earns the respect and loyalty of those around her. Her running mate, Tim Kaine, has defended her tooth and nail through the campaign. He has not been arguing that he will make a great vice president; he’s been arguing that Hillary will make a great president. That says a lot about both of them, but it especially speaks to how highly Tim Kaine thinks of Hillary Clinton and how much respect he has for her.

When you’ve had as successful and high-profile a career as Hillary has, it’s natural that there would be some bumps in the road along the way, but Hillary has worked throughout her career to help others and to make the world a better place. This is a quality I admire in her, a quality I find inspiring, and a quality I seek to emulate in my own life. I trust Hillary Clinton to be my President and I’m confident that, if elected, she will continue to earn that trust every day. Hillary Clinton has been breaking down barriers and shattering glass ceilings left and right throughout her career; I think it’s time that we help her shatter the highest glass ceiling in America. Hillary says ‘Stronger Together’, because she knows that no one alone can create change in this world. So, let’s go create some change together.

-Lianna & Carley-

P.S. Thanks again for reading this all the way to the end. We hope you got something meaningful out of it and can now say, “I’m With Her.” We’re excited to vote for Hillary Clinton for President of The United States and we hope you are too!