It’s an election year and there is endless commentary about the candidates. For every complaint about one of the male candidates, we get “She’s too loud” about Hillary. We get comments about how shrill she is. Soraya Chemaly argues, �Anger in a man doesn’t make the world wonder out loud if his hormones have taken over his brain and rendered him an incoherent idiot who can’t be trusted with Important Things.” So why does it make us worry about whether a woman can be trusted?

She’s a Woman

Does America have a problem with Hillary because she is a woman? It is very hard for people to change their viewpoint and since America has always had a male President, it is hard to accept a female. Setting Woman’s Rights aside for a moment, men are in charge of everything and will be until women get up the courage to kick their butts out of office! America has been under the governing thumb of men for over 200 years. We live in a patriarchal society and we are used to revering men as “better” than women. But, we can change!

So why does America respond so negatively toward Clinton? She is a dichotomy: she is woman, so therefore should behave feminine like a woman. Yet to be Commander in Chief, she needs to be strong and aggressive like a man. As a lawyer and advocate, roles considered to be more masculine, Hillary has aroused hostile responses from Americans. If she raises her voice, gets angry, yells or makes a joke, she is seen as “bitchy, hormonal, dangerous.” If a man were to do the same, he is viewed as “strong, aggressive, intelligent.” If we all park our preconceptions about her at the door and look at her job experience, we would be better informed about her.

Hillary’s A Liar

She’s a “Liar.” There seem to be a lot of people claiming that Hillary Clinton is not trustworthy. But compared to other candidates, she is the most honest. So what is going on? PolitiFact has rated 24% of Hillary Clinton’s claims as receiving a perfect �True� score which is pretty good compared to Bernie. So why do so many people complain about Hillary’s truthfulness? Could it have to do with her being a woman? Probably. Could it be that people tend to believe what Republicans make up about her? How many man hours and how much taxpayer money have they spent trying to trip her up and find her guilty of something? Politicians do play around with the truth at times – all of them do. You have to look at who is the MOST honest this year. Not at the person who is “perfect”- because no one is perfect! And the most honest politician this year is Hillary.

Benghazi

The Benghazi issue: After millions of dollars spent investigating the issue, the Republicans came up with nothing! Essentially, President Obama and Secretary Clinton did not do anything wrong. For years, the Republicans have been waging a war against Clinton and Obama. They have been trying to distract from their own responsibility in the matter. Republicans had cut funding for embassy security because defending Americans abroad was not a �priority.� And Republicans have actually admitted to going after Hillary as a purely political move. Perhaps we should be going after those Republicans?

The Emails…

The email scandal..She used her personal email account to send emails. As far as she knew at the time, she did not send anything of importance that should’ve been protected. And she deleted emails! Apparently she wasn’t too “tech savvy.” And the preceding Secretary’s all did the same thing. So guess what, there is NO big deal! Can we please look past the “scandals” and look at what she has accomplished as a person throughout her lifetime, not just recent history.

Bill

Hillary didn’t divorce Bill after the affair came out. First of all, why does Hillary have to divorce Bill? Hillary is not responsible for Bill’s bad behavior. She stuck by him and that takes a lot of courage and character. So why is she being viewed less favorably because of him? A double standard!! He cheats on her and behaves badly, she gets disparaged! As a woman, I am continually amazed at the level of hate that gets thrown at Hillary by other women because of what her husband did. If your husband or partner cheats on you, it is commendable that you stick with him!! I applaud Hillary for that!

Bottom Line

You don’t have to like Hillary Clinton to vote for her. You don’t have to vote for her because she is a Democrat. You are responsible for educating yourself on the issues. Every candidate has ups and downs, pros and cons. It is your duty as an American Citizen to read and make your decision based on facts, not opinions or guesses. Look at what the candidate has to offer and how it aligns with your own views. And it is your responsibility to VOTE!!