Oooh, it's Hillary Clinton's book release day and I am HERE. FOR. IT. I have had a kettle on since mid-April preparing for this tea. Two sugars please, and close the door on your way out. Literally everything on my phone is on do not disturb; I am reading.

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Reviews suggest that What Happened, Clinton's election post-mortem, speaks with a defiant but pithy voice and that the former Secretary of State spends equal time opening up about the devastating loss and grinding axes. Into it. Come for the baring of the soul; stay for the baring of the teeth.

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Oddly, not everyone is excited about this, a book that is for sale in public and was written by a woman. A Politico article quoted a number of people who were brave enough to talk trash anonymously, calling the book "the final torture" for Democrats. One major donor said, "I think she should just zip it, but she’s not going to."

No the hell she is not!

What Hillary Clinton is not going to do is zip it. Would zipping it stop people from castigating her for sins committed, implied or just wished upon her? No, it would not. Would Hillary Clinton stitching a red L to her cardigan and roaming the country, atoning, make people happy? No. They'd probably criticize her clothing choice and write think pieces about how she's obsessed with drawing attention to herself.

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Hillary Clinton can't win with some people, even when she actually wins. So screw it.

Hillary Clinton is not going away and I'm here for it, if for no other reason than every single person has the right to take up space and speak their minds and continue to exist, without reservation and without permission.

There are some that have legitimate reasons for disinterest in the book—political disagreement, exhaustion, old wounds unhealed—but they're not the ones volunteering their negative opinions. They're not the ones telling a well-qualified woman to "zip it." The men (it's always men) who are wishing Hillary Clinton would just go away are, largely, people without a real grievance against her except for the fact that she is a free woman with fingers that can type things. Any woman who has ever been on the internet has encountered such men; you don't need to run for president to be told to zip it.

For her part, Clinton appears blithely uninterested in any calls for her to fade into the cornfield like Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams. Today she told NPR, "I'm not going anywhere. I have the experience, I have the insight, I have the scars that I think give me not only the right, but the responsibility to speak out."

And to those who blanche at the idea of her writing a book in her own damn time about her own damn feelings, she has this to say:

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.@HillaryClinton says she is not going anywhere, and if people don't like it, "they don't have to buy my book." https://t.co/dbXAcdt1p1 pic.twitter.com/PwlJgaCGVt — Morning Edition (@MorningEdition) September 12, 2017

You don't think Hillary Clinton should have written a book? Good for you. Go buy Pillars of the Earth and read that. Get a Kindle download of The Pelican Brief. This isn't summer reading for sophomore year; there will not be a test on this material.

If Anthony Scaramucci can get fired after 10 days on the job and end up being interviewed on Stephen Colbert within a month, I think the country as a whole can handle 300-or-so pages of a book you, honestly, are not legally required to purchase or read or even acknowledge.

For my part, I'm acknowledging it. I'm here for it. I want Hillary Clinton to write a book every day. Next up: And Then This Happened.

Oh, And Another Thing Happened.

Today Not Much Happened but I Had a Great Scone So Here's Some Thoughts on Globalism and Democracy.

It's crucial that Hillary Clinton not go away. I want her to be as ever-present as Flo from the Progressive commercials or ads for Billy on the Street. I want Hillary Clinton running up to me with a microphone in my face in Times Square.



I want to see her everywhere.

"Welcome to Starbucks. What can I get started for you?"

"I'll have a PSL, obvi."

"Want a pumpkin loaf with that? They're stronger together."

"HILLARY?!"

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I want Hillary Clinton to sit next to me on the subway. I want Hillary Clinton to help me fix my Blue Apron meal. I want Hillary Clinton to provide color commentary for my NFL games. I want Hillary Clinton to open for Lady Gaga's "Joanne" tour. I want Hillary Clinton to be as much a part of our society and our national conversation as she wants to be. She's earned it, not through her manifold qualifications and contributions, but because she is a human and deserving of respect. She doesn't have to "go away." Her voice matters. She belongs here. As do we all.

Follow R. Eric Thomas on Twitter.

R. Eric Thomas R Eric Thomas is a Senior Staff Writer at ELLE.com, home of his daily humor column "Eric Reads the News," which skewers politics, pop culture, celebrity shade, and schadenfreude.

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