What in the name of bloody hell just Happened???

What Happened is Hillary Rodham Clinton’s account of the 2016 Presidential campaign and the events leading up to her shocking election-day loss to a complete idiot.

Personally, I believe what happened was the result of a 40 year campaign of misogyny and sexism, starting with her original decision to keep her own name (where she eventually relented because it was considered damaging to her husband’s career) through her efforts in 1993 to create a healthcare reform package as First Lady (when she was told to keep her place and stay out of public policy matters), to her current run for president (when anti-Hillary sentiment included t-shirts that read Trump That Bitch). This campaign went to such extremes as accusations that she arranged the assassination of people who interfered with her ambitions.

What is amazing (a sentiment that for some reason gets very little airplay) is that Hillary has been under insane scrutiny for 4 decades and the worst thing anyone has been able to find is a fairly common, albeit misguided, use of a home email server used for government correspondence. Even a trumped-up  (pardon the pun) Benghazi scandal failed to produce anything of import, despite the best efforts of Republican dissenters during an 11 hour hearing before the Select Committee. She has not been found to murder people, steal money from her family’s Foundation or even lie excessively, despite the very best attempts of her enemies to prove otherwise. And if someone with that much relentless dirt-digging still comes through fairly clean, then what is wrong with the world? She should be sainted, for crying out loud! She’s certainly more sincerely devout than most of public figures on the religious right. So what are we left with? We hate her because she’s a “Clinton” and we hate her because she’s a woman. What else is there?

Meanwhile in her book, in her usual gracious way, Hillary is thoughtful and introspective, addressing a myriad of additional factors that contributed to her defeat, including several for which she takes personal responsibility (such as being a poor campaigner and underestimating the effect of a reality-TV election). A lot of her personal stories brought back vivid memories of similar stories in my life and career.

Suddenly one of the men reached across the table, grabbed me by my turtleneck, and yanked me toward him. He hissed in my face, “Just shut up.”

When I was fairly young and new to my engineering career, I was in a meeting with a male colleague (an MBA graduate – not particularly relevant except it put me off MBA grads more or less for good). I don’t remember the conversation we were having exactly, except that I was objecting to much of what he was saying because it didn’t make sense for the company and suddenly, during one of my objections, he thrust his finger into my face and said “You just shut up. Just. Shut. Up!”  At the time, I was shocked and livid, and sat in stone-cold silence until the meeting was over at which point I basically got up and stomped away. Of course, today I would have told him where he could shove his stupid finger if he didn’t get it the hell out of my face and it bugs the crap out of me that I didn’t do that back then. However, by telling her own story, maybe Hillary will enable some other young woman to stand up and demand to be heard, no matter who is trying to silence her.

And that’s really the point. I know Hillary lost the election. But it’s possible that this loss, to the worst kind of person imaginable, has rallied women to work together and to say “enough” and to finally realize that our voices have power. In the days following the election, a movement began that ultimately became the 2017 Women’s March, held the day after the inauguration. 500,000 people marched in Washington with 4 million more across the United States and 5 million world wide. The March, while intentionally not naming the new president as its target, was very definitely protesting the policies of the new government. This March has now become an annual,  global event.

And that wasn’t all. Within the wave of protests and demands to be heard, we also saw the scientific community come together under the threat of false science doctrine, global warming denial, and “clean coal”. They launched the March for Science on Earth Day, April 22, 2017, which has also become an annual event. Additional protests took place throughout the 2017 year to speak out against detainment of refugees, travel bans, immigrant deportation, US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and so on.

Then, in October of 2017, following the revelations of sexual misconduct by Harvey Weinstein, the #MeToo movement began, and once again women were rallying together and demanding to not only be heard, but to be believed. Women were speaking about rampant sexual misconduct in industries ranging from entertainment to government to academia. It didn’t stop there. #MeToo lead directly to #TimesUp, which embraced taking a stand for acknowledgement and recognition and adding a pointed call for action. Individual women defied misogynist strongholds by running for public office and winning. And in just the most recent example of public outcry and protest, the student survivors of the Stone Douglas school shooting have started a movement to defy the NRA and demand measures for gun control. These teenagers, in just two weeks, have held rallies, travelled to town hall meetings in an effort to hold politicians accountable, organised school walkout protests across the US, influenced at least 15 companies to sever ties with the NRA and motivated 2 retail outlets to voluntarily stop selling assault rifles and to require a minimum age of 18 to buy any gun. There is a growing feeling, along with a body of recent evidence, to suggest that these protests are working and this, in turn, may be inspiring even more people to join the fight.

Resist, Insist, Persist, Enlist

I don’t necessarily believe that the current swell of activism started just because Hillary lost the election. But I do believe that the extenuating circumstances of her loss played a major role. Because, despite whether you are one of those people who fall on the “hate her” or “love her” side of the coin, most of us can relate to the shitty ways she was treated during the campaign:

• Losing a job for which you are the most qualified candidate by far to a completely unqualified buffoon
• Being intimidated by a man who lurks menacingly behind us while we are simply trying to complete a task
• Struggling to maintain a professional discourse while a man makes jokes about your height, weight, hair, looks or clothing.
• Constantly being interrupted in the midst of a logical argument about which you are highly educated by man yelling “you’re wrong!”

Maybe Hillary’s battle and her loss resonated a little more deeply with us than anyone expected. I admire Hillary immensely for her resilience in the face of forces that I couldn’t imagine having to bear. But watching her face the onslaught with such dignity and stoicism made me think that yes,  I could do it too, and maybe that’s what has inspired everyone else as well. History will look back on these days and try to attribute a catalyst to the sudden uprising of movements working to change the world and I think it’s possible that the catalyst they find will be Hillary Clinton. Her quest to become the first woman president of the most powerful country on Earth may well alter the course of history, and this is what will be her legacy.

And for this, Hillary, we owe you our thanks.