Why Hillary Clinton would make the perfect US president
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Version 0 of 1. Hillary Clinton will be the youngest woman ever to be president of the United States if she makes it to the Oval Office. She’ll be less tainted by the scandals and mistakes of previous administrations than any woman ever has been. She’ll be the first American president who has experienced childbirth, or even admitted to wearing a bra. She’ll be the first spouse to have followed her partner into office. She’ll be the first president to have prompted the need for an answer to the question: who is that guy then, if he isn’t the first lady? And that’s a question that needs answering. First lady? Eh? No title could better advertise the longstanding structural fact that the White House is open only to men. The idea is that any American can be president. The truth is that when the founding fathers came up with this lovely idea, what they actually meant was that any American of the same sex as they were could be president. Their institutionalised sexism has proved enduring. Related: Hillary Clinton begins presidential push with visit to Iowa So, it’s interesting that so many people are fretting now that United States politics has become too elitist, too dynastic. Critics may complain that it’s grim that again Americans may well be deciding between a Clinton and a Bush. But you do have to ask yourself why, if it helps so very much simply to be a member of certain families, such advantage hasn’t thus far managed to put any woman from one such a family into the White House. America does have a number of problems with lack of accessibility to public life. But the biggest one is that women have historically had no actual access to the presidency at all – rich, poor, black, white, young, old, experienced or fresh. This problem needs sorting more urgently than any other. Happily, the means by which the sorting can start have been, since Sunday, easily to hand. Nothing would break the male monopoly on the US presidency quite like a female president would. Quite clearly. But the plain truth is that it has proved impossible up until now for a woman to be head of the US. (Or the “free world”, as they like, hypocritically, to put it.) The US may have been offered a choice between a Bush and a Clinton before. But they’ve never been offered a choice between a man and a woman, let alone opted for the latter. Some Americans are more free than others: which, in the land of opportunity, is catastrophically appalling, a huge, oppressive stain on the world. And I do mean the world. How can America complain about the treatment of women in other countries and cultures – which it does – when its own democratic system is so manifestly inadequate in this regard? America’s biggest problem is that it over-idealises its own perfection, and therefore believes that what it has to offer is so perfectly precious that corners can be cut in inducting the rest of the world into its joys. America still kills and tortures because it believes its moral authority is impregnable. It’s quite astounding that a country that still refuses to be led by a person who is a non-man believes that its own pure and refined liberal democracy is ready to be gifted to the rest of the globe. No doubt many people consider it wrong to believe that Clinton should be president “just because she’s a woman”. No doubt many feminists are troubled by the way that Clinton is following in footsteps trodden first by her husband. No doubt many people would prefer a candidate less steeped in what Nick Clegg was once able to call “the old politics”. But sometimes you have to concede that monopolies are hard to break and that compromise is needed if you hope to do so. The US has got to start somewhere in addressing its historic problem with male hegemony I’m troubled myself by all the issues I have listed above. I’ve never been a big Hillary fan. I don’t expect her to be the best president ever. In my book, anything more than competence would be a bonus. But who knows how many times really wonderful presidential minds have remained entirely unrecognised because the bodies that contained them also contained some ovaries? Men and women must feel equally able to enter public life because it doubles the possibility that splendid leaders will emerge. That’s not feminism. That’s probability. Gender bias – any identity bias – is a wanton waste of human potential. The US has got to start somewhere in addressing its historic problem with male hegemony and Clinton is the one appointment that could kickstart the change most quickly and strongly. That’s why the symbolic power of her appointment transcends all else. Anyone who doesn’t understand that, in this one respect, Clinton is an absolutely perfect presidential choice, is simply refusing to acknowledge reality. There is no perfect female candidate and there’s no more time to wait for one. God knows, anyway, that the US has long enough been happy to overlook its propensity for anointing imperfect males. There is no choice between a woman laden with baggage and a woman unencumbered with it. But there is an opportunity to signal to all women, everywhere, that “anyone” can mean them. Hillary Clinton is still standing after all these years. And that is good enough. |