Sock It to ’em, Hillary

She has been saddled with her husband’s sins for 40 years, so it was no surprise to see Hilary Rodham Clinton — clad in a striking blue outfit — hauled before the House Oversight Committee. Never mind that she never met Epstein nor visited his island nor set foot on his plane dubbed the “Lolita Express.”

She was obviously furious, and took it out on overmatched conspiracy theorists from the House Republican Caucus. It had nothing to do with legislating, but everything to do with protecting Trump in a presidency notable for its corruption and ethical emptiness.

Clinton answered questions with no effort to conceal her contempt. It conjured up memories of her “vast right wing conspiracy” appearance on the Today Show shortly before the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke.

The past ten years have been a decade of bad presidencies, dispite some productive legislating under Joe Biden. Opportunity to lead has been lost, civic life largely disregarded, the planet dangerously warming. We’ve experienced a succession of billion dollar climate disasters.

Hilary Clinton can be forgiven her hyperbole. She would have made a better president than her spouse. She had the opportunity to shatter the glass ceiling. She could have addressed climate change and income inequality, two vexing crises that have gotten worse in the past decade. 

The House hearing drove home a point: It would have been a Clinton presidency without the nonsense. One need only look at the U.S. Senate, where women — save for MAGA toady Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee — are paradigms of adult behavior. Just look at the legislating of our own Sen. Maria Cantwell, from tax breaks on wind energy to subsidies for manufacture of computer chips.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, is likewise someone fully competent to shatter the ceiling, a progressive but strong on America’s place in the world. Thwarted in 2020, she has maintained a pleasant veneer while building a case against all things Trump. She has been forced to cool her heels while he plays the role of Godzilla in American politics.

Can we catch up with a decade that has eluded us? I hope so. The Democrats’ bench is full of potential presidents, of both genders. Health care costs are out of control. The earth is demanding attention in the form of multiple disasters.  The glass ceiling displays multiple cracks.

The D’s need to choose a direction. Their divisions can be witnessed in Washington’s — and Seattle’s — delegation. Rep. Jayapal demands sweeping change that is hard to swallow and digest given the country’s center-right majority  The down-to-earth Adam Smith is an apostle of incrementalism  and step-by-step reforms .

Shortly before the assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., published a book entitled Why We Can’t Wait, a definitive rap on race in America. With its help, we can map out recovery from the lost decade. Carbon dioxide emissions must be curbed. We must not retreat into a new Gilded Age. We should not soak the rich, but require that they rinse regularly.

Hillary Clinton is not one to suffer fools, but was forced to do just that before the House Ethics panel. Bill Clinton was correct in his determination to pick a mate he could “grow old with,” and it showed in her congressional testimony.

The past half-century has shown that our Founders have left foundations capable of withstanding bad presidents. But that will not last forever. It’s time for the American people to take back their country. As well, the  arc of history moves slowly, enough that we can and must do some catching up.

This article also appears in Cascadia Advocate.

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