General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The Clinton Reckoning Is One of the Most Essential #MeToo Revelations Yet [View all]karynnj
(59,504 posts)The reason that this hits harder is twofold. First, women's rights and children's rights were HRC's signature issue. That likely is why you have some people essentially arguing that she get a pass because her position on this issue is well known and has proven time and time again. There are others that hold her to a higher standard just because that was the level she demanded. For people who admire her, that is why attacks on her actions on this are so hard to take. This leads to minimizing, disputing the facts, or making excuses. It is too close to the core of who Clinton is.
However, people are not perfect and here, she likely made a pragmatic decision to keep a person she saw as unique and valuable to the campaign, especially if there were to be a Clinton general election, with essentially a slap on the wrist. This is hardly evil -- just not a profile in courage. Consider this - imagine she had fired him and she won the nomination ... and lost narrowly to McCain with people suggesting that had she just had a stronger outreach to evangelicals, she would have won. Wouldn't an ardent feminist have agreed that this devil's bargain was good for the country?
Bernie never became the frontrunner -- and in fact never became close enough that he got the level of scrutiny that goes with being the nominee. I never allowed my kids to defend bad behavior because "another kid" did the same thing. I certainly don't want to accept it for a leader.