To be a deserving "First Woman President," Hillary must do it on her own.
We've all heard of them...the "helicopter parents." Moms and dads who don't know how or when to cut the cord. They not only "hover" over their children's lives from preschool to high school, but beyond. Choosing colleges for their kids. Filling out the applications and writing the entrance essays. Selecting the courses, giving their children wake-up calls for class, phoning and text messaging all day long, and calling or emailing everyone else--the cafereria about the food it serves their growing boy, the professors about changing their daughter's less-than-stellar grades. And some even carry it past college...sitting in on job interviews, making angry calls to employers screeching "Why didn't you hire my child?"
I propose that Bill Clinton is a Helicopter Husband.
Having been President once himself, he simply can't bring himself to stand on the sidelines cheering "Rah rah!" for his wife as she runs for the same office. The traditional role of the supportive but retiring spouse, who allows the candidate to take the spotlight, sits too uncomfortably on him. It was OK when she was running for Senate, but now it seems to be different. Maybe because this is his old job...and too much is at stake.
Besides which, he no doubt reasons, I'm not like those other candidates' spouses. I shouldn't have to act like them. I've won a campaign like this one; I've done the job. I know how it works. So I can be much more effective in my wife's campaign by coaching her every step of the way. And by running interference for her. By being the guy who says for her all the down-and-dirty things about her competition that she can't say without looking bad. Why not? It's not as if anyone's going to tell me I'm speaking out of place, that I should go home and bake cookies. On the contrary: they're going to make everything I say into headline news! And that's a good thing. I'm just another asset she has in this battle, and in a battle like this, you need to put all your assets to work for you. Right?
Wrong. Because sometimes, what looks like an asset is actually a liability.
If Hillary Clinton wants to make history by becoming our first woman President--and if she truly has a unique and original vision of how this country should be governed that only she can bring to fruition--the time has come for her to make it clear that she can win that office and occupy it without any help (other than the normal support and cooperation any candidate might receive) from the person to whom she happens to be married. That is how a true feminist would do it.
A true feminist doesn't depend on her husband to help her get a job, any more than a young person seeking true maturity allows Daddy or Mommy to shepherd her through college or the working world.
And it doesn't matter who her husband is. In fact, the more experience he's had with the position she now seeks, the more it's going to look like he's the one truly seeking the position, again, if he continues to speak as loudly and frequently as she does. Or, make it look as if, should we choose her for the office, she will either share it with him, or it will truly be occupied by him and she will be merely his helpmeet. Again.
As if, after the current disastrous administration, we need yet another puppet presidency. As if we need yet another presidency in which someone wins the office primarily because of family connections.
I'm sure that in these miserable times, the vision of a "Clinton co-presidency" looks rosily, nostalgically tempting to many Democrats. Or even just the idea of "four to eight more years of Bill." But nostalgia is the wrong reason to pick a president. So is assuming that a wife can--or should--govern exactly the way her husband did.
Obviously, if Bill is providing experienced campaign advice to Hillary behind the scenes, that's highly likely and only to be expected. But for a candidate's spouse to stump in such a public way, to specialize in negative remarks about the competition for which he will be rewarded with the coverage befitting an ex-President rather than the tut-tut scolding any other candidate's spouse might receive for sticking her nose in where it does not belong, is another matter.
It's disingenuous to equate this particular form of support to the support Michelle Obama, Elizabeth Edwards or any other "candidate's wife" is providing. If we are honest with ourselves, we know it's just not the same thing. Nor, if they were to do what Bill is doing, would they receive the same treatment from the media. Because they are not ex-Presidents, and because our society is still a sexist one in many ways, it would not be long before the snide remarks about shutting up, going home and baking cookies would begin.
And I believe Hillary Clinton should stop taking advantage of that. Not because it is an unfair advantage the others do not possess, but because she should not need it, or even more importantly, want it, in order to win. Not if she's any kind of feminist, anyway.
Should Hillary Clinton become our first woman President, it will mean nothing at all if she rode there on her husband's coattails. Or achieved it under the hovering shadow of his chopper.
It's time for "Helicopter Husband" Bill to head back to the landing pad. If he is wise, he will go. If she is wise, she will be happy he did. So that she can run--and either win or lose--her campaign based on what kind of President the people think she, and only she, would be.