The CBC series ‘The Passionate Eye’ recently aired an episode ‘The Choice 2016’ which tracked through the Lives of Clinton and Trump to explain how they became who they were and why and how they ran for president of the USA. I think that the show should probably be required viewing for anybody who is an any way unsure of whether they should vote for Trump or Clinton.
The story for Trump didn’t really hold many surprises. It filled in a few holes to be sure, but those holes were filled in quite plausible and unsurprising ways. The Hillary story, on the other hand, was quite a different matter. The show exposed some things for me that I had long forgotten (like her fight for a proper health care system during Bill’s first tenure), and other thing that threw me for a loop (like how she was profoundly affected by hearing Martin Luther King speak, and cried to her friend over the phone the day that he was murdered.
Watching that show, it hit me that this is what was missing from her campaign — her personality and her heart. This presidential campaign has been for her quite technical. It’s been about the minutiae about avoiding the pitfalls that the Republicans have been laying for her over the past couple of decades and keeping her foibles out of the foray. But in the process, we’ve lost sight of her soul. As Jesus once said.
What good does it do a (wo)man if (s) she should gain the world and lose his (her) own soul.
In this case, I think that Hillary could lose the world, unless she reclaims her soul, and shows it to the world.
I would contrast this with Trump.. Trump’s campaign has been entirely about him. He’s been a bombastic, crude, self-centred and greedy bastard, but people can trust him to be a bombastic, crude, self-centred and greedy bastard. That what endears him to many people. They think that they know him, warts and all, and that’s calming for some who think more with their gut than their brain.
Hillary needs to bare her soul to the American people and, to be blunt, she needs to do it pretty quickly.
She needs to pause her highly efficient technical campaign for an hour, and just stop and talk about what makes her tick.
She needs to talk about things that have meaning to her and why.
About how Martin Luther King revealed a new world to her, and put her on a different path
About why she cried to her best friend over the phone the day he died.
She needs to talk about why she worked so hard to build a real health care system for Americans during Bill’s first tenure as president and why she sees Obamacare as not quite enough.
She needs to talk about the glass ceilings she bumped into as a powerful, ambitious woman in the 70s and the pain she experienced letting go of her maiden name in order to further the ends that she and her husband wanted to achieve.
She needs to step out of the world of cynical politics for one speech, and speak from and to the heart and soul. She needs to follow in the footsteps of Martin Luther King and explain her dream to the American people, and especially the undecided ones who are waiting for this from her.
She needs to bare her soul to the people so that they know that — not only is she a real person, but that she is a caring and loving person.
She needs to wash off the decades of Republican mud, and step out of the armour she’s encased herself in and — if only for a moment — let the American people know who the real Hillary Clinton is.
She needs to stand, for a moment, in the world of love and beauty, reach out and touch the jewels within the hearts and souls of the American people and bring them to life.
and then she can really ask them to vote for her.