Look; I get it.
I get why former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton still has sore feelings about the 2016 election. Frankly, I think we all do. It was not a pleasant time for anyone and has led directly to the political hellscape we live in. It was all about racial resentment and sexism and Russian hacking and Twitter being the worst (and it still is)…nothing good came from that election.
And I can see why Clinton would take time out of her busy schedule of not being President and not having to deal with this country’s bullshit to ether her 2016 Democratic opponent Bernie Sanders. In a new documentary about Clinton (why God, OH WHY), Clinton pulls no punches…
Okay, that’s not really fair. It’s not that she pulls no punches; it’s that the glass fuckin’ shattered, she stomped to the ring and started delivering all sorts of Stone Cold Stunners to Sanders.
““He was in Congress for years. He had one senator support him. Nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him. He got nothing done,” Clinton says, according to The Hollywood Reporter. ““He was a career politician. It’s all just baloney, and I feel so bad that people got sucked into it.”
Then, just to add more insult to the other insults, Clinton continued to open cans of whoop ass all over Sanders when asked if she wanted to walk back her talk. The short answer was, to paraphrase, “no; no, I’m not walking back any of this shit“.
There’s a part of 2016-Complains-A-Lot who loves the unseathed, unfiltered, un-able-to-give-a-fuckness of 2020 Hillary Clinton, the woman who knows she’s not going to be President and honestly kinda seems like she doesn’t want to be. (And who would!? Being President is a terrible job!) In 2016, embroiled in Twitter wars and lengthy comment essays, I would’ve loved nothing more than for Hillary to come right out and say what I was thinking about Sanders in my mind.
2020-Complains A Lot, though? To quote Kylo Ren;
Let the past die.
It’s 2020. I’m 32 years old. It seems weird to be looking back on my 29-year old self and being like “yo fam, you were an idiot for wasting as much time arguing with randos on the internet about the relative virtues of people who have broadly similar policies, just different ways of implementing them, spend some time with your future wife you fucking dickhole”…but that’s where I am.
That this particular truth nugget about Sanders comes a few short weeks before the country has to pretend to give a shit about Iowa for a couple days probably isn’t a coincidence. Will it hurt Sanders? Probably not. If you didn’t fuck with Sanders before, you’re probably not fucking with him now unless he’s the nominee, and if you love Bernie, all Clinton going all “Back 2 Back” on his ass is going to do is reaffirm what you already thought.
I am deeply, deeply tired of thinking about 2016. So much of the landscape is shaped by what happened four years ago, and four years is a long fucking time. Four years ago, Colin Kaepernick was still in the NFL, Stranger Things had only just started it’s first season, Cap and Iron Man hated each other, and “Koala” by Archiitek was an actual number one single.
In fact, 2016 was so goddamn long ago, that you didn’t even realize I complete made up that last sentence, and that it was actually “Panda” by Desiigner that was a number one single. Because you have no idea who the fuck Desiigner even is. Is it a band? A single artist? A rapper or a singer? You don’t know, because four years is a fucking lifetime ago.
Clinton has several valid points about just what grinds her gears about Sanders, and these are things that still pervade his campaign and his strategies to this day. The question isn’t whether or not Clinton is right; it’s why now? There’s no catharsis to be had in directing a tongue-lashing at Sanders; Clinton already knows that the answer from his most ardent supporters and from her harshest critics is going to be.
Maybe it really is simply that Clinton has fully embraced being able to not give a shit anymore. The chances she runs for public office are pretty small. She’s got all the money in the world. Maybe Clinton’s crossed into that part of life where you liberal grandma starts saying the quiet parts out loud and now you have to strap in for her harsh but fairly reasonable hot takes.
Far be it from me to tell Clinton she can’t speak her mind and share her opinion. But man…maybe we can just let 2016 go? We’ve all had those “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all” moments, and this kinda seemed like one of those.
Alls I’m suggesting is that instead of relitigating 2016 for the one millionth time, let’s just focus on what makes all these candidates garbage in 2020. Does that sound fair and reasonable?
“Far be it from me to tell Clinton she can’t speak her mine and share her opinion.”
Allow me, then, to come right out and say it: Hillary Clinton needs to sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up. In fact, all the Clintons need to do this. They will do literally nothing good by sticking their noses in this primary process. Sanders isn’t even my candidate of choice in this election, but the point is she’s simply ripping off barely healed scabs and pouring salt into the wound and then gasoline and then setting it on fire for no other reason than she simply cannot bring herself to recognize how terrible she was as a candidate and what an unfathomably stupid campaign operation she ran. There is not one solitary thing that she can say that would, in any way, be a net positive right now. She needs to just take her money and live her super privileged life and leave us all the hell alone.
I think it should be clarified that Clinton didn’t actually -say- the quote in question here during the Hollywood Reporter interview. The quote was from 2017, and it was presented to Clinton by the journalist.
Clinton affirms the sentiment, yes, but the distinction matters — because you go on to ask, “why now?” Clinton answers that:
“HR: If he gets the nomination, will you endorse and campaign for him?”
“HRC: I’m not going to go there yet. We’re still in a very vigorous primary season. I will say, however, that it’s not only him, it’s the culture around him. It’s his leadership team. It’s his prominent supporters. It’s his online Bernie Bros and their relentless attacks on lots of his competitors, particularly the women. And I really hope people are paying attention to that because it should be worrisome that he has permitted this culture — not only permitted, [he] seems to really be very much supporting it. And I don’t think we want to go down that road again where you campaign by insult and attack and maybe you try to get some distance from it, but you either don’t know what your campaign and supporters are doing or you’re just giving them a wink and you want them to go after Kamala [Harris] or after Elizabeth [Warren]. I think that that’s a pattern that people should take into account when they make their decisions.”
I think it’s fine if people want to — and should — rebut some or all of what Clinton has to say, but the answer to “why now?” is that we’re in the middle of another election. It’s fine to look at the last election and unpack it!
Solid point and helpful information to clarify the context. I will say, though, that her reference to the problems with his supporters (which are not in dispute) are certainly just as true in regard to her own army of sycophants in 2016. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: she used the exact same primary strategy of misinformation and character assassination in 2016 that she used in 2008. The main difference, I think, is that Democratic voters were much less squeamish about supporting that strategy against Bernie Sanders than they were against Barack Obama.
All candidates take political shots at the character of their opponent. I don’t intend to defend the practice, but I also don’t think that both-sides-ing the argument cancels out the problem — each accusation, individually, is valid. We should take them in turn, rather that to suggest one wipes the other away.
I have to admit, the Bernie Bros creep me out. They creeped me out then and they creep me out now. And I get Clinton’s desire to comment on them…they’re definitely worthy of comment. But I think she’s the last one who should be doing so because anything she says makes those sad bastards froth at the mouth and who knows what the eventual consequence of that is going to be?
At what point does this loser stop being newsworthy?
“You don’t know, because four years is a fucking lifetime ago.”
Spot on, but wait until you’re 52. It gets WORSE.
…how is it that the years drag by individually but somehow stack up so fast while you aren’t looking?
I can honestly say that this has been the longest, most alcohol soaked 4 years of my life. I honestly don’t think I have been sober one day since that orange shitgoblin stole the election.
FUCK YOU Hillary. You understand how patronizing is that, but you don’t give a damn, right? Guess what though? Pretty much nobody gives a damn about you too. Now, go away and leave us alone.
I do not care if she hates Bernie and wants to tell us all about it – but she has a fucking obligation, as a figurehead and a person of tremendous influence, to commit to voting for the eventual nominee. This is fucking irresponsible. I am usually kinder to Clinton than a lot of people, but not this time. Fuck her for saying this and fuck the people making this documentary to drop right in the middle of the primaries.
I will DEFINITELY not be watching it.