Because She Says So

So after thinking a little more about this cray cray election and recent polls suggesting that this race is tightening, I had a revelation of sorts into why I think people hate Hillary. And fair warning to my sisters who might take offense, but someone has got to say it.

Hillary Clinton is that sitcom caricature of the know-it-all mother in law that everybody hates. She is the smart girl who sits in the front of the class with her hand perpetually in the air because she knows all the answers. She sits at first chair in the woodwind section of the high school orchestra even though she plays the oboe. She is the vice president of the student body who does all of the work for the pretty boy president because she has a crush on him. She and her weird sister own that feminist bookstore that you only go to for special events because you want to avoid getting stuck in a conversation with them.

If this was the election for the high school student body president, her opponent would have mocked and baited her (as he does now)...and sadly, she would have responded to all of his disses and insults (as she does now). And she would come this close to blowing it even though EVERYONE knew her opponent was just a rich aardvark.

I am not saying that Hill will lose, or that she will win because I have no clue. I guess I am tripping because this could be a disaster. Hill is perfect for this job, everybody knows it, but she is her own worst nightmare. It is because she's known how perfect she is for the job for decades, and has been acting like she cannot believe anyone would think otherwise. Like who deigns to question the inevitability of her ascendancy...

AND THAT IS WHY WE HATE HER!!!

She imploded eight years ago because she just assumed that everybody in the Democratic Party with a brain knew better than to challenge her...and she got her feelings hurt when she lost in Iowa. And so she let us know it by shedding some tears (still not convinced they were real) and she made a comeback in New Hampshire, only to screw it up again in South Carolina, and then it was game on. History might have repeated itself in this election cycle, but she got lucky.

Hillary is too perfect for her own good. Perfect people are often the beneficiaries of good luck, but they refuse to believe that. Instead, they are adamant that their positioning in life is preordained because of their intelligence, good habits and virtuousness. Their faultlessness is what separates them from the rest of us heathens, which is why we should submit to their superior judgment and moral leadership. Because they say so.

Mitt Romney had the same superiority complex. As did his running mate, Paul Ryan, which is why they are probably still smarting from the 2012 election. Jeb Bush most certainly believed in his inevitability, which is why the challenge from his protege Marco Rubio shocked him beyond the point of rebounding in the primaries. Hillary is the most prominent woman to reach this point in American politics, but she is hardly the first high profile woman to stumble over her own hubris--Martha Stewart, Margaret Thatcher, and even our patron saint of Busy Black Womanhood, the Oprah have all had to eat some pretty large pieces of humble pie.

Hill's lucky streak most certainly began when she married Bill, something that she will never admit but we all know to be true (because if she had not married him, she'd be that bookstore owner). He is not at all perfect and is so up front and in your face with his flaws; thus, we naturally love him in spite of himself. He claims it was his good fortune to meet and marry her...and it was, because he has no shame in saying that she could have done better. I have yet to see where she has even come close to suggesting that there was some clever strategic thinking on her part to hitch her star to his. I am no marriage expert, so that is all I have to say about that.

Let's be clear that Bill is neither her biggest liability nor her greatest asset. She is both. She can win this election on her own once she stops acting like it is hers to win or lose. This election is not about her--this is about the future of this country. She will be a historic figure regardless, so its time to get past the glass ceiling symbolism of it all and get down to what really matters, which is whether she cares more about serving her country or convincing us that she is the only person who can save it.