ColumnWell that didn’t take long. The official presidential race has yet to begin, but other candidates (and the press) have already started finding ways of working the Bill Clinton sex scandal into discussions about Hillary Clinton‘s qualifications.
Bill’s problems matter to the press and to other candidates because it’s juicy, sordid news, and, basically, this type of rhetoric freaks voters out, especially because some people hold women to a higher standard than men. And, after all, Hillary stayed with Bill through it all.
But here’s the real issue: Do any of us actually think that Bernie Sanders would be questioned if his wife had an affair? And we already know that Donald Trump and his supporters have no problem with the way he has treated women, or that he’s been married multiple times.
Trump recently went on a Twitter tirade after Clinton said he had “a penchant for sexism” to the Des Moines Register. Clinton used that very apt description after Trump said she was “disgusting for having to use the bathroom” during a presidential debate in 2015, Salon reported. In his tweets, Trump proclaimed that he has “great respect for women” and that “If Hillary thinks she can unleash her husband, with his terrible record of women abuse, while playing the women’s card on me, she’s wrong!”
After the press reported on this, my fiancé turned to me and asked, “what exactly is the women’s card?”
Since I’m pretty sure this isn’t a real thing, I had to think for a minute. And the only thing I could come up with is this: The Women’s Card is when a woman complains about something that’s sexist, and a man doesn’t agree with her. I suppose in Trump’s mind, Clinton should have bad-mouthed her husband more when his affair was discovered. But that’s really none of his business, is it? After all, I’ve yet to hear Clinton bring up some of the lovely things Trump has said about womem. Really, do yourself a favor and read some of the quotes in this Washington Post article.
So, will people ever stop talking about Clinton’s gender and how she should react to her marriage and other situations in her own home? Probably not. Because everyone knows that when it comes to politics, nothing is fair. It’s just a shame that candidates and press can’t seem to grill Clinton on her policies and ideas the way they do on her marriage.
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Image of Hillary Clinton via Shutterstock