By VennerRoad, 16th Nov 2016
Feminists are forever whining about the so-called dearth of women in positions of political power. Unlike rational women, they miss the point.
Crooked Hillary Clinton
There are two and only two reasons both men and women enter politics. The right reason – to serve the people. The wrong reason – anything else.
What is politics anyway? It is not about governing, let us replace that word with administrating. Every business, every organisation be it a church choir, a holiday camp or a hospital needs to be run. The people who run an organisation are its administrators. Most of this administration is day to day matters, mundane but important stuff: ordering food and other goods, scheduling appointments, coping with disruptions. Consider a local authority and the problems faced by its administrators on a day to day basis. Fifteen key staff are off work due to an outbreak of influenza – who will do their jobs? Major roadworks are disrupting the town centre – someone has to liaise with the police and others. A major contractor has gone bust – someone has to find a replacement...Government is about things like this, administration.
Government is also about creating, directing and implementing policy, be it social or other.
These are not positions of power for the aggrandisement of the individuals concerned, that went out with Henry VIII if not with Caligula. Rather they are positions of responsibility. Like many men, many women who aspire to positions of power just don’t get this. Consider two disparate examples: Hillary Clinton and Jo Cox.
A great deal of nonsense has been written and said about the Clintons, including in professionally produced videos. The Clinton death list is the most outrageous of these, and the claims about Hillary’s personal life are nearly as scurrilous, but there are some claims about her that do stack up. Early on in her legal career she worked on the Watergate inquiry. There are conflicting reports as to her fate; one-time Clinton insider Dick Morris says she was sacked for stealing documents. Whether or not this is true or an exaggeration, she does not come out of it in a good light.
She failed her examination for the Washington DC Bar, something she concealed for three decades, and on relocating to Arkansas she went the extra mile for her client after being asked (ie told) by a judge to defend him.
Thomas Taylor was charged with the rape of 12 year old Kathy Shelton. An attorney is not obliged to like her client, but she is obliged to defend him to the fullest extent of the law. She is though first and foremost an officer of the court. This can lead to some awkward problems for a lawyer who is defending a client who is obviously guilty. It is clear though in this case – which led to a plea bargain and a much reduced sentence for Taylor – that the behaviour of Hillary Rodham bordered on the unethical, a trait that along with the desire to win at all costs and screw anyone else has been mirrored in her behaviour since through the Clintons’ various scandals in Arkansas to Travelgate while they were in the White House down to the Clinton Foundation pay to play scandal and her private e-mail server.
Mrs Clinton alluded to her seemingly inevitable elevation to President as shattering the glass ceiling. What glass ceiling might that be?
Jo Cox (1974-2016)
In total contrast to Crooked Hillary was the British Labour MP Jo Cox, who had she not been cut down by a psycho at the age of just 41 would surely have gone on to carve out a stellar Parliamentary career. Although her tenure as an MP was brief, she had spent her entire life working in and around politics, including a two year stint in Brussels.
She spent much of her time working for refugees and other victims of war. She made her maiden speech in Parliament on June 3 last year, and was serving her constituents when she was attacked, stabbed and shot on June 16. Her last words to her assistant – before saying she couldn’t take the pain – were “Get away, get away you two! Let him hurt me – don’t let him hurt you.”
This is a fitting epitaph for a woman who in her own small way did her utmost to make the world a better place. Although she was strictly to the left of the Labour Party, her death brought heartfelt and sincere tributes from across the entire political spectrum including from ordinary people, in Britain and abroad. The contrast with Hillary Clinton is stark.
Would more women in Parliament or Congress make the world a better place? If they were like Jo Cox, yes; if they were like Hillary Clinton, definitely not. Indeed, as Edward Goodman pointed out in his terse blog on female government, female rulers throughout history – of which there have been many – are often as ruthless as men, and that is without queen bee syndrome.
Broadly speaking there are two reasons fewer women are to be found at the very top of politics: commitment and ambition. Like men, women who achieve power often have to make sacrifices, or at times unpleasant choices. Margaret Thatcher was one of the few who could do it all, as is Sarah Palin. On the other hand, British Prime Minister Theresa May is childless. At a local level though, women are extremely active, often making up half or more of councillors. At the time of writing, Philadelphia has 11 male and 6 female council members while Exeter in the UK has 26 male and 13 female councillors. Furthermore, all these positions are elected, and – like the feminists never tire of telling us – as women make up 51% of the population, the ludicrous claim that a chimera called sexism is responsible for any supposed gender imbalance therein is too stupid to comment on.
The actress Susan Sarandon summed this up poetically: “I don’t vote with my vagina”.
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