Terry O’Neill, President and CEO of NOW, the National Organization for Women, writes on Huffington Post:
It’s a lie that Hillary Clinton is a liar.
Nice lead-in. Calling a lie to all the liars.
The truth is that Hillary Clinton tells us the truth—and she has been doing so for decades. But many women—particularly millennials—have a different image of Hillary Clinton.
O’Neill goes on to explain that the right-wing churn machine that has come up with fabricated scandals like Whitewater, Travelgate, Vince Foster, the Rose law firm, Troopergate, Ken Starr, Benghazi, Emailgate, has contributed to some people having created a false image of Hillary as not truthful, because common wisdom is that “where there’s smoke, there must be fire”.
I’ve been spending time on college campuses with young women who identify with what’s being called “New Wave Feminism,” and I get a lot of questions about Hillary Clinton and the “trust” issue. I’m gratified to report that I see heads nodding in agreement when I give my answer.
Hillary Clinton is the most admired woman in the world for a record 20 years, but as soon as she says she is running to be President of the United States of America, suddenly people say we can’t trust her. There is a gendered aspect to this that we need to confront. Politicians are constantly, constantly telling us not to trust women. We’re told we can’t be trusted to make our reproductive health decisions. We’re told we can’t be trusted when we say we’ve been sexually assaulted — it’s assumed that we are lying, or asked for it, or wore the wrong clothes, or said the wrong things. Even in the corporate world, women aren’t trusted to be top leaders. Only 5% of Fortune 500 companies have female CEOs. So when people say they can’t trust Hillary, they are tapping into the same tired old excuses for keeping women out of leadership. I call sexist bullshit on that.
It is no secret that women have to act differently than men in many settings, many circumstances. We’ve seen that in this campaign season already. Hillary doesn’t smile enough. She smiles too much. She is evading the question with polit-speak. Bernie is the lovable grump, he has REASON to be angry and grumpy, look at the state of the economy. Bernie isn’t answering questions directly? He is just not “playing along” with the media hounds. Trump talks tough about Immigrants, Muslims, Women? He sounds like a guy who is going to “get things done”.
Beyond the buzzwords and soundbite-sized misapprehensions, Hillary Clinton has an inspiring record of achievement in matters of great importance to women. Let me count some of the ways Hillary is telling important truths in this campaign.
1. Hillary Clinton is telling us the truth about the college child care gap.
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2. Hillary Clinton is telling us the truth about sensible gun laws
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3. Hillary Clinton is telling us the truth about the need for full funding for abortion care.
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4. Hillary Clinton is telling us the truth about paid family leave.
Terry O’Neill explains in detail Hillary’s truth telling. Please click on the linked article to see detailed explanations. Including it all here would have gone well past the acceptable copyright rules this site has to adhere to.
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O’Neill ends her great article with this:
I’m old enough to have seen more than my fair share of political campaigns that were built on lies, distortion and even hatred. When I was a law professor in New Orleans, I was deeply involved in the resistance to the racist gubernatorial campaign of David Duke. As President of NOW, I hear outrageous and offensive attacks on women and their advocates every day.
But Hillary Clinton has had to endure more distortions of her record and attacks on her character than any political figure in recent memory. I know exactly what Donald Trump means when he boasts, “I haven’t even started on Hillary Clinton.”
The best antidote to poisonous attacks on Hillary Clinton is the bright light of truth. The next time someone you know questions Hillary’s honesty, point to her record, speak to her character and tell them why, like me, you’ll be proud and thrilled when she is declared the nominee.
Bright light of truth indeed. Shine it, always, loud and proud. Attacks on Hillary’s honesty from the right, but also from the left, have to be fought loud and proud, because they are toxic and don’t reflect the actual truth as we know it.
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Terry O’Neill, a feminist attorney, professor and activist for social justice, was elected president of NOW in June 2009. She is also president of the NOW Foundation and chair of the NOW Political Action Committees, and serves as the principal spokesperson for all three entities. O’Neill oversees NOW’s multi-issue agenda, which includes: advancing reproductive freedom, promoting diversity and ending racism, stopping violence against women, winning lesbian rights, ensuring economic justice, ending sex discrimination and achieving constitutional equality for women.
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