The I-HATE-HILLARY-CLUB Marches On

Q. So what did Hillary Clinton ever do to you?
A. Probably nothing. But don’t let that stop you. If you belong to the I-HATE-HILLARY-CLUB it doesn’t matter. Feel free to hate her anyway.

Before you start flaunting your lifetime membership, though, you really should figure out WHY you hate her. Do you actually have reasons for hating her? Or do you just hate her for no reason at all?

If you don’t like Hillary Clinton, fine. You’re not alone. Don’t like her. Don’t listen to her TV interviews. Don’t read her books. Don’t even waste your time thinking about her. Just stop making up weird, completely illogical reasons for your intense hatred of the woman when you never had any real reasons in the first place!

If you can’t stand her and you’d rather die than ever vote for her, recognize that your brain is somehow reacting on a purely emotional level. Understand that you’ve entered a realm of NO commonsense, NO rationality, NO real logic. So go ahead, embrace your own anti-democratic thought process and fascist attitude — and continue spewing your biased venom. Be one with your own childish, unreasonable self.

But don’t try to justify your emotional hatred by making up implausible “reasons,” then try to pass them off as plausible intellectual arguments. There’s nothing intellectual about your B.S. at all. Put a cap and gown on it and it’s still a big slow-learner turd.

You’re operating on an emotional level, not on an intellectual one. And you’re not alone because most Americans do vote with their emotions, not with their intellects. In this country, citizens rely on their guts — not on their brains — when it comes to electing public servants.

2016 wasn’t the first time facts fell by the wayside when voters chose a new President. Take a look back at earlier campaigns and you’ll see a pattern. Usually what Americans feel about a candidate is more important than what they think about a candidate.

Voters didn’t like Nixon because he faded out in his gray suit and sweated like a mule during the televised debates while JFK (in a dark suit) looked cool and more “Presidential.” But later in 1968, Nixon beat candidate Hubert H. Humphrey, AKA “The Happy Warrior,” because HHH seemed too happy during that year of MLK’s and RFK’s assassinations and The Chicago Convention and Vietnam. And didn’t veteran Michael Dukakis look goofy wearing such an oversized helmet as he perched atop that tank? The list of candidates who were defeated because of silly visuals and fleeting emotional perceptions is endless.

But in 2016, Hillary haters made her the loser and put Trump in The White House. Despite his M.I.A. income tax returns, unethical (and possibly illegal) bullying behaviors, salacious conduct, and outrageous tweets and tirades, he got elected to be POTUS #45. So what happened with Hillary? Why did Trump become The Man of The People while she got lambasted as Crooked Hillary, the malformed Disney villainess?

Well, it sure seemed like too many voters shut down the thinking part of their brains and lit up the feeling part. My case in point: Infamous interview from Pennsylvania that aired sometime around the fall of 2016. I can’t remember which station showed it, but the reporter had no problem finding an anti-Hillaryite hovering around the local watering hole.

Not once during his tongue-lashing did this Joe Q. Public from Pennsylvania mention her campaign platform or any of her policies. The interview, in fact, was devoid of politics. This guy was really aggravated because of an apolitical reason: he’d never seen Hillary Clinton visiting her father’s grave!

No, I don’t have all his quotes verbatim here, but I’ll never forget the strange argument he gave for not liking (or voting for) Hillary Clinton.

It’s right there, he pointed to the cemetery, it’s not that far away. But he never once saw anyone there. “Nobody comes to his gravesite,” he said in tones of angry admonishment. “I never see anyone there at the cemetery…she doesn’t live that far away,” he continued. “She could come down here every week and put fresh flowers on his grave. But there’s never any flowers — anything — on his grave.”

You know, I’ve read about various Presidential campaigns throughout American history, but I’ve never heard of anyone publicly reprimanding a candidate for not putting fresh flowers on his father’s grave.

If you really hate Hillary Clinton THAT MUCH, recognize that your hatred is springing from your own emotions — not from your intellect. At least be honest about it. Hate her if you choose, but grow up and admit that your hatred is not always supported by any tangible, concrete evidence.

You may not like her. You may not have voted for her in 2016. But remember this: you will never be able to accuse her of being a fascist demagogue in the way historians will someday be accusing President Trump.