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Dear Hillary:
First let me say, Congratulations.
Not only does Donald Trump continue to shoot himself in the foot, but this past weekend, a spate of articles came out that affirmed your candidacy—seemingly. The NY Times piece asserted that because you elide and dissemble significantly less than your opponent—you fib as opposed to lie, (and that, as politicians go, you are “about average” in your “dissembling” ) we should, as my daughter would say, “relax already.”
The Huffington Post ran a similar article, calling Trump “Dishonest Don” and claiming he sets “a historically low bar for truth."
And, jumpstarting the weekend was Fareed Zakaria’s sly piece in the Washington Post: “The Unbearable Stench of Trump’s BS”
Yet, simply because you are more wedded to facts than Trump (hardly an impressive claim), these articles are more ‘backhanded nods’ than ‘ringing endorsements.’’ They are unikely to turn former Bernie supporters into Hillary fans, as they overlook your own creativity with facts—your guarantee of business as usual.
As this election cycle has made resoundingly clear, the populace is so fed up with politics as usual that they are willing to vote for anyone who does not look like a mouthpiece for the establishment. (And Hillary, you look like a mouthpiece.)
Trump is slowly imploding, so now is the time to be pro-active, and strike a blow for authenticity; to challenge the words like flip-flopping, accountability, and lying attached to your candidacy.
Do something unpolitic, something Outside the Box.
Own Up.
Address the downright contradictions in your political positions---or a handful of them, at least—say, the ones so pointedly on display in a video that went viral several months ago.
This is hardly to suggest you should apologize for changing your positions, but that you own those shifts—you banner them, even, as proof that you are a woman who listens, grows, and modifies—even changes—her stance.
Doing so will take no small amount of courage, as—more than doubling down on political double-speak—you have flat out denied reversing yourself (as we all so painfully heard on your now viral NPR interview with Terry Gross
Without a doubt, Terry tried her best to offer you an out, a way to redeem yourself. She was a pro-active bystander, trying to save you from exposing yourself to ridicule and humiliation. But, having refused her help, you now have the much harder task—self-redemption.
Not unlike the tough kid on the playground, you are stronger than other candidates-- the most qualified individual to ever run for president.
And lest you come off as a privileged bully who has no accountability, you must come clean.
Simply because you have worn so many hats for so long in a changing world, it is inconceivable that you would not have changed your thinking, allowing the menagerie of ‘contradictions’ in the video clip to be produced.
(This is not to suggest that you have not mis-spoken, or that there is not subterfuge in your handling of key issues.).
But on some issues—e.g. same sex marriage—your public stance has shifted, and you need to beam with pride and embrace that fact.
And as long as you do not come out and own your shifts it is impossible to get past the politics as usual charges laid at your feet.
Flip-flop on ‘politics as usual’ Hillary--do something radical and un-politic (which is exactly what the electorate have been demanding).
Something like a one-on-one exclusive, and make a response to that 13 minute clip the heart of the interview.
You owe no-one an apology for changing your views, but you owe us all an apology for denying that your views have changed—or “evolved.”
Admitting to this is what will humanize you.
(Beaming with pride over baby Charlotte and revealing the “grandmotherly” side of you is a step in the right direction—but for heaven’s sake, would this wash for you?
I suspect not.)
It not only seems impossibly hard to make such an admission—a confession—to the nation, but absurd to rock the boat while you are surging ahead in the polls. (You might reverse this momentum if you own up on these issues, for what does it imply about your responses to Benghazi? )
Yet being on record with these contradictions gnaws at your credibility, and what more authentic way to address that / redeem yourself than by owning your reversals? By doubling down on your apology about using a private server.
Knowing you were scared and ashamed at the time, or believed it politically unwise, showing weakness—whatever—(and that you are scared and even ashamed now, as you sit down to ‘come clean’ to have such an interview) will allow us to believe you—and more importantly, to believe in you.
Teach a nation what it means to own your choices, even if they require that you confront shame.
Be willing to face a bully (Trump) who will surely gloat at your ‘weakness’ in doing so.
Be willing to stare down his mockery and not be victimized by it.
Point to it, and embolden many young, bullied youth to embrace their own choices, and confront their own experiences of humiliation.
Call on the nation to witness your courage as you face the bad behavior that will certainly be served up—because you have the strength to be human, to admit a mistake and offer an apology.
(Think of what apologizing for the Bay of Pigs crisis did for Kennedy, or more recently, what apologizing for the embarrassing fiascos with “Obama-care” did for the sitting president).
Admitting your foibles, your mistakes, your reversals, even, allows you—and us—to get past them.
It collapses the (10 million hit) cyber monument of falsehood that stands in your name, and allows you to be the leader we know you can be—smart, tough, experienced, yet human—and vulnerable--Hillary Clinton.
