Moderate Living

nah I’m just kidding 😂 but this is a special acknowledgement post though.

I started writing this post on Friday because I knew it would be a challenge to keep the reader’s attention without the post becoming too long, verbose, and ultimately boring.

If you can, please just humor my tiny space on this vast internet. And if you want, you can laugh and ridicule me in private afterwards.

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Lost in the tragedy of Covid, the American economy, the war in Ukraine, Gaza, and – ultimately – President Donald Trump’s return to the White House is the receding of a historically significant political career.

20 some years ago, I got the privilege to see Hillary Clinton briefly in Manhattan for her book signing. I was on my lunch break, it was all coincidental but in that space of time (I think less than a minute), and even only barely seeing her I felt a strong and commanding presence, a composure that I’ve rarely only seen in a woman, or man for the matter, since.

I never forgot that day.

To watch the entirety of her political career since was a privilege for me. She navigated her way through every pitfall imaginable, despite being an underdog, and managed to come out of it a winner and better statesman than when she came in.

Of course, I couldn’t talk about Hillary Clinton without 2016. I want to be very clear on this point because I feel it’s important for her legacy.

Hillary Clinton DID NOT lose to Donald Trump in 2016.

She lost to a headwind composed of factors created by the prior administration including some where she had to defend her judgements as Secretary Of State. Donald Trump was and is a force of nature; a populist momentum coalescing into a gigantic all-earth-scorching volcano. He is as much profound ability and profound competence, as he is perfect spatial and contextual timing – that was the difference. No matter where you are on the political spectrum, you have to give him that respect.

However, Hillary Clinton’s loss in that election wasn’t the real tragedy.

The real tragedy was her…let’s just say, marginalization… from the front of the primary pack in 2008 by her own party. To summarize it as simply as possible, the Republicans could have run a ticket of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and they still would have lost due to the hugely unpopular Iraq/Pakistan occupation. The Democrats could have run anyone not named Jeffrey Dahmer and still would have won the Presidency. Had the DNC backed Hillary’s run and win, the 2016 DNC primaries would have been a mere formality for President Barack Obama. Instead, by the end of his administration, his biggest (and obviously unintended) legacy was the seismic election result that followed, along with the ripple effects we felt last Tuesday.

When we talk about Hillary Clinton, that point must be mentioned. Because, she was – objectively – the most qualified Democrat candidate (and overall candidate in my opinion) in 2008 to preserve the sacred global maritime order, the Pax Americana construct that gives almost EVERYONE in the world their security and peace. She was the nuanced rebalancing – not the overcorrection – that the country needed after the (again, obviously unintended) idealogical excess of the Bush Administration.

But letting all that pass, it will be a long time – if ever – we see an example like Hillary Clinton that embodies the degree of professional excellence with the intellectual credentials to match. In the same way that Niccolo Machiavelli wrote about the great European kings and princes – curiously in a similar century time (early 1500’s) as I write this post – historians will write about Hillary Clinton in the future.

As the sun has finally set on this period of American history I refer to as “The Post 9-11 Era” and a new untitled epoch in American history is about to begin, I don’t want to miss the chance to acknowledge her accomplishments. Just as important, this isn’t meant to be a swipe at anyone else’s political career.

I regard Hillary Clinton as, for all intents and purposes, the first female president of The United States.

She may not have held the title, but she held the intrinsic distinction the way that only pure ability and leadership could. Did she make mistakes? Of course. But her mistakes are the mistakes of man before her, during her time, and will be the mistakes of man in the future. Her mistakes are the mistakes of humanity. But ask anyone in the military that has met her if they believe she doesn’t have the character, intelligence and necessary restraint for critical decisions – especially when the stakes are existential. If they wouldn’t want her as Commander In Chief before the decision is made to deploy them into a global arena of angry men. Men who – it’s important to note – now have a degree of martial parity to match the intensity of their grievances.

In every way that counted, her ability both encapsulated and transcended the title. She has, in terms of strict geopolitical significance, no true historical counterpart in a vast expanse of time – with the exception of the Iron Lady herself, (god bless the Prime Minister).

I believe that history will judge Hillary Clinton very favorably. History will understand her as a mortal who dared to climb Mt. Olympus and dared even to climb further atop it, not to usurp the Gods, but to challenge only herself. That’s a playbook that both men and women can be inspired by and follow. Her career will forever be a profound inspiration to me.

And maybe this is a little bit of a reach but again, give my humble blog a pass for this one thing: Hillary Clinton, when all is said and done, will probably have been the only President to have “lived” in the White House for the longest amount of time, lol.