Hillary (Hulu)

[Bastet]

This documentary series from 2020 immediately made it on my list when I signed up for a year of Hulu, but it wasn't until now that I'm closing in on a month left that I was willing to revisit the 2016 election.  I've just watched the first episode, and it's nicely formatted to go back and forth in time so I don't have to marinate in that horrible memory for too long, but there's probably an entire episode devoted to it at some point.  I'll power through if so, because this is really well done so far.

I love her recounting that the boy who won student council president in high school immediately came to her and asked her to do all the work, with that being one of the reasons she decided to go to a women-only college.  I enjoyed hearing from her Wellesley classmates, especially their reaction when the commencement speaker's patronizing sexism caused Hillary, the student speaker, to go off script in response.

I they will further explore her talking about being trained by experience that women having emotional reactions will have that held against them, and how that head down, stay focused, just do better control was later itself held against her.

It was well expressed by her and those around her how her superpower as a public official is detailed, pragmatic policies, and it's simultaneously her weakness as a political candidate.  (The same thing to the same extent was leveled against Elizabeth Warren -- anyone think it's a coincidence they're both women?)

I also liked her saying "I suffer from the responsibility gene" because for many years, from a young age, I said I had "an over-developed sense of responsibility".  Chronic depression and anxiety later beat it out of me to a large extent, but I love that she still has it.

Cheers to "Do you think anybody asked Bernie Sanders about his goddamned shoes?" when a staffer asked her if the shoes (basic low heels the same color as her suit) she had on were what she'd be wearing onstage.  And for calling out Phyllis Schlafly's hypocritical BS, which I am forever here for:  "She was out there telling women to stay in the home -- a woman who was never at her home, but nevertheless ..."

Throughout, I enjoyed her sharing the blatant sexism she endured (the good ol' boys in Arkansas reacting to her being a trial lawyer the way they'd react to seeing a talking dog was bad enough, but the fucking judge telling her to stand up and turn around so everyone could see how pretty she looked?!) and comparing it to what still happens to her and all women today, showing the improvement alongside all the ways this shit still happens on a daily basis.

The chyron of "(Mrs. Clinton)" under her name after Bill's first election to governor had me raging, and I liked her law school friend talking about every battle they'd fought abstractly at Yale became real for Hillary after that -- her hair, her glasses, her name, no/minimal make-up, no kids, practices law ... OMG, this can't be the First Lady of Arkansas!  That, to help his comeback election, she got contacts, changed her hair and wardrobe, and gave up her own damn name has had me raging since we first learned about her background during Bill's presidential run.

LOL at "Who would vote for a pushy woman like me?" when Bill encouraged her to pursue office after law school.  I enjoyed hearing from both of them about the development of their relationship.  It's a complicated one, because he's very obviously a disgusting philanderer (and a disgusting abuser of power, even if he'd been single), yet he clearly does love, respect, and admire her (dude knows she's even smarter and more capable and dedicated than him, and, despite harboring some jealousy, he likes her for it -- that doesn't come along very often).  There's such a disconnect between the two truths.  I've read previously about when he told her the Monica Lewinsky story was going to break, and she told him he has to go tell their daughter, which is going to be even harder than telling her, but I'm curious to hear this unvarnished Hillary talk about it all now.  I'd have never stayed with that man, but I don't put his failings on her, and she has to be the only woman the "family values" crowd has ever castigated for deciding to stick with her marriage.

 

[Bastet]

The second episode exposed Hillary's equivocating on releasing the transcripts of her paid speeches, and that she's still blind to at the very least the optics on that.  And, with Bill also in modern day saying '92 was a populist election but not an insane one, it showed both as ridiculously out of touch with the voters who felt heard by Bernie -- still.  That's incredibly frustrating.

As someone who is incredibly low maintenance about hair and make-up like Hillary is if left to her own devices, I greatly enjoyed her calculating the total hours she spent on that shit during the campaign -- it added up to 25 days!

I also enjoyed hearing about their discussions about Bill challenging Bush I, that her response to the threats was to tell him if he can be bullied out of the race, he doesn't deserve to be president, and then how much of a role she played in campaign strategy.  I love Bill saying, even back then, their campaign slogan should be "Buy one, get one free" -- he was clear on the role she'd played while he was governor, and she'd just as openly play a role if he became president (and nice reflections now from Bill about his surprise that Washington turned out to be more reactionary than Arkansas).  I love that she was the first First Lady who had the traditional office in the East Wing ("where parties are planned") and also one in the West Wing, where policy is made.  Which she filled with mostly women, but no yes women.

But then it was so disheartening to revisit how everything she said about her own choices got reduced to a soundbite presented as an attack on SAHMs, and then she's remade as a Tipper Gore clone.  Pitting women against each other is infuriating.

And, good gods, the "likability" bullshit (I appreciate Hillary talking about the reasons personal to her, and then the "reasons" heaped on all women).  The sexist parodies of her as a dominatrix leading Bill around like a poodle.  The Vince Foster and Whitewater crap (and that distraction delaying desperately needed healthcare reform for decades).  The lies were always disproved, but the mainstream media kept reporting on it.  With the story being she's too defensive, like anyone wouldn't defend themselves, especially of murder allegations!

I continue to love the behind-the-scenes footage, including Iowa during the primary.  Hillary is the first woman to win that caucus, but the media just talked about Bernie.  I - as someone who supported his policies more than hers, but also as a woman - remember being aggravated by that, especially in progressive media, so I'm not at all surprised to see that drove her campaign crazy.

[Bastet]

Episode three and I'm still loving this documentary.

I remember coverage of her visits to South Asian countries as First Lady, mostly from progressive media (especially Ms. magazine), and reaction to her "Women's rights are human rights" speech to the UN.  That was a great time to revisit.

Her "superpredator" BS and still equivocating about it now - no, dude, these were not "unintended consequences", this shit was racist from jump - by contrast, was not.  At least no bullshitting on Black Lives Matter, but damn.

Going back to the first debate was a difficult watch -- I loved seeing her aide playing the deranged role of Trump in prep, as he was hilariously unhinged, but that Trump was even more deranged in actuality yet the press never properly addressed it was excruciating once again.  As stated (because I'm vigilant in keeping political commentary directly tied to what is said in this documentary), she was running a typical campaign, but he was out there ranting and raving and that sucked up all the oxygen, with the press letting him decide what was talked about each day -- no one can compete with those theatrics.  Seeing her hug Bill and Chelsea afterward in backstage footage, so happy she'd exposed him as a madman, knowing in hindsight, as she now says, that lunacy was exactly what he was selling ... ouch.

And ouch to revisiting the Monica Lewinsky revelations.  Bill's initial lies to Hillary are almost as gross as his abuse of power to Monica in the first place.  I love Hillary telling him he gets to go tell Chelsea when he finally confesses.  That poor girl, standing between them and taking both their hands on the way to Camp David -- part PR she should never have been forced into, and mostly just wanting to keep her family together despite her disgust and disillusionment.

The impeachment discussion was interesting, particularly that Hillary's stance he shouldn't have done it, shouldn't have tried to hide it, but shouldn't be impeached for it, tied back to her early days as a lawyer, researching whether Nixon had committed impeachable offenses.  And one insider saying she'd have let her husband suffer every consequence out there, but Hillary compartmentalized and said she might want to kill this man, but the country shouldn't lose him as president because of that.  And Hillary telling Begala "If I'm not quitting, you're not".  What a crazy time; she, as she says, wanted nothing to do with him, but the world is watching, so she has to play a role while she decides what to do.

I love that all this had her as the one Democrats wanted stumping for them in the midterms.  This bullshit about staying with him being a political calculation to her benefit is ridiculous; she was never more popular, and that popularity would have shot through the ozone if she'd left his cheating ass.

Going back to the primaries, I loved her reaction to a question about, as a woman, making a presidential decision based on emotion -- a big laugh, followed by saying "A lot of people think I don't even have any."

And the generational gaps were interesting, that her contemporaries and older were for her, while their daughters were for Bernie, but their granddaughters were excited for Hillary because their review of Social Studies had them questioning why there were no women in the history of presidents.

I love the Chief of Staff saying that all the conflicting feedback on how Hillary should look, speak, stand, etc. led them to bring in consultants and ask okay, who's the woman out there doing it perfectly so Hillary can emulate her, and, of course, there was no answer.  Because women cannot ever win that question.

Edited October 29 by Bastet

[Bastet]

Me: Tell me you're a clueless repository of male privilege without saying it.
Joel Klein: Hillary always over-worried about being a woman.

(Following that with a montage of footage of sexist comments from all quarters of the media, and men yelling "Iron my shirts" at rallies, was fantastic.)

Me:  Tell me you've internalized misogyny without saying it.
Women who wouldn't vote for Hillary because she stayed with Bill:  I wish I could vote for a third term for Bill Clinton.

I appreciated hearing the sheer frustration from Black women on her campaign with the same people who see racism plain as day denying equally blatant sexism, and that they knew the first break in the long line of white male presidents was going to be a Black man, not a white woman.

It was nice to see Obama appear and talk in detail about his reasoning for appointing her Secretary of State and how well she performed in the role.

I LOL at several points in this final episode, including at her response to being told only five percent hate her:  "You realize that's 25 million people, right?"  And her imitation of Charles Rangel asking her to run for Moynihan's Senate seat.

Hearing her and Tim Kaine discuss the weight of their responsibility to keep a fascist out of the White House, and her knowing before it was public that Russia was pulling the strings - she recognized Putin's playbook from her tenure as Secretary of State - was a fascinating piece of backstage footage.  And it was a succinct summary of what happened when the press finally paid attention to Russia's interference -- on the same day, the Access Hollywood footage of Mr. "Grab 'em by the pussy" came out, so the Russia story disappeared.  Then Wikileaks dumps Podesta's hacked emails.  And Hillary has to prep for a debate in two days.

Trump stalking her across the stage in that second debate will forever remain bizarre, and I enjoyed hearing about her internal debate in real time as to how to respond, deciding to just ignore it -- because "Back off, creep" would have been seen as angry, and resulted in headlines about how she got rattled.  A sad reality, like the backstage post-debate footage of her team marveling that his performance was a "litany of lies" yet the debate would get reported as a wash.

You know that old "Slowly, I turned" vaudeville sketch (recreated on shows like I Love Lucy) where a trigger word sends someone into a state of pure rage?  My trigger word might be Benghazi.  EIGHT investigations yielding nothing, yet it was still somehow A Thing for some.  So hearing her say in this interview "Even when something is disproved, people remember the allegation was made" and the cumulative effect of that hit hard with me.

Another contender for my trigger word?  Comey.  Reopening the email shit 11 days before the election, and then two days before saying oops, never mind, nothing to see here just as our previous investigation concluded?  Oof; revisiting that final stretch of the campaign was rough viewing. 

And, of course, Election Eve and Election Day.  There are so many personal memories dredged up by re-watching those events, and I can't talk about them.  I think I cried harder tonight watching footage of her concession speech than I did when it happened, now being freshly immersed in so much behind-the-scenes information.  This final episode was tough in the end.  That she felt she'd let people down, that the forces he'd unleashed were rewarded was her failing, and it made her sick?  Holy fuck. 

But, as hard as I knew it would be to revisit, I'm glad I did.  This was a very well done documentary.  And ended perfectly, with the resistance that sprang forth from her loss being as big a part of her legacy as anything else.  Great final thoughts:  Change is polarizing; excitement and backlash come in equal measure.  We're not ready for the one who blazed the trail, but that gets us ready for the one who comes after.

Edited November 1 by Bastet