American suffragettes leaders would not have voted for Hillary

I am a direct descendant of one of the foremost leaders in the Suffragette Movement, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who worked alongside Susan B. Anthony to achieve the right to vote for women. I am absolutely certain if either Elizabeth, Susan, or any of their colleagues were alive today, they would not vote for Hillary Clinton.

These women went through hell, sustaining decades of insults and injuries, just to get women the vote. They are not here to tell you NOT to support Hillary Clinton, but I certainly am!

Who was Elizabeth Cady Stanton? Born in 1815, her Declaration of Sentiments, presented at the Seneca Falls New York Convention held in 1848, is credited with beginning the first organized women’s rights and women’s suffrage movements in the United States. She was an active abolitionist.

In addition to going beyond women’s voting rights – including birth control, women’s custody rights, property rights, divorce, income rights, and temperance – Stanton and Susan B. Anthony declined to support passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. She opposed giving added legal protection and voting rights to African American men, while black and white women were denied those same rights. In 1902, she died, leaving behind The Woman’s Bible, her autobiography, Eighty Years and More, in addition to hundreds of articles and pamphlets concerning female suffrage and women’s rights.

Back to 2016: it is common knowledge The Clinton Foundation accepts enormous sums from Saudi Arabia, a country with a record of appalling treatment of women, yet Hillary’s supporters choose to look the other way and ignore this egregious failing.

In addition, this female candidate, who we are supposed to entrust with fighting for our wage equality pays men 38 percent more than women within her Foundation.

Don’t forget the six years Hillary sat on the Wal-Mart board of directors. “We’ve got a very strong-willed young woman on our board now; her name is Hillary,” said Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton at a 1987 stockholders meeting in describing Clinton’s role in pushing for more women to be hired in management positions. Critics say Clinton’s efforts produced few tangible results, when Wal-Mart (was) defending itself in a lawsuit brought by 16 female employees.

“I don’t doubt the sincerity of her efforts, but we don’t see much evidence that conditions for women at Wal-Mart changed much during the late 1980s and early 1990s,” said Joe Sellers, one of the lawyers suing Wal-Mart on behalf of the women.

Wal-Mart and Walton’s heirs are major contributors to Clinton’s campaign; her records show Wal-Mart heiress, Alice Walton having donated $353,400 to Clinton’s “Victory Fund.” The donation makes absurd Clinton’s pretend-messaging as a “workers’ ally,” as Wal-Mart stands out for its oppressive labor practices and corporate greed-riddled behavior.

I am disappointed by how many female Clinton supporters sneeringly ask: “When Hillary gets the nomination, you’ll support the party and vote for her, right? She’s better than all the Republicans.”

If these supporters, who so righteously carry the DNC’s golden mantle, are so concerned about women’s issues and the fate of the party, perhaps they should consider calling on Clinton to suspend her campaign for the Presidency.

Polls repeatedly show Bernie Sanders beating all Republicans in the General Election. However, there still remain glaring and profoundly disturbing questions of Clinton’s truthfulness, the possibilities of her being indicted on several Federal charges, her terrible track record as a Secretary of State, her inconsequential lack of accomplishment as NY’s US Senator, and what Bloomberg calls her “long, cautious record on women’s rights.”

Is the Democratic party prepared to be blindsided by more surprises about Hillary? What does her refusal to release the Wall Street transcripts imply about what else she must be hiding from all Americans?

Bernie is clean-as-a-whistle, consistent, transparent, and worthy of the Presidency. He plans to increase funding to Planned Parenthood. He will only nominate Supreme Court justices who uphold Roe vs. Wade. He has consistently advocated up to 12 weeks paid leave for new mothers. Perhaps it is Hillary who should drop out, but that isn’t going to happen, is it? Those concerned with women’s issues and the “good of the party” should be considering that they might be blindsided down the line with her candidacy.

As a descendant of one of the most important suffragettes in American history, I find Clinton’s entire timeline and hypocrisy to be a total insult to feminism.

A responsible newspaper that wants to stay relevant should endorse Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination. Certainly, the shocking disarray in the GOP warrants your editorial guidance of them as well. Please do so soon, before your state’s primary, as the Seattle Times did so sensibly in early March by endorsing Sanders and Kasich.

I close with a revealing quote from my ancestor for 2016 readers to contemplate:

“I urge a sixteenth amendment, because ‘manhood suffrage,’ or a man’s government, is civil, religious, and social disorganization. The male element is a destructive force, stern, selfish, aggrandizing, loving war, violence, conquest, acquisition, breeding in the material and moral world alike discord, disorder, disease, and death. See what a record of blood and cruelty the pages of history reveal! Through what slavery, slaughter, and sacrifice, through what inquisitions and imprisonments, pains and persecutions, black codes and gloomy creeds, the soul of humanity has struggled for centuries, while mercy has veiled her face and all hearts have been dead alike to love and hope!”

Barbara Malteze

I am a direct descendant of one of the foremost leaders in the Suffragette Movement, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who worked alongside Susan B. Anthony to achieve the right to vote for women.