Sexual harassment did not cost Hillary the election
Dear Editor,
Just when I thought I had heard every excuse for Mrs. Clinton’s loss a year ago, I am proved wrong.
In light of the recent sexual harassment allegations, Ms. Jill Filipovic, a contributing op-ed writer for the New York Times, has concluded that men cost Hilary Clinton the election.(The Men Who Cost Clinton the Election, Dec. 1, 2017)
Ms. Filipovic wrote that the Lauer , Rose and other interviewers were harshly biased against Mrs. Clinton and affected the outcome of the race against her. It was this form of “sexual harassment” that led to her defeat.
This is more of the re-imagining of history to justify the great loss by Mrs. Clinton. It’s that darn Electoral College. It’s James Comey’s fault. Or it’s Bill Clinton’s fault for an ill-timed meeting. Now her historic loss is due to sexual harassment by men. Another meaningless rewriting of history – to what end? Or is it just more of the angst regarding President Trump’s victory?
But the idea that sexual harassment of Mrs. Clinton led to her defeat is mythical at best and far-fetched at worst. Mrs. Clinton lost because of Mrs. Clinton’s lack of vision. To this day no one knows her vision for the nation because she never clearly had one. Besides not connecting with people, Clinton was just not viewed as likable or trustworthy.
Was James Comey sexist in stating Mrs. Clinton was “extremely careless” with her emails or was he stating a fact based on evidence? Obviously, the latter is true.
Let’s not forget that forces were also aligned to help Mrs. Clinton including the DNC’s overt favoritism for Mrs. Clinton and DNC bias against Bernie Sanders. In fact, it appears several women at the DNC could be labeled “sexist” in denying equal treatment to Mr. Sanders. Sexist behavior is a two-way street. Did the overt “sexism” of the DNC favoring Mrs. Clinton cost Bernie Sanders the election? Evidence can only be stretched so far.
The only way to make this preposterous claim that Clinton lost due to sexual harassment by men is to ignore or omit blatant facts and evidence from the campaign. Of course sexual harassment is unacceptable, about that there is no question or rebuttal. But to attribute Mrs. Clinton’s defeat to sexual harassment is a grave miscarriage of reality.
Dudley Thompson lives in Girdletree, MD., population 106. He was born, raised, and lived most of his life in Baltimore. He worked for the News-American on the advertising side until it closed in ‘86. His second career was teaching in juvenile jails for the Maryland State Department of Education. He holds a Masters in Liberal Arts from Johns Hopkins University, ‘77, and a B.A from the University of Maryland,’74.