Hillary Clinton: ‘It is a trap to believe that progress is impossible’

Immediately following President Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 election and endorsement of VP Kamala Harris, there were some nasty comments online about how “Hillary Clinton must be furious” or “Kamala will be president and Hillary won’t.” Meanwhile, the Clintons have always been part of KHive and Hillary has always been enormously supportive of VP Harris personally and politically. Once Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election, she knew that she did her part to put cracks in the glass ceiling and that more women would run for office and eventually we will have a woman president. That time is now and Hillary Clinton is 100% on board with Kamala Harris. Bill and Hillary Clinton were fast out of the gate with their endorsement, and now Hillary has written a wonderful New York Times op-ed. Here’s a partial excerpt:

History has its eye on us. President Biden’s decision to end his campaign was as pure an act of patriotism as I have seen in my lifetime. It should also be a call to action to the rest of us to continue his fight for the soul of our nation. The next 15 weeks will be like nothing this country has ever experienced politically, but have no doubt: This is a race Democrats can and must win.

Mr. Biden has done a hard and rare thing. Serving as president was a lifelong dream. And when he finally got there, he was exceptionally good at it. To give that up, to accept that finishing the job meant passing the baton, took real moral clarity. The country mattered more. As one who shared that dream and has had to make peace with letting it go, I know this wasn’t easy. But it was the right thing to do.

Elections are about the future. That’s why I am excited about Vice President Kamala Harris. She represents a fresh start for American politics. She can offer a hopeful, unifying vision. She is talented, experienced and ready to be president. And I know she can defeat Donald Trump.

There is now an even sharper, clearer choice in this election. On one side is a convicted criminal who cares only about himself and is trying to turn back the clock on our rights and our country. On the other is a savvy former prosecutor and successful vice president who embodies our faith that America’s best days are still ahead. It’s old grievances versus new solutions.

Ms. Harris’s record and character will be distorted and disparaged by a flood of disinformation and the kind of ugly prejudice we’re already hearing from MAGA mouthpieces. She and the campaign will have to cut through the noise, and all of us as voters must be thoughtful about what we read, believe and share.

I know a thing or two about how hard it can be for strong women candidates to fight through the sexism and double standards of American politics. I’ve been called a witch, a “nasty woman” and much worse. I was even burned in effigy. As a candidate, I sometimes shied away from talking about making history. I wasn’t sure voters were ready for that. And I wasn’t running to break a barrier; I was running because I thought I was the most qualified to do the job. While it still pains me that I couldn’t break that highest, hardest glass ceiling, I’m proud that my two presidential campaigns made it seem normal to have a woman at the top of the ticket.

Ms. Harris will face unique additional challenges as the first Black and South Asian woman to be at the top of a major party’s ticket. That’s real, but we shouldn’t be afraid. It is a trap to believe that progress is impossible. After all, I won the national popular vote by nearly three million in 2016, and it’s not so long ago that Americans overwhelmingly elected our first Black president. As we saw in the 2022 midterms, abortion bans and attacks on democracy are galvanizing women voters like never before. With Ms. Harris at the top of the ticket leading the way, this movement may become an unstoppable wave.

[From The NY Times]

Hillary was serving up bar after bar in this piece, so much so that I wanted to excerpt even more! But you should just read the whole thing. She’s right about everything – President Biden’s moral clarity, the role she has played in normalizing female candidates running for president and the enormous and chaotic backlash Kamala Harris will face. I love this: “all of us as voters must be thoughtful about what we read, believe and share.” Don’t amplify every dipsh-t hate tweet, don’t believe every lie built on misogynoir, don’t read the hatchet jobs written by beltway flunkies. Concentrate and keeping moving!

Also: I’m getting emotional at the thought of Joe Biden pointing to Kamala Harris and saying, in essence, “I was the bridge to her.” And now Hillary is doing the same: “I didn’t win, but Kamala can.”

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

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39 Responses to “Hillary Clinton: ‘It is a trap to believe that progress is impossible’”

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  1. Bravo Hillary!!! What a wonderful and encouraging piece. We need much more of this!!!!!

  2. HillaryIsAlwaysRight says:

    Hillary is always right.

    • Anna says:

      Hilary is amazing. So well spoken, so prepared. I angers me to this day that she lost to that idiot.

  3. Kim says:

    I don’t want to think of “what if” regarding Clinton. She would have been great. However I love to dream of “what might be.”

  4. Chaine says:

    Why does she call her “Ms. Harris”??? She is VP Harris….

    • girl_ninja says:

      If PBO had done that he would have been sent to the gallows. 😑

    • Becks1 says:

      That’s a NY Times thing. She also calls Biden “Mr. Biden.” i dont know if the NYT edited that for her or if she wrote it that way, but they typically refer to a person by their title once in an article and then the rest is Ms. or Mr. which is what happens here. So that doesn’t mean anything really.

    • F.Farrell says:

      Becks1 is right: It’s the NYT style guide. In the original piece in the NYT, HRC uses President Biden and Vice President Harris the first time she names them. Subsequent references in the same piece use Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris.

      Here are the first references to each.

      “President Biden’s decision to end his campaign was as pure an act of patriotism as I have seen in my lifetime.”

      “That’s why I am excited about Vice President Kamala Harris.”

    • ProfHurkleDurkle says:

      That’s the New York Times style guide. Everyone (apart from people with specific royal titles) is Mr., Mrs., Dr., or Ms., even sitting presidents.

  5. Grant says:

    Yes, yes, YES! I love Hillary and I love Kamala. To quote Hillary in 2016: The Future is Female.

    • ML says:

      💯procent this❗️

    • Busybody says:

      Yes! Reading “the future is female” again made me tear up this morning! My daughter just turned 18 and I am so thrilled (and emotional!) that she will be able to vote for a woman in her first presidential election.

    • bisynaptic says:

      The future is female. 🎯

  6. Nicole says:

    Meanwhile Trump says shiz like this. Donald Trump: We’re not supposed to have a socialist president. Especially a female. https://x.com/MentallyDivine/status/1815932282768638448

  7. Teddy says:

    Let’s remember that Hilary DID win – by several million votes. In any other country she would have been president. It’s only in the US, with the antiquated electoral collage, that a robust victory turns into a loss.

    • tealily says:

      Yes!! And I hate that I’ve seen a few people (mostly on the older side) posting things saying that we’ll never elect a woman president. It’s a whole different world right now than it was in 2016, or even in 2020. Swing states are called swing states for a reason!

      “It is a trap to believe that progress is impossible.” 100% That’s how they keep us down. The energy is there right now. This feels like the moment.

      • urabnelf says:

        I am sad to say similar words came out of my mouth the moment Biden stepped down. “I would love to see Kamala running the country, but I’m not sure the voters are ready for it. A Black President, yes. A female President? Not so much.”

        I’ve never been so happy to be proven wrong! Just so you know, Canada is rooting for her to win the shit out of this election! Team Harris all the way 🙂

  8. Hypocrisy says:

    The support has been an amazing thing to witness… it’s coming from every corner of this country and the DNC have not even had the convention.. I love how this has left the gop convention all but forgotten, not what they expected at all. It hasn’t even been a week yet.

  9. Becks1 says:

    This is a fantastic op-ed. I love how she is so fully throwing her support behind VP Harris while also being open about how disappointed she is in the 2016 results.

  10. Feebee says:

    A thoughtful and perfectly toned excerpt. She absolutely did normalize a woman running for President and of course she won the popular vote by 3-4 million proving that America IS ready for this progressive step. The future is female and the future is now.

    Hillary continues to be one of the leaders we need. A steady hand and voice that cuts through the shitshow that is the current tone of US Presidential politics. No games with her support. Still with her.

    • Twin falls says:

      💯 I am grateful for her continued presence and immediate support of MVP Harris. My concern with the calls for Biden to drop out was the silence around Harris. I am overwhelmed in the best possible way by this turn of events. LFG!

  11. Jennifer Smith says:

    I think a big part of why Dems are excited is relief combined with the shared narrative. President Biden orchestrated the handover in such a way that before the disinformation campaigns could start, it was DONE. As someone who backed Biden and was angry about the circular firing squad, and as an OG Khiver, it was wondrous to behold. A lot of zig zagging emotions for sure. In short: LFG!!!

  12. NotSoFast says:

    Never anything but love for Hillary! She withstood so much garbage thrown at her through the years. She was a progressive activist all her life, and has always operated with class and grace under some very extreme circumstances. She isn’t angry. That’s more shit that people put on her. She will be known as a trailblazer, and rightly so. I am so glad, but not at all surprised, that she was so immediate in her support of Kamala.

  13. wolfmamma says:

    Ah Hillary ~ you’ve done it again. Bravo for your gigantic warrior soul!
    I got to shake your hand once with you looking me straight in the eye – so I know how strong you are!

    And Now .. let’s support the rise of the feminine from every corner of this country. We can do this !
    Listening to Keb Mo – Put a woman in charge

    Onward ~ for President Kamala Harris !

  14. Louisa says:

    I love her. Just LOVE her. And I am getting weepy reading this. I’ve been getting emotional the last few days and I think it’s because I am finally feeling hopeful again. The last couple of months (years?) I really have been in such despair with where it looked like this country was going. There were the constant conversations with my family…. what are our options if “he” wins? where can we go? what can we do? It took a toll. It was hard to move forward.
    But now? Oh it’s on! We can do this.

  15. Brassy Rebel says:

    I worked on both of HRC’s presidential campaigns and I still have the PTSD to prove it. It’s a tragedy how right wing ratf***ers were able to caricature her and turn her into a cartoon character with the help of an all too willing political media. She was never Lady Macbeth or any other misogynistic stereotype that she was painted as. This op ed proves how she has always been there for other women and anyone that she could help in any way. Her warning about be careful what information you consume shows that she is still smarting from how people, supposedly on her side (particularly young men), internalized all the right wing dog whistles back in 2016. She doesn’t want them to make that mistake again. And, yes, believing that progress is not possible is a trap. It is also a self fulfilling prophecy. If we don’t keep trying and fighting for change, we will never achieve it. In the meantime, I’m still waiting on President Biden to award her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. That’s part of his unfinished business.

  16. Aidee Kay says:

    Hillary Rodham Clinton has been one of my heroes since I was young and read an interview with the then-First Lady. She has always been a beacon to me of smart, progressive, assertive, empathetic, extremely thoughtful politics. I was heartbroken in 2016 but in 2020 I realized I was getting Kamala Harris-for-Pres emails because HRC had given her mailing list to Kamala. That’s when I decided to back Harris — in 2020 going into the primaries, Harris/Buttegieg was my first-choice pick, though I was happy with Biden/Harris in the end. I am still hoping for Harris/Buttegieg today!!!

    • Jayna says:

      She is one of my heroes also. She is all of the things you say. I’ve read so many interviews with her. She has the most brilliant political mind: a true policy wonk. But she is so much more than the narrow box so many put her in. I fought hard for her in 2008, believing she had the most experience, and that Obama could be next. But having both of them as candidates was an embarrassment of riches. So I was always fine and excited about President Obama, even though Hillary lost. When President Obama chose to put her in his administration, my admiration for him quadrupled. That’s a man not afraid of a strong woman, who was a strong competitor, and I adored her for accepting his offer and working so hard for Obama’s presidency.

      But 2016 was another matter. I have never fully recovered from her loss to the scam artist Trump.

      I have been so disengaged, feeling Trump was coming back in as I watched Joe’s health decline, and his low ratings over the year never pick up, feeling the apathy of the voters, etc. But what 24 hours can do for a person watching the turn of events and it not become a free-for-all but a handing over of the baton and watch Vice President Harris fly to campaign headquarters and give her speech to the campaign workers and watching the Democratic Party come together for he and, as important, the excitement of we, the public, who are members of the DP.

      It’s going to be a hard fight, but I have such belief in Kamala and her energy and determination to pull this off. I will say it again: The DNC is going to be the most joyous convention. I will watch every second of it and be so happy once again to see such diversity in the audience, unlike the Trumplican convention. Not that I watched it this time, but I did in 2020.

      • Blithe says:

        My initial emotional response when I heard that Biden would be stepping back was terror. That quickly turned to a sense of empowered optimism and admiration for the way that Biden, Harris, and the Democratic Party have been handling things — with massive grassroots support.

        My background music: What A Difference A Day Makes! And totally enjoying Kendrick Lamar — and imagining what artists can do to pump up the volume.

  17. Nanea says:

    It’s so good to have Hillary back as the elder stateswoman.

    It’s also good to see how there’s a collective deep breath of relief on Xwitter, combined with a cautious feeling of elation — that MVP has got this, and that Dark Brandon, or Joebi Wan Kenobi, as Mar🐪 calls him, has her back.

    Some of the (Black) dem accounts I follow seem to have tweeted round the clock since the news broke, they’re so involved with organizing. It’s a joy to see/read this.

    Even the local chapter of Dems Abroad have already published *to do* lists, like making sure, as everywhere else, that one is still on the voters’ roll, how to request absentee ballots and till when etc etc.

    And, most important of all, how to donate.

    LFG!!!

    Yes, we Kam!

    KaM(ake)A(merica)L(augh)A(gain)

  18. Jayna says:

    I read it last night. It was the most amazing op-ed. I teared up. I am not going to lie.

  19. Veronica S. says:

    Technically, Hillary did win. We just got screwed by a system that’s screwed this country out of the democratic process for two major elections in the last twenty years. That means we just need to go a little further to ensure the EC doesn’t shoot us in the foot again. I’m nervous because the odds are against Harris, but this seems to have galvanized the younger people.

    Just be prepared for the onslaught to come. The right wing will be sounding the dog whistles, and the Russian and Chinese psyops are going to try and target young voters with increased drama about the Israel-Palestine war. Right now they’re recalibrating, but it’s going to get real nasty, real fast.

  20. Agnes says:

    It really feels possible to have a President Kamala Harris, which I never in a million years thought would happen just last week. What a wonderful shift. That was a very moving and motivating op-ed.

  21. pixiestyx says:

    I will always remember how happy I was taking my 89 year old grandmother to vote for Hillary. I left the polling place thinking “Holy $hit, I think we just did. We’re going to have female president in my grandma’s lifetime.” That memory will always hold a special place in my heart.