Hillary Clinton Enters Presidential Race

Last Sunday, April 12th, Hillary Clinton announced her intention to run for president in the upcoming 2016 election. Her announcement came in the form of a video. The video features stories of everyday Americans getting ready to “Do something,” such as move, or plant a garden. Each person, or couple, is a quite blatant representation of different minorities in America; a mixed raced couple, a gay couple, non-English speaking business owner—a clear effort to imply that Hillary too, is a minority ( as a woman). After 90 seconds of other people’s stories, Hillary appears to make announcement stating that she too, is planning to run for president. The announcement was met with varying levels of excitement from the feminist community. Hillary Clinton is a self-proclaimed feminist, and so it was expected that she would have a lot of support from feminists. However, this was not entirely the case. Countless articles appeared online from various feminist resources speaking against Hillary’s decision to run.

Hillary is known to have some controversial opinions regarding policies with foreign nations, as well as hypocritical policies regarding unions and the working class. Hillary served the board of Wal-Mart for six years, and was very anti-union. However, after leaving suddenly she began saying that unions are, “a key movement in creating a middle class.” It’s this inconsistency with various policies that leaves some people on edge.

On the other hand, Hillary Clinton has been made out to be an advocate for Women’s rights and LGBTQ rights. Although in many issues she is in favor of rights supporting both communities, some of the policies she backs are actually detrimental to both women’s rights and LGBT rights. Because of this many feminists, and many of Hillary’s previous supporters, are on the fence about pledging full support to the female candidate.

The general consensus seems to be that Hillary is the lesser of two evils. Although her policy support is somewhat wishy washy and not entirely in favor of feminist issues, she is the best chance, so far, for ANY women’s rights. Unlike the republican candidates, Hillary is in favor of reproductive rights as well as anti-violence against women acts. At the time however, it is difficult to place full favor on Clinton until she campaigns further and reveals where exactly her support lies for the upcoming election.