July 9, 2000
SUNDAY Q&A
Caught in 'The Hillary Trap'
Geoff Metcalf interviews author, first lady-watcher, Laura
Ingraham
By Geoff Metcalf
© 2000 WorldNetDaily.com
Is Hillary Clinton an outstanding role model for young women or a
calculating politician bent on feminizing American society? In
her recent book, "The Hillary Trap," MSNBC analyst and talk-show
host Laura Ingraham declares the first lady to be a poor
representative and champion for real women's issues. In blending
biographical material and political commentary, Ingraham condemns
Clinton's decision to stand by her philandering husband and
questions the Senate candidate's belief that women need more
government intervention in their lives. WorldNetDaily reporter
Geoff Metcalf recently interviewed Ingraham about her analysis of
the women's movement and the first lady.
Question: Tell us about the way the way you break the book down
into seven "traps" that ultimately synthesize into "The Hillary
Trap."
Answer: I thought it was important to take Hillary seriously as a
political figure. When we think of Hillary, we think about cattle
futures and about Whitewater, Travelgate and the "vast right-wing
conspiracy." But it is time to look at what her worldview is and
then ask ourselves if it measures up to her claims of
"empowering" people and caring about children and caring about
families and whether or not those policies really make sense.
Negative comments you hear from focus groups that talk about
Hillary usually revolve around credibility. They usually have to
do with whether or not, when Hillary speaks, people think she is
telling the truth. And it goes back to the interview on "60
Minutes" where she denied that her husband was involved in these
rumors of infidelity, and her saying she only learned about the
Lewinsky affair when it appeared in the Post.
Q: I really think the Clintons think that if they tell the lie
long enough and frequently enough, eventually people are going to
believe it.
A: If you have no shame, then you have nothing to answer to.
Q: What about this whole thing about her being the smartest
lawyer, and a role model and career woman?
A: That is the big Hillary trap. She is selling this reputation
of accomplishment and serious professionalism when in fact the
only endeavor she can chalk up to her credit and the
administration is the Health Care Task Force, which was a
disaster.
So this idea that Hillary has some major record of public service
and accomplishment -- it just doesn't wash. It is part of the
spin machine. And people do believe, because when she is on Rosie
O'Donnell for an hour and on the cover of Vogue and she looks so
good, people say, "Oh, she's so strong; she's been through so
much," like she was working in the coal mines or something.
She puts forth this idea that "I'm a victim -- support me. I've
put up with so much from a philandering husband and Ken Starr
that I deserve the Senate seat." You get the impression her
platform is "victimhood."
Q: One of Hillary's concepts is that working women are victims.
A: The victim mindset is really the saddest thing to come out of
the Hillary Trap, which is this idea that society is posited
against women because of their gender, that there needs to be
this panoply of federal regulations and government bureaucrats to
safeguard women, the poor damsels in distress. They need the
government village to step in and help them.
Q: That's the weird duplicity between the public persona she
tries to sell. "I am woman, hear me roar," but we are victims, so
we need help.
A: It is Hillary wanting to have it both ways. She doesn't want
to give up her first lady position, right? Because she gets a lot
of mileage out of that. She wants to run for Senate so she has to
sort of juggle both of them, neglecting her first lady duties
often, but no matter. When the Clintons are involved, the rules
are bent and laws don't matter. Their intentions are good, so it
really doesn't matter how they get there as long as they have the
right views and as long as they care about children.
Q: One example you point to in your book -- and Hillary uses it
like a bludgeon -- is that women only make 76 cents for every
dollar men make.
A: Right. This is in the Work Trap chapter. I talk about the
myths that are propagated by feminists about how women are
shortchanged in the workplace. And it turns out when you really
look at how these comparable-worth statistics are used, it turns
out that when women actually put in the exact same amount of time
in the exact same profession and the same amount of effort, there
is virtually no wage gap whatsoever. I think it goes down to nine
cents, which is negligible. Women are supposed to believe there
is a glass ceiling and that they can't become a partner at a law
firm unless there are gender police around every corner, and that
just doesn't resonate with what most women want today. Most women
are just trying to balance work and family and making tough
choices and don't really want the government making hard
decisions for them.
Q: Probably the most startling thing is how she "stuck by her
man," notwithstanding her protestations to the contrary, in view
of this long litany of infidelity. How can a strong woman do
that?
A: Women do it every day. Hillary didn't invent that. Hillary
didn't invent a lot of these problems. But she is a great symbol
of this flawed way of thinking. The interesting thing about
Hillary standing by Bill is Hillary introduces herself as a
"family feminist." She likes to play off this image and
reputation of the strong, self-reliant woman under pressure but
always poised and professional. She benefits from that, but when
you look at her real life choices, she is a throwback to the
'50s. She sublimated her own professional endeavors for a
philandering husband -- for status. And finally, she wants a
Senate seat out of it.
But we tell women and young girls today, "You have to be out
there and competing in order to make it in the world." You're not
supposed to ask for handouts. You're not supposed to get where
you are because of your looks. You're supposed to get there
because you are talented and you have a record of achievement.
That's the message we should be giving young girls today, not
this false image of a role model in Hillary.
When she is held up as a role model, we really have to examine
that and we really have to start asking ourselves the hard
question. Namely, "Is this the best we can do?" Is this what we
really want to tell young girls today? That this is what your
marriage should be like? These are what your political choices
should be? I just think we can do a lot better.
Q: Let's briefly run through the seven different traps you
delineate in the book.
A: The Sisterhood Trap is this idea that all women, because of
their gender, should subscribe to a panoply of big government
programs, be pro-abortion, be pro-gay rights, and basically
ascribe to what the National Organization of Women does. And you
find that this is a trap because most women have varying views on
all these subjects.
Q: But to be a good sister, you have to subordinate your own
thoughts and beliefs for whatever the overall agenda is. Right?
A: Right. Kay Bailey Hutchison was called a "female impersonator"
by Gloria Steinem a few years back. In the early '80s, you saw
all the signs at Reagan rallies: "If you're a woman, don't vote
for Reagan" and "Real women don't vote for Reagan." It's this
idea that you are betraying your gender if you are in
disagreement with the feminist left, and that's just backward
thinking, and it is a trap that women just have to reject
completely.
That's the first trap. Hillary made her name talking at the
Beijing Woman's conference five years ago in 1995. She gave a
really passionate speech about wife-burning in India and all
these atrocities. Of course, she threw in references to problems
in America, too -- this idea we are all victims.
Q: The Education Trap?
A: The Education Trap is what's happened to our public schools.
Real learning, real fact-based learning has gone out the window
and politically correct gender-based education has replaced it.
Standards are down the drain, and self-awareness and
self-esteem-building classes are all the rage. Hillary's
supporters in the teachers unions have not done anything except
encourage the current status quo in public education that has
removed standards. Their biggest battle is to get rid of prayer
in the classroom. To them, that's the biggest threat to education
in the classroom today, that someone might say a voluntary
prayer. Meanwhile, our kids are not learning.
Outcome-based education says that you should feel good about
yourself; whatever works for you. Except that's not how the real
world works. We actually need people who are well-rounded and who
know the history of the United States and who have a general base
of knowledge. Unfortunately, the current education system, which
is a total monopoly of the public schools, is in bad shape. And
Hillary's friends in the teachers unions do not want it to
change, to allow school choice, and it is really unfortunate for
the people who are less fortunate than Hillary's own daughter,
who went to a fancy private school.
Q: Let's talk about the Anti-Gun Trap.
A: This is my favorite trap, because women are the most
vulnerable to gun myths that are propagated by the anti-gun
lobby. Remember when you heard that you are 44-times more likely
to shoot someone in your own family than you are to shoot an
intruder? That's completely untrue. I list the whole series of
myths the gun-control lobby uses.
Obviously, Hillary is a gun-control advocate. She doesn't believe
women should have the right to choose to have a handgun to defend
themselves. It turns out you are not 44-times more likely to
shoot a member of your own family. The man who came up with that
original statistic has since recanted. It is 2.7 times, and it is
a false statistic anyway, because when you defend yourself with a
handgun, in 90 percent of the cases, you don't even fire it. You
don't shoot the intruder; you just brandish the gun. Those are
the kinds of phony statistics that are used to scare mothers and
scare women away from having real choices.
Q: Dr. John Lott has all this wonderful statistical documentation
about how much safer you are with guns, but nobody gets to hear
that.
A: An armed populace is not a vulnerable populace. The idea is
that women -- who are the most vulnerable in our society to crime
-- should be forced to rely on calling 911 when someone comes
into their home, or to hold a heavy shotgun, that women shouldn't
have that choice (to own a handgun). The only choice that Hillary
supporters care about is the right to abort a child. That's the
only choice they care about.
Q: There was recently a story of a woman who was confronted by
two knife-wielding assailants who held her child and actually cut
him and announced their intention to rape her. She went into the
bathroom to take off her clothes, but when she came out, she was
clothed and armed. She shot and dropped one of them, and the
other fled, only to be caught later. That's reality.
A: The reality is you are better off if you are trained in
handgun use, are proficient and comfortable with it, and you are
ready. You are ready for someone intruding your space. We should
tell women not to be afraid. Instead, we scare them with all
these ridiculous statistics, and most mothers who don't follow
this stuff feel "maybe I shouldn't have a gun in my home."
Q: We really need to talk about the Sex Trap.
A: There was a time when feminism was about this idea that women
didn't need men anymore to have power, that women could actually
go out and make it on their own, that men weren't needed to
define their existence or who they are. We weren't supposed to be
on earth just to clean up the messes of men.
That's what the message of feminism was, in addition to equal
opportunity. So here we are 30 years later and we have Hillary
Clinton, the paragon of modern feminism who calls herself a
"family feminist," a woman who, for whatever reason, decided to
stand by Bill through persistent infidelity, dozens of occasions,
and we're supposed to believe this is some sort of person to
emulate? This is the person to lift up in the public discourse
and call strong?
It is an amazing thing we have Hillary Clinton, who is supposed
to be the model feminist, basically acting like some kind of '50s
throwback, emerging from it all not the way most women would --
destitute or abandoned -- but emerging with a Senate candidacy.
So that's why I wanted to write this book. How did we get here?
How did we get to this place where Hillary Clinton is this symbol
of modern day feminism and strength?
Americans today are so focused on the fact that they are doing so
well economically, they are willing to be more patient with
Clinton's ethical problems and infidelities than they would be
otherwise. Most Americans don't care about other people's
marriages. But the Clintons made it a matter of public discourse
for all of us. They manipulated us when they wanted us to think
their marriage was solid and all together. And they manipulated
us when they wanted us to think that Hillary was being chilly
towards him in Martha's Vineyard when Bill admitted the Monica
affair.
Q: Gail Sheehy called Hillary an "enabler." You talk about a
study in codependency.
A: I'm not a psychologist, and I try to stay away from armchair
psychologizing. What I think is more important is, what is this
doing to young people in this country? What is this image of
power and how to get power say to young women today? Is it
short-circuiting female progress or is it giving women a real
model to follow? I think not.
Q: Did you get any feeling for how active Hillary was in the
day-to-day operation of the White House?
A: I think in the beginning, the Clintons didn't realize that the
American public really doesn't like this idea of unelected power.
We are very uncomfortable with it. We believe that people who
exercise authority should actually be elected and be accountable.
So when they first announced the co-presidency idea, people
started bristling at it. The Clintons had to modify what their
strategy was going to be. Hillary's Health Care Task Force
crumbled in the fall of '93, and suddenly she really receded into
the background as a much more traditional first lady. Suddenly
she was picking out Christmas ornaments and picking out what
cookie recipe to choose.
Q: When you take on a $900 billion industry and do everything in
secret executive session, somebody is going to raise a question
or two.
A: Yes, but these are the Clintons, and they don't have to abide
by the rules. That's another trap. Rules are meant to be broken
in Hillary's world.
Q: Unless they are rules they are making for other people!
A: Exactly. Do as I say, not as I do. We know what's best for
you, so you had just better listen. Just because we don't do
that, just because I send my daughter to private school, doesn't
mean you have the right to do the same thing. We're different;
we're the anointed ones.
Geoff Metcalf is a staff reporter for WorldNetDaily.
=================================================================
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
=================================================================
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
