Don't Get Caught

by Thomas White

"It was her 52nd birthday, and finally Hillary Rodham Clinton seemed to be stepping out of her husband's long shadow. Surrounded by fifteen hundred of her political friends and supporters, she stood on the stage of the Ford Center for the Performing Arts on Broadway. For three decades the good political wife, at last it would be Hillary's chance to stand front and center." Thus begins Laura Ingraham '85's look into the life of Hillary Clinton's political career, where Ingraham "sees her mired in the hopelessly stale, outmoded thinking of her youth."

As Hillary prepares to assume to her well-deserved Senate seat, having no political experience whatsoever (with the exception of the one piece of legislation she authored, her healthcare plan which was rejected 99-0 in a Democratically controlled Senate), America is readying itself for another six years of the Clinton family's prominence in government. The country should expect another six years of scandal, pandering, lying, and governing by poll numbers.

Hillary is a polarizing character to much of America. Feminist groups champion her as "the smartest woman in the world" and the model for all working women. She has been revered for her strength, perseverance, and willingness to stand by her man in the face of scandal. But a large portion of the country sees Hillary as a conniving, self-promoting, exceedingly ambitious lawyer. Half of America loves Hillary Clinton, the other half despises her.

The Hillary Trap: Looking for Power in All the Wrong Places argues that Hillary shouldn't be the icon of the feminist movement, or the idol of anyone really interested in women's progress. "While, to many, Hillary represents the archetypal strong woman at the forefront of her career," writes Ingraham, "scratch the surface of that success and you'll find a victim—a woman who symbolizes not personal triumph, but compromise, concession, and her own Faustian bargain for power."

The title of Ingraham's piece is somewhat misleading. The book is really an examination of modern feminism. Ingraham is one of few women in the media to openly question many of the axioms with which "feminists" have come to be associated: that a woman must be pro-choice, must not stay home with her children, and must perceive the insurmountable "glass ceiling" that holds women back in the workplace. Throughout the book, Ingraham challenges feminist dogma by evaluating its personification in Hillary Clinton.

The book is divided into seven sections called "traps." The traps are the misleading decrees from modern feminism about the political beliefs each woman should espouse and directions as to how to live an "independent life." Women tend to stumble into these particular traps on their way towards self reliance and success. Ingraham identifies the sisterhood, educational, work, anti-gun, sex, family, and new age traps. Within each chapter, she tries to point out where Hillary Clinton and the Gloria Steinem crowd have failed women in the United States—by setting traps in their way.

The first trap is the "Sisterhood Trap." Here, Ingraham rejects the idea that all women are somehow united in their purpose to get "the man" off their back. She believes that women across the country should not be sensitized to the notion that they are victims. "Being truly liberated means being your own person," writes Ingraham, "not a victim whining for special privileges or a mindless soldier of anyone's political agenda, liberal or conservative." While listening to Hillary & Co. tell the world about which issues are important to women—such as equal funding for women's sports—other feminist world leaders tell Hillary that their issues concern more significant areas of life. As British journalist Anne Applebaum wrote, "Most of the Third World women were interested in very basic issues: the horrors of female circumcision, legal systems which prevent women from owning property, hunger and illiteracy... The Western agenda was somewhat different: it ranged from lesbian rights to the need for women's studies at universities to 'Gender Stereotyping and Sexism in Advertising.'" Hillary's issues just don't seem quite as important, put in perspective.

Ingraham also renounces the notion that health care, education, Social Security, and similar programs are "women's issues." These are issues that affect men just as much as they do women. Instead, she names ending the marriage penalty (which punishes working women), lowering taxes on families, and reducing taxes on small businesses as those issues on which women should focus.

The miseducation of our children's youth is the next trap Ingraham identifies. Hillary rejects real opportunities to reform education by allowing families to choose the school to which they send their children (like Hillary and Bill were able to do) through school choice and implementing other proven successful programs such as charter schools. Hillary, in the pocket of the teachers' unions, is more concerned with reforms like distributing condoms to middle school students.

Ingraham identifies the National Education Association as the reason for the decline of public education, in its efforts to raise teachers' salaries regardless of what is in the best interests of America's students.

The "Work Trap" and "Anti-Gun Trap" are two areas in which feminists focus much of their rhetoric. Ingraham exposes the fallacy that women earn substantially less than men for work in the private sector. What's more, women are starting most new businesses nationwide, and as such have a more vested interest in issues that were once considered "men's issues." She gives examples of the growing number of female small business owners who resent the burden that government unduly puts on their businesses.

One example is the case of Jo Ann Bas. "When the owner of Joe's Stone Crab got a letter from the Equal Opportunity Commission informing her that she was being investigated on charges of discrimination against women, she might've wondered if it was April Fools' Day," writes Ingraham. "Jo Ann was, after all, the recipient of a number of awards for her leadership on behalf of women in business. Women made up most of her managerial staff." But traditionally, the restaurant that her grandfather founded in 1913 featured tuxedo-clad male waiters. And although women were never formally excluded—nor did they once complain—the EEOC got bent out of shape. Jo Ann did not give up, though. She told a reporter, "Why do I go after this? Why do I keep on going? Because it's right. It's trying to prove a right will overcome a wrong." As women advance professionally, they are turning off to a big government that they once embraced—and Hillary is missing the boat.

She's also missing the boat on gun ownership, says Ingraham, which can also empower women, preventing actual victim status. Deflating the many myths perpetuated by most major media, Ingraham cites statistics that indicate a correlation between gun ownership and low crime rates. In Florida, for example, once the state repealed its four hundred local handgun laws, its violent crime rate fell 25-30 percent. Ingraham sees guns as a means of feeling stronger, less vulnerable to attack, and less reliant on an ineffective criminal justice system for protection.

The chapters on the Sex and Family Traps largely make Clinton their focus. The book criticizes the disheartening upward trend of extramarital affairs in the United States and the damage that such infidelity is doing to the institutions of marriage and family. Ingraham slams hypocrites like Patricia Ireland, Geraldine Ferraro, and Susan Estrich who dismissed President Clinton's affair—"A man is a man," said Geraldine Ferraro.

These are the same women, of course, who demanded Bob Packwood's resignation for the same behavior; Bob Packwood, you see, wasn't pro-choice. The simple fact is that feminists hold public office holders to a double standard. A Democrat can go unscathed by reports of sexual harassment and even rape, while a Republican is pilloried for disputing the feminist line. This hypocrisy has undermined the credibility of the feminist movement and hurt American families, as feminists publicly excuse Bill Clinton's behavior and applaud rising divorce rates as evidence of female empowerment. But the growing skepticism toward the feminist movement among American women indicates that American women are more family oriented than modern feminists would like to believe.

Finally, in the "New Age Trap," Ingraham condemns feminists' trading of traditional religious value for "spirituality" and new-ageism. The anti-religious sentiment has spread across the country with feminists publicly criticizing the presence of religion in our country. The ACLU brought suit preventing Ohio from displaying the words, "With God All Things Are Possible" from its Capitol Square in Columbus. Never mind the fact that these words are the state's motto. The same people fight for the right of an artist to spend public tax dollars smearing feces on an image of the Virgin Mary. Meanwhile, in the White House, Hillary holds séances with her "spiritual advisor" and conjures up the spirit of Eleanor Roosevelt—this behavior has become perfectly acceptable, while belief in God is seen as a crutch for the weak.

Ingraham urges women, and all Americans, to reconsider prevailing values and ideologies. Are we happy that we have sacrificed a need for morality in public office holders? Are we progressing by idolizing a woman who discovers a path to stardom by standing by her husband through his serial infidelity? But, most importantly, it is time for "feminists" to truly become independent by passing up government institutions in favor of self-reliance as a means to equality and liberation.