My Republican roots do not run deep; I was a huge Hillary Clinton fan in the late 1990s and early 2000s. My late husband was a high school history and government teacher, and he was a Republican. Debating a political issue with John was frustrating; he would ask for evidence supporting my statements, and rarely could I clamor together an argument that wasn’t easily defeated by him. He would always take the “freedom” argument, when I tried to press the “government should” argument. He could not stand Hillary Clinton and believed she was not the person she appeared to be and sought power at all costs. So, two weeks before he died, when he gave me Mrs. Clinton’s autobiography as a gift, I was shocked. In the front cover he wrote, “I can’t stand Hillary but I love you.”
Fast forward 16 years. I am probably now more conservative than John was. I have kept the Hillary book, not for its content (which I now believe is a bunch of hooey), but because of John’s inscription. John was right about Hillary; her desire to remain relevant after her 2016 loss is a rather pathetic display of arrogance. That she has now chosen to engage in modern-day McCarthyism in an effort to remain relevant is the height of hypocrisy. She has become the political version of Jan from the Brady Bunch; she attributes her losses not to her own choices and failures but to “Russia, Russia, Russia.”
Mrs. Clinton is engaging in reckless character assassination of candidates for president without a shred of evidence in support of her defamation. Her recent reference to Tulsi Gabbard as a possible Russian asset, and continued reference to Jill Stein as a definitively established Russian asset, reflects an astonishing lack of judgment and “mean girl” approach to maintaining status within the Democratic Party.
Mrs. Clinton, in her zeal to remain relevant, has become the same conspiracy theorist she has detested for years. She forgets how harmful the accusations against her were with respect to murdering Vince Foster, and the Uranium One sale approval in exchange for donations to the Clinton Foundation. Mrs. Clinton views herself as the voice for all women seeking to break glass ceilings, yet with astounding hubris and zero evidence, believes Ms. Gabbard lacks the intelligence to recognize or apparently embraces that she is being “groomed” by the Russians. Notwithstanding the absurdity of the accusation, Mrs. Clinton believes herself to be the penultimate Russian radar detector, able to discern every Russian move to interfere with American business and politics. Yet by her recent actions it’s become patently clear that if Mrs. Clinton is searching for someone who is willing to sell out her identified standards for status, she need look no further than the mirror.
Tammi Fisher is an attorney and former mayor of Kalispell.