Glorifying Victimhood

by Christopher G. Adamo

It takes a particular degree of shamelessness and audacity to attempt to salvage one's reputation from deep entanglements with the likes of Bill Clinton, but if anybody is capable of sinking to the occasion, it is Hillary. Long before her husband's initial bid for the White House, and throughout his disgraceful tenure as president, she has been his chief enabler, assuming diverse and contradictory roles in the process, from demure and hurting (but forgiving and supportive) wife, to venom spewing banshee, as necessitated by each ensuing situation.

Now, in a brazen effort to re-invent her own legacy, Hillary has offered a truly theatrical rendition of her husband's escapades and their supposed effect on the Clinton family in her newly released and pretentiously titled book “Living History.” It is neither. More precisely, it is a transparent scheme contrived to gain the trust and regard of the American people, with the likely goal of eventually garnering her the Presidency.

Describing one episode after another with a degree of hyped melodrama only fit for cheesy romance novels, she ostensibly recounts the shock and grief with which she responded to the astonishing revelation that Bill had been less than forthcoming with her and maybe not entirely faithful to his marital vows. Perhaps we should assume she still believes to this day that he didn't inhale, either.

Of course, sympathetic media outlets are treating this series of phony disclosures as if it were some truly monumental literary work, offering their own deep analysis and character assessments, based on the assumption that the conversations and encounters among the former “first family” members had any legitimacy whatsoever. Hillary, they conclude, ought to be forgiven for her past ignorance, indifference, and defensiveness; only those attributes that would qualify her as chief executive should be considered when pondering her fitness for that office.

Assuming for the sake of argument that this case could be made, difficult questions immediately arise. For example, if she could truly have remained oblivious to such an abundance of damning evidence clearly indicting Bill Clinton as an indiscriminate philanderer, how could people ever expect her to take proper pre-emptive actions against less animalistic or predictable individuals who threaten the future of the country, say, for example, Osama bin Laden?

Of course none of the exquisitely detailed conversations or any of the nuances of personal relationships so vividly described bear any similarity to reality. It was Hillary who, in an effort to deflect criticism by going on offense, first postulated as to the existence of a “vast right wing conspiracy”, relentlessly devoted to the political destruction of her wholly innocent husband. And it was Hillary who, when pressed for specifics, “could not recall” a single component of the enormous labyrinth of scandal entangling both her and her husband. Yet the events described so thoroughly in her book, if true, would suggest an ability to recall even the minutest aspects of that entire period.

Clearly, the former first-lady recognizes the need for image restoration. In her mind, this merely requires that she detach herself from memories of that unpleasant period in which decent people made their children leave the room whenever the network anchors prepared to announce the day's headlines. As the ultimate “victim”, she would hope to dispel any derision that the country holds towards her, and instead elicit sympathy and admiration towards her elaborately portrayed suffering and humiliation. From there, America should logically postulate that she wasn't really complicit, and might really make a fine President after all.

Hillary wants America to believe that she was motivated by the sincerest sentiments of a devoted wife, who simply could not fathom that her husband might engage in such antics. She would have us believe that, as the quintessential betrayed spouse, she remained ignorant of the evidence that abounded around her (and in virtually every media outlet), hoping against hope that it might all be some baseless plot, hatched within the depths of talk radio.

Despite this monumental effort to portray herself as such, Hillary was not a “victim.” On the contrary, she was fully aware of the political impact of each ensuing scandal, and was at the forefront of every counter-strategy. Indifferent to any moral repercussions, she recognized always and only the importance of doing damage control from a “public relations” perspective. Hillary Clinton was never unaware of her husband's sordid lifestyle. She was not that stupid. But it is painfully obvious that she believes most Americans are.

Growing up during the turbulent decades of the ‘60's and ‘70's, Christopher  Adamo saw, to his dismay, the nation's moral foundations being destroyed  before his very eyes. But even then he was a staunch Conservative at heart,  and rejected outright the tenets of America's counterculture revolution.

 After a hitch in the Air Force, where he specialized in airborne  electro- optical systems, he pursued a career in the field of aerospace,  working for major defense contractors in California, Florida, and Colorado. But his career plans abruptly changed during the industry-wide downsizing that followed the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

Presently he is working in the field of industrial instrumentation in the state of Wyoming. Concurrently, he has become involved in that state's political process, attending state GOP conventions as a delegate, and serving as a member of the Wyoming Republican Central Committee. He has also aided in the candidacies of local legislators and state senators, as well as a U.S. Senator and Congresswoman.

From 1993 to 1996, he edited and wrote for “The Wyoming Christian”, the state newsletter for Christian Coalition of Wyoming. During that period, he developed an acute awareness of the harm being done to Conservatism by liberal activists within the Republican Party as well as the Democrats. This remains a favorite theme of his articles, which now appear as a regular feature on GOPUSA.