Hillary: The Republican Primal Fear

If you thought the Republicans had pushed the hard lessons of the 2012 election to some happier place in their collective memories, think again. The GOP is running scared, haunted by the premonition that 2016 could be worse than 2012.  The source of this Republican panic is one very experienced and intelligent woman and her name is of course Hillary Clinton. There is nothing the conservatives fear more than a strong, progressive, woman on a mission.

There are those that thought the Republican Party would be forced to reinvent itself, possibly morph into a more palatable and moderate entity in the aftermath of the 2012 election. After all, it’s not rocket science to understand that Republicans were overwhelming defeated because they lacked broad support from women, moderates, and minorities. But all this talk of conservative moderation and inclusion was squashed by a radical legislative agenda and the old Tea Party rhetoric. Even now as the Republicans talk about inclusion they are still excluding women, poor, unemployed, and minorities. The GOP only has eyes for its aging, white, male, gun fanatic, big business base.  The problem is this may be sufficient to win in Mississippi but not on the national stage.

GOP fear and obsession with Hillary was even evident back in 2007, when during one of the Republican Primary debates the issue of another Clinton in the White House was a giveaway question to the 10 candidates on the stage, an opportunity to unload on Hillary. As it turned out the GOP candidates were shooting blanks and couldn’t come up a single valid reason for Hillary not to occupy the White House. It was laughable and embarrassing when the best the Republicans could come up with was Senator Brownback’s comment that Hillary didn’t “stand up for marriage”. Wait a minute, Hillary stayed married!  On that very same stage stood Rudy Giuliani, on his third marriage, and John McCain who had a very public affair and then divorced his first wife while she was recovering from a serious car accident. Even Mike Huckabee, who claimed to know the Clintons better than anyone else on the stage, could only come up with the feeble response that, "it was probably not a good idea to put either of them (Clintons) back in the White House."

Back in August of 2013, Republican panic over Hillary was evident when the RNC voted to ban its presidential primary debates from NBC and CNN if they continued with their plans to air a documentary and miniseries about Hillary Clinton. Even though both networks said the projects were still in the early stages, Republican anxiety and fear of the unknown caused them to act prematurely.

Over the last year Republicans have ramped up their attacks on Hillary, but there is a real danger that the GOP has already used up its best punches and like a tired boxer their weak jabs do no damage. For all the investigations and political opportunism displayed by the Republicans over the Benghazi attack they have not been able to affect her electability.

It could be very entertaining to see the look on Republicans’ faces when they realize Obama was the good cop. In Hillary Clinton they face a seasoned and formidable political opponent, with a clear understanding of the inequalities pervasive in Republican Party doctrine.