Hard Choices

Photo by watsonsinelgin on Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA

I want to read What Happened, but I’m just not ready for it yet. As a way to prepare, I decided to listen to an earlier Hillary Clinton book instead so I picked up this one.

Knowing that Clinton narrates What Happened, I had assumed she had also narrated Hard Choices, but I was wrong. She narrates just the introduction and the epilogue, but the vast majority of the book is narrated by some other woman. That said, that woman did a good job, and she even sounds a little like Hillary, so there’s nothing about this audiobook that would make me recommend avoiding it.

It’s definitely interesting to listen to after Clinton’s second failed presidential run, especially since I have so many feelings about it. As much as it felt like a slap in the face to have the country opt for a buffoon over a hard working, intelligent, highly qualified female candidate, it’s also good to keep in mind that glass ceilings don’t break all at once. We make progress by continuing to beat at the glass until it cracks and cracks and cracks before it finally breaks. Clinton’s brief recounting of her failure to win the Democratic ticket in 2008 was a reminder that, while we may not have broken through yet, she got us that much closer. And in 2016 she got us closer still. Her efforts were not in vain.

The book is about her time as Secretary of State, and there are anecdotes that are funny (such as how Obama and his team convinced her to take the job after she initially refused it), others are sad, and still more are heartwarming. I found it fascinating and was once again reminded of the the reason why I should never be a politician. Dealing with difficult people who don’t even want to meet, much less reach an agreement, is a job that would make me pull my own hair out and probably commit homicide.

This book also helped clarify for me part of why I think she didn’t win the election.

During her presidential campaign, Clinton brought up again and again the fact that she helped solve the nuclear crisis in Iran without having a single shot fired. That’s certainly an accomplishment, and I can understand why she’s proud of it, but honestly, the average American just doesn’t care. They care about jobs, and while bigotry certainly played a huge role in the 2016 election, so did jobs. The coal industry is dying and millions of manufacturing jobs have moved overseas, leaving those workers wondering how they’re going to make ends meet.

In Clinton’s book, she also mentions as one of her accomplishments a move that helped bring thousands of jobs back to the U.S.

WHY DIDN’T YOU TALK ABOUT THAT DURING YOUR CAMPAIGN, HILLARY???!!!

That’s what she should have been bragging about more than anything else, but she never mentioned it.

What did you guys read/listen to this week? Anything else that helped to explain recent events for you?