Deconstructing with Della: What happened Hillary?
December 18, 2017 |
| Hillary Clinton ends her book tour in Vancouver last week. |
I saw Hillary Clinton speak last week. I had seen her speak live before....well before the presidential election. While I was not a fan, I was curious about this woman who had made many strides in the political arena. I felt she was less than authentic and basically spewed a bunch of positioning statements. The people in the audience, that first time around, loved her. She was an iconic symbol for many women.
Watching her campaign against Trump was distressing. Trump supporters chanting " lock her up" caused me great concern for her safety. Still, I could not get a good read on her as a person. I felt she was capable and would have voted for her against Trump any day. But, it was the lack of connection to her that made me wonder about her winnability.
After the election, I watched her on talk shows promoting her book and started to feel some affinity for this woman. She seemed so much more authentic and candid, especially when she articulated how she would have approached major disasters. It made me sad to think of the Russian interference in the election, the misogyny and nastiness of the Trump rhetoric.
So, when two of my friends asked if I wanted to hear her speak in Vancouver last week, I was eager to see if the real Hillary was going to be present.
The real Hillary showed up in full force. She commanded the room of some 5,000 people for over an hour. She was straight up about major issues such as the Paris Climate Accord lamenting Trump backing the US out of that deal. Saying even Bashar al-Assad the President of Syria took time out from killing his own people to support the accord. Wow, such strong language.
She made points through stories, personal family stories. When asked about her resilience, she talked about how her mother was sent on a train across the country as a young girl with her even younger sister to live with paternal grandparents who did not want them. So with parents and grandparents not wanting them, Hillary's mother ended up forging her own way in life. What made her resilient was the kindness of others. Like the teacher who noticed she never had lunch. The teacher thoughtfully said she brought too much and could not eat it all, making sure she did not embarrass the child. Hillary did not learn of her mother's struggles until she was a young adult. It was people like her mom or the other people who have far greater struggles in life, that inspires her to move on. That, and Chardonnay seem to have help heal the wounds of not getting the presidency.
I was a total convert. This is a woman I can admire and support.
Amazing how one speech can change years of an impression. It shows the power of authenticity in communication.
To deconstruct, being your true self can be endearing. Instinctively, people know when you are presenting a persona that does not ring true. People who talk without emotion through carefully crafted lines feel robotic and cool. Humans crave connection.
Hillary did get 3 million more votes than Trump but I wonder if she would have doubled or tripled that number if she had shown more of the Hillary I saw last week.
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