Support Hillary Clinton and her political aspirations

After reading Al Mollo's right wing propaganda of an editorial about the future political aspirations of Hillary Clinton in the March 8 edition of the Wildcat, it seems obvious he is relying on severely archaic and explicitly sexist notions of a woman's role in politics.

Mollo states that in supporting the president, Hillary Clinton has done damage "to the extreme feminist agenda she once proudly led." I suppose the idea that women and all segments of our population have fundamental civil rights, particularly in a nation whose history is replete with discrimination and misogyny, might seem "extreme" to someone who appears so intent on maintaining the ubiquitous social and economic inequality still rampant in the United States.

Maybe Mollo and the rest of his conservative Republican cronies would have more success with the American electorate in the future than they have had in the past few months if they spent less time discussing the decline in the moral fabric of America while somehow managing to vehemently oppose affirmative action, gun control, campaign finance reform and myriad other issues that demand our attention.

It might be difficult to see through your self-created partisan smokescreen Mollo,

but if you did so, you might actually see that Hillary Clinton has established herself based on her own merits by refusing to adhere to traditional, condescending notions of what a first lady should be. Clearly people do like to hear what she has to say about the many issues you indeed seem too bitter and partisan to discuss yourself, regardless of her private troubles.

In no way do I condone the vehemently disturbing and despicable acts of Bill Clinton with various women; however, for Mollo to state that Hillary Clinton should not run for candidacy merely because she supports her husband is not only illogical in that it blames the victim, but merely serves to block the political mobility of women who have simply been shut out of the process for too long. We would all be better served by not perpetuating the myth that there should be a double standard for men and women politically and actually listen to and support what Hillary Clinton hopes to accomplish for America in the 21st century.

Paul Francis
Political science senior