Hillary makes history breaking through the glass ceiling
By Roger Caldwell
Special to the Outlook
“Tens of millions of Americans made their voices heard. Today I just want to add mine. I don’t think there’s ever been someone so qualified to hold office,” President Obama said in a video endorsement.
At 68, Hillary Clinton welcomed the vote of confidence: “Honored to have you with me, @POTUS. I’m fired up and ready to go,” she tweeted using one of Obama’s own campaign rallying cries from 2008.
Hillary Clinton has clinched the Democratic nomination making her the first woman to win a major party’s nomination. This is an historic achievement, because all American women were given the right to vote in 1920 by the Nineteenth Amendment. The Nineteenth Amendment passed by Congress was a milestone, as a result of 70 years of protests, marches, and civil disobedience under the organizational — movement title of “women suffrage.”
The fight for the right to vote for women started in the mid-19th century, and there has always been a question in the country of “What is a woman’s place?” Starting in 1890, African American women began to assert their political rights aggressively from within their own clubs and suffrage societies. Many Black men have struggled with Black women’s political groups, but they still exist today, and Black women are more organized politically than Black men.
As Hillary prepares for an all out attack from Donald Trump during the campaign, many Democrats are wondering if her running mate for Vice President will also be a woman. This 2016 campaign is unprecedented, and there are so many first, that anything could happen in the next 5 months.
Back in 2013 at a Pennsylvania Conference for Women Clinton said to a 7,000-member audience, “Ceilings in America are unacceptable, and we’re going to be about the business of making sure those ceilings crack. These ceilings don’t just hold back women and girls. They hold back entire – societies, because no country can thrive by denying the contribution of half their people.”
With the 14-month Democratic race nearing a close, Mrs. Clinton has worked extremely hard to become the presumptive nominee of the 2016 Democratic Party. At a rally in Brooklyn last week, she threw open her arms in joy, as a jubilant crowd waved American flags and chanted “Hillary.”
“Tonight caps an amazing journey – a long, long journey, nearly a century after women won the right to vote nationwide. We all owe so much to those who came before, and tonight belongs to all of you,” says Mrs. Clinton.
From a lawyer, wife, and first lady to senator, secretary of state and, now the first woman to win a major party’s nomination is the power of a woman named Hillary Clinton. Her life is a testimony of achievement and commitment to America and the rich diversity of its people. She understands the challenges in 2016, nationally, and internationally, and she is the most qualified for the job of president.
It is time for the Democrats to follow the current president’s endorsement, and unite the party under the leadership of Mrs. Clinton. Senator Sanders should suspend his campaign, and stop his negative campaign attacks on Hillary. If Bernie is a true member of the Democratic Party, and believes in its principles and values, he should drop out of the presidential campaign.
A tepid congratulation from Senator Sanders will not unite the Democratic Party in 2016. Only a passionate, heartfelt, commitment supporting the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton to his ten million supporters will make a difference.
Trump is not going down without a fight, and Bernie has the power to help the Democrats win. Bernie can either remain an independent and operate in an unrealistic reality, or become a team player and bring millions of his followers to the Hillary Clinton camp, and vote Democrat.
