Hillary Hatred

Stanley Fish takes a shallow look at Hillary hatred in his latest column in the NYT. He notes the weird excesses some of that demonization takes:

But the people and groups Horowitz surveys have brought criticism of Clinton to what sportswriters call “the next level,” in this case to the level of personal vituperation unconnected to, and often unconcerned with, the facts. These people are obsessed with things like her hair styles, the “strangeness” of her eyes — “Analysis of Clinton’s eyes is a favorite motif among her most rabid adversaries” — and they retail and recycle items from what Horowitz calls “The Crazy Files”: she’s Osama bin Laden’s candidate; she kills cats; she’s a witch (this is not meant metaphorically).

Demonization of the enemy - whether Arab, Jew or New York Yankee - is hardly a new theme in human affairs. It's part of how we psych ourselves for combat. In the case of the Clintons, there is a powerful lobby behind it - all those rich and super rich upon whom Clinton raised taxes. I suspect that there is a component of Hillary hatred tapping into a still deeper level of the collective unconsciousness, though.

Young male Chimpanzees, including all of us the East African plains apes, compete obsessively for status. Among of the first targets for domination are females, because they are smaller. Hillary, I suspect, attracts hostility partly because she is an anomaly in the dominance structure.

That said, I still don't like Hillary. I like to think that I have some very good reasons for that dislike - the war and a distrust of dynasties, for example, but I can't help but wonder if there isn't an element of some more primitive resentment in the mix.

On the other hand, I can't stand Romney either.

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