Kirsten Gillibrand declared defeat and left the Democrat primary. Much like her candidacy, the announcement barely caused a ripple. And nobody really cared.
Following the announcement her trending position on CNN’s headlines is number eight. She was topped by stories of a female race car driver, a boat fleeing a volcano, and the riot inducing policy aligning citizenship change. Her barely trending Twitter announcement was perfectly timed to be buried by manufactured outrage over a policy non-story. An elegant effort of using a big story as cover for her yawn-inducing, unsurprising, exit. This is the political play of a “B-list” invitee, who sneaks out of the event because she can’t bear the fact that her absence remains as unnoticed as her presence.
The only surprise is that she held out this long with a campaign that was at times awkward, and doomed from the start.
Kirsten Gillibrand relaxes after working a gay bar in Iowa pic.twitter.com/JYiU3c0Oc9
— Behind 2020 (@Behind2020) June 8, 2019
As an aspiring politician, Kirsten was a Hillary Clinton acolyte. Her initial foray into politics was remarkably successful. She ran on a pro-gun, center-left positions. Then she was tapped for the Senate seat abandoned by Hillary Clinton. The former House member began her shift to the left. Her stance on the NRA was a 180 degree turn, and they were now evil. Her moderate views shifted from those more aligned with central and western NY to those held by the coastal liberals.
She opted to build her platform on the backs of the military, and the perception that the culture accepted and fostered an environment where sexual assault was hidden away. The perpetrators went unpunished, and when they were punished it was a slap on the wrist. She was often on the grandstand lambasting the military over sexual assault, inequality, and the repeal of DADT. Under the Obama administration this tone was encouraged, because making the military look bad is good in Democrat circles.
In true elitist fashion she opted to ride feelings over facts, and persisted in finding wrongs where none existed. She used the military as a foil in her efforts to build a career platform. Too bad she didn’t take that crusade to the college campus. A 2013 article by Foreign Policy finds Gillibrand’s position as inaccurate.
All in all, the rate of sexual assault in the military doesn’t appear significantly higher than the rate in the broader civilian population — and when you look at college campuses, which, like the military, are full of 17- to 24-year-olds, the military’s sexual assault rates start looking low in comparison. The New York Times may be right to assert that the military has an “entrenched culture of sexual violence,” but it would be more accurate to observe that the United States as a whole is characterized by an entrenched culture of sexual violence. Macho traditions notwithstanding, the military appears to have done a better job than most colleges of reducing the sexual assault rate and increasing women’s willingness to report assaults to the authorities.”
But why trouble herself with facts. It’s tedious.
As a Senator she was a top student in the Clinton machine. Then she left the program.
The lesson Kirsten failed to learn: Ignore Sexual Assault within your own party. Her platform of pushing for accountability by perpetrators of sexual assault bit her in the butt. The #MeToo movement took off, she was sitting shotgun and smiling in every interview. Then “THE” picture surfaced. Who can forget the image of Democrat party favorite, then Senator, Al Franken? As a spotlight loving politician with Presidential aspirations, the only option was to pounce. If she withheld or refused to engage, it would undercut her entire platform. Whatever credibility she had amassed with feminists, and women would crumble.
Unfortunately for Gillibrand, her party can’t forgive calling out one of their own. Even if it’s the right thing to do. She led the charge to light the torches against him. It burned her.
From November, 2018 Politico,
Just a month after Al Franken formally resigned from the Senate amid sexual misconduct allegations, the former senator met with an intimate group of Bay Area supporters at the home of major Democratic Party financiers Mary and Steve Swig. “It was said not in front of Al to impress him; it was said privately in a corner. A group of us were standing there talking about it. He was one of our best weapons against this administration, his presence on these committees. [Gillibrand] did the damage that Republicans could not do themselves … There were other people at this event who were saying the same thing. They said, ‘Absolutely, I will never do anything for her.’”
And further distaste for the Senator,
Among those donors is Susie Tompkins Buell, a prominent Democratic fundraiser and co-founder of Esprit and the North Face clothing brands, who said the matter remains fresh in her mind and among those in her circles. The episode, she said, “stained [Gillibrand’s] reputation as a fair player.”
Unfortunately for her, the ONE thing she did right is very likely the reason she is begging for dollars. The deep pockets stayed closed, and the dollars never came.
From an August 27th podcast with the SF Chronicle,
“Once we got to eight allegations, I couldn’t stay silent anymore. I couldn’t defend him … Sen. Franken is the one who decided not to stick it out and do his Ethics Committee investigation. What he’s not entitled to is my silence. I made my choice and he made his choice. He chose to resign … He chose not to explain himself to his colleagues. He chose not to stick it out until his next election. And why I’m being blamed for his decisions his shocking.”
But at least she has her platform.
Never one to let an opportunity to dig at the Democrats, Trump tweeted his musings….
A sad day for the Democrats, Kirsten Gillibrand has dropped out of the Presidential Primary. I’m glad they never found out that she was the one I was really afraid of!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 28, 2019
This Victory Girl will not miss Kirsten on the trail or stage. I hope when she snuck out unnoticed she left the door ajar for Beto to follow behind.
Featured Photo: Wikimedia Commons License Under: CC 2.0 Image cropped: 400×400
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