On Women Who Oppose Hillary Clinton: A Conversation With Liza Featherstone

This is an important piece that I am moved to post despite the fact that I will vote for Clinton if my vote is needed to stop Trump, who I know to be a greater danger to the well-being of our nation and the world than Clinton. If it is clear that Trump will be defeated, then Jill Stein will have my vote. What sad and surreal times that our primary choices boil down to a neoliberal and a narcissistic fascist. I also remain deeply saddened that the possible election of a first woman president fills me with grief rather than elation. Another world is possible. It is up to us. ~ Molly

Hillary Clinton takes a photo with supporters at a campaign stop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 20, 2016. (Photo: Jared Polin / Flickr)

 By Dan Falcone and Sasha Silverman, Truthout | Interview

New York University journalism professor Liza Featherstone is the editor of False Choices: The Faux Feminism of Hillary Rodham Clinton (Verso Books). She also writes for The Nation, with a focus on labor and student activism. In this exclusive interview for Truthout, Featherstone builds on the analysis that she offered to Truthout readers in February, discussing Hillary Rodham Clinton's status as the presumptive nominee for the Democratic Party.

For more original Truthout election coverage, check out our election section, "Beyond the Sound Bites: Election 2016."

Dan Falcone: Recently, MSNBC and CNN highlighted and portrayed the Democratic nominee as a pioneering feminist of sorts. This coverage is amplified by Clinton's own comments regarding her personal background and significance of the female legacies within her family. Some of this is obviously significant given our nation's history, but how do you categorize Clinton's usage and application of feminist history to correlate with her rise and political fame of the last three decades?

Liza Featherstone: The election of the first woman president of the United States will indeed be historically significant. But at present, Clinton is using this "milestone" and "breaking the glass ceiling" language to celebrate the victory of the financial industry's candidate over the one representing the interests of ordinary people, which to me, is a misuse of feminism, a complex but often progressive movement.

Falcone: What is the overarching thesis of the book you edited, False Choices: The Faux Feminism of Hillary Rodham Clinton?

Our argument is that while the candidacy of Hillary Clinton is widely embraced as a feminist project, she has actually dedicated her career to austerity, state repression and imperialism -- an agenda deeply harmful to most of the world's women. We hope readers will read this book and be inspired to work for a far more egalitarian and radical feminism than the one Clinton represents.

Falcone: Can you explain what you mean by "trickle-down feminism?"

"Trickle-down economics" is the idea that creating wealth for those already at the top will somehow "trickle down" and benefit the masses. The term is a derisive one used by critics of mainstream economics, and became especially popular during the Reagan era. When I use the term "trickle-down feminism," I mean the idea that somehow having a few women in power will benefit the vast majority of women.

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