VER Magazine - Issue 1: Loyalty

consequences? Psychology professor Sherry Hamby writes about the ‘just world hypothesis’, the theory that everything that happens, happens for a reason. Americans especially ‘have a hard time with the idea that good things happen to bad people… people blame victims so they can continue to feel safe themselves.’ Voters used Bill’s infidelity as ammunition because in their minds, Hillary was at fault for being cheated on.

At the Washington University in St. Louis debate, Trump picked three women out of the audience who were allegedly sexually assaulted by Bill Clinton. None of these cases were backed by substantial proof, but the message still stands: this election will be affected by Bill Clinton’s mistakes. These women shared stories of Hillary ‘threatening them’ after their encounters, trying to get them to stay quiet, though none of these stories included actual threats. These were all highly speculative. Paula Jones said that Hillary simply didn’t believe what she had to say; Kathleen Willey told of dead cats left on her porch and spooky men, but none of these accounts could be entirely traced back to Hillary. Juanita Broaddrick said Hillary came up to her with a message that had threats laced between her words, but even in a 1999 NBC News interview, she said that Clinton had never done anything to try and keep her silent.

Yet still, ‘many women found it puzzling that such a strong seeming woman stayed with a husband who humiliated her by consent of cheating. But it makes a lot more sense if you consider them a pure partnership, devoted to acquiring power and money,’ writes Lisa Schiffren of the New York Daily News in an Op-Ed called ‘The case against Hillary Clinton’. Is this why women turned against one another in the election? Because they thought the Clinton marriage was simply a business deal? Or was it something much more instinctive: Was it the desire to not let their marriage melt into its own business deal?

Bill Clinton’s sexual encounters may not have been the only reason Hillary lost the election, but they certainly affected the outcome. Victim-blaming stemming from our deep-rooted Puritan values, along with allegations of lying stomped Clinton’s reputation further into the dirt, and all of her supporters are still brushing the mud from their clothes.