Hillary Clinton, the democratic presidential nominee for 2016, has no deficiency of media coverage. From Whitewater to Benghazi, her campaign has managed to survive, and she is even leading in some presidential polls.
While some have stopped talking about Benghazi and Hillary's "damn emails," the impact on special needs citizens as a result of Hillary's presidential election has yet to make national conversation.
Traditionally, candidates push for what many reporters so crudely call the "disability vote." This is often done through ads, or slipped in speeches in attempts to not only gain support of disabled voters, but also the hearts of empathetic Americans (just see what happened to Anastasia Somoza at the DNC, or read about Trump's "love" for people with disabilities if you don't believe me). While the strategies for gaining the disability vote have certainly been used by candidates for the 2016 elections, the media is noiseless on matters of what happens to those with special needs under the presidents.
Special needs Americans take up almost 20% of the United States population. This does not include the number of those with severe needs who are institutionalized, or the number of people who have a loved one--perhaps even a daughter or sibling--with a disability who are likely to be some of the most active in special needs advocacy.
With talk of Hillary Clinton winning the election that stirs the media today, I wondered what kind of president she would be for those who need a little more than most. My research horrified me.
"When are they going to get those f***ing retards out of here?"
--Hillary Clinton.
This sentence, uttered by Hillary while at the governor's mansion in Arkansas, resulted from the frustration Clinton had over the slowness of the handicapped children who were hunting for Easter eggs on the governor's lawn.
Dolly Kyle, a friend and long-time lover of Bill's, shared this story told to her from a State Trooper. In her book, “Hillary the Other Woman: A Political Memoir,”
Kyle writes:
“[T]he children were having a wonderful time. But they were having a v-e-r-y, v-e-r-y, v-e-r-y s-l-o-w time of finding and picking up the Easter eggs. Hillary had enough. She stomped up the grass to the shaded veranda on the back of the mansion … and accosted one of the troopers. At this point the story diverges a bit. Some people say there was an open microphone; others said that Hillary could be heard across the yard because she was yelling. … At any rate, the frustrated Me-First Lady demanded, ‘When are they going to get those f—ing ree-tards out of here?'”
Hillary Clinton Opposes a Bill That Prevents Prenatal Genocide
If you still don't believe Hillary has a problem with people with disabilities after reading the story above, then you've probably not heard about new Indiana law that protects down syndrome abortion from in-womb genocide.
The law "bans abortion doctors from knowingly aborting an unborn baby solely because of a genetic disability such as Down syndrome, the unborn baby’s race or sex. The bill also has several other abortion-related measures, including a requirement that aborted or miscarried babies’ bodies be cremated or buried and another requirement that abortionists who have hospital admitting privileges renew them annually."
It is clear from the statement above that the law does not prevent abortion of Down syndrome babies (or babies with other genetic differences) if the mother cannot provide for the child, or simply does not want another child. It instead prevents abortion solely because of a child's genetics--which includes, as aforementioned, the child's sex and race. It's no wonder that the bill passed, and was signed by Republican nominee's vice presidential pick, Indiana governor Mike Pence.
Yet Hillary Clinton declared her detest for this protective bill by supporting ACLU's lawsuit against the bill protecting a child's protective rights.
“I will defend a woman’s right to make her own health-care decisions. I’ll tell ya, I’ll defend Planned Parenthood against these attacks. And I commend the women of this state, young and old, for standing up against this governor and this legislature.”
I don't understand.
"The unborn person simply does not have any Constitutional Rights."
--Hillary Clinton.
She's not talking about conception here, either, like I first supposed. When I saw Hillary admit on national television that she believes a child on its due date has no constitutional rights, it jolted me. Paula Faris from The View seemed a little surprised herself over Hillary's position. Here's a brief transcript of the conversation from the clip above:
PAULA FARIS: And Secretary, I want to ask you about some comments that you made over the weekend on Meet the Press regarding abortion. You said, quote, “the unborn person doesn’t have constitutional rights.” My question is at what point does someone have constitutional rights, and are you saying that a child, on its due date, just hours before delivery still has no constitutional rights?
HILLARY CLINTON: Under our law, that is the case, Paula. I support Roe v. Wade.
Roe v. Wade makes it the case that unborn children have no constitutional rights even hours before birth.
Hillary's Autism Plan Does Not Even Address the Causes of Autism
Because of Hillary's past with disabled children, it is no wonder that she purposed a plan for families with autism in order to gain more presidential support. However, her plan does not include any research into the cause of autism (that has spiked greatly over the years, leading many to wonder its relation to childhood vaccines) that concerns so many autistic individuals and their families.
An Age of Autism writer worries about the effectiveness and intentions of Hillary's plan:
"She brought up autism on the national level, but she did that during an election year. Did she bring up it as a stepping stone? Is Hillary talking about autism for her own gain? Because after reading her mediocre plan, that’s exactly what it feels like she’s doing."
Believe it or not, Age of Autism's post was the only one I could find talking about what special needs citizens or their families thought about how Hillary's plan or her presidency.
To find clues to the questions that no one is talking about, I asked people who had a loved one with special needs how they felt about Hillary as president over those with disabilities.
Somewhat surprisingly (and perhaps the reason most people aren't talking about it) some people didn't even know Hillary had an autism plan.
Like many families who have loved ones with autism, they wan't research into what causes autism and how to make it better, not just a plan that works as "band-aid."
(For the record, I don't know any one who answered the post.)
Another brought up a very valid point about the financial loopholes of the plans:
It seems that most people are skeptical about what little they've heard about this plan.
Others Worry About the Continued Exploitation of Special Needs Individuals on the Campaign Trail.
Recent concerns came after the DNC, when the Clintons invited a disabled girl to publicly support her campaign.
The Daily Caller writes,
"She was personally invited to the convention to speak by Huma Abedin, one of Hillary's top asides. The phone call came from Abedin, with Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton in the background."
The exploitation of Anastasia fit perfectly within the cycle of Hillary's anti-Trump ads, once of which once again exploited a girl with special needs.
"Grace" (video above) is the name of the girl with Spina Bifida. Her parents recall their shock at the results of the prenatal testing at the beginning of the video. The conversation then quickly rotates to their anger at Trump and his alleged mockery of a disabled man.
Of course, in the video, Grace is always shown in a hospital or in a wheelchair, and never once does she actually speak to the camera.
"If this was a story about LGBT discrimination, an LGBT person would be telling that story. It would be horrific for a video about how people of color are discriminated against by Donald Trump to not include any people of color, or for [there to be an ad] about sexism by Trump that does not include women. It feels really exploitative to use this issue and speak about a disabled child and about disability and never include us in the discussion, at all,” writes filmmaker and disability advocate, Dominick Evans. He adds that including Grace would have made the ad much more powerful, especially because of her young age.
Vilissa Thompson, founder of Ramp Your Voice, was also disappointed in the ad.
"Whenever a barrier falls in America, it clears the way for everyone.After all, when there are no ceilings, the sky’s the limit."
It's clear Hillary doesn't care much for barriers, including handicapped parking signs. If she were to care about these pesky disabled citizens, she'd have to walk a few extra feet because she couldn't park in that handicap spot.
CNN posted this footage, confirming my fear. Yes, Hillary did illegally park in a handicap parking spot. No big deal, right? It's just for one of those "f***ing retards."
My fear is that special needs citizens are only going to suffer under the presidency of Hillary Clinton. If she doesn't care about the needs of those with disabilities now, who are we to think she will change in office?
Maybe it's better to not vote than to vote against those who won't protect those with special needs.