By Assunta Ng
Northwest Asian Weekly
Young women cries at Hillary Clinton’s concession speech.
(Screencap from YouTube video from ABC News.)
So Hillary Clinton lost the presidential election. I accept the outcome, but it’s still hard for me to believe it. I wept and had no motivation to write, no desire to eat or exercise, no incentive to treat my staff (if she won), and no mood to hail a new president ascending into the White House.
And unanswered questions remain. When Donald Trump said, “Crooked Hillary,” look at who is talking. He is full of lies himself — from his refusal to disclose his tax returns, to his denial of sexually harassing women.
Why did women choose to ignore or forgive what Trump did? Why did women vote for him and not her? How did men and women let him get away with such a track record? Why do women trust Trump and not Hillary? Why are women much tougher critics on other women? Why are double standards applied to ambitious females that they are perceived more as a threat than an asset in a family, community, and society, while ambitious and aggressive men receive praise? Why did voters reward Trump with the presidency? They both lied — Hillary through her emails, and Trump through his business dealings.
I expected to be thrilled and crying tears of joy on election night, while watching Hillary cross the finish line.
Instead, I went to bed with anxiety, tension, and uncertainty. I didn’t even wait until Trump was declared the victor.
I woke up the next day, angry and frustrated. America is a world power. Yet, we are behind many Asian countries that have elected female presidents, including India, South Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines. Even Canada once had a female prime minister. Are we really a progressive nation?
Normally, no one cares about what a female publisher of an ethnic, community newspaper has to say about the election of any U.S. president. But a week before the election, a major news media interviewed me. And a writer for Taiwan’s website, TheNewsLens.com, visited me in Seattle. (The Taiwan piece is already online.) The major media outlet was the Los Angeles Times. A reporter called me, and he visited me in my office. We talked for an hour about the meaning of electing a woman president in America. He and his team of reporters interviewed many women from all over the country about the historical significance of picking a female president.
“If she doesn’t win, we will not publish the story,” said the LA Times reporter. Now, Hillary’s loss has killed the whole story. I don’t know if the Los Angeles Times had prepared similar stories for Trump. For Trump to win the presidency, it’s sort of historical, too. He’s an outsider with no government experience — one of the richest guys in the country running and winning. He is someone who lies frequently, someone who insults others often, someone with a history of fooling around with women, someone with a big ego, and never admits to making mistakes.
You accuse me of being a Democrat. I am an independent, judging the candidates by their merits, and not their party affiliation. I attended Dino Rossi’s election party when he ran for senator in 2008, and Rob McKenna’s when he ran for governor in 2012, to get their photos on election night, even though I knew both would lose based on the fact that Washington is a blue state. Then, my husband and I would watch the results at the Seattle Westin Hotel, where the Democrats congregated. Every November, the election is a grueling and nail-biting experience, especially with some neck-and-neck races.
Before the internet, we actually had to take our roll of film to Walgreens to develop and pick up the next day, or pay more for a one-hour service. Today, I consider the digital age a blessing.
The Asian Weekly doesn’t have the luxury, like the Los Angeles Times, to kill a story after spending energy and time to prepare a masterpiece. However practical, we can’t afford to do two versions of each story in an election like the mainstream media.
Obviously, we can’t afford to anticipate events, while big media companies do. The polls were for Hillary all along.
It was tempting to write a victory piece for Hillary. But we didn’t. We learned from our mistakes. In 2004, we predicted John Kerry would win the presidency, so we wrote the editorial early, only to see our story thrown in the trash. It serves us well that election day is on a Tuesday. We have Wednesday to write the story and print our newspaper the same night. And thank God, we are not a daily paper.
Yes, all our staff write their pieces on Wednesday for this unusual week. It’s sad I couldn’t write about a woman president, but still about 50 million voters, including me, cast their vote on Tuesday for a woman to lead this country. Now, that’s historical. Will a woman win the U.S. presidency soon?
Ralph Munro, former Secretary of State of Washington state, woke me up. Many voters are angry that they were left behind like people from Michigan, he said. “We have to do something (for them).”
What can we do? I asked.
“Perhaps, companies like Boeing can build factories,” he replied. Thousands have lost their jobs through globalization. If no one takes care of them, they are going to resent any trade deals, he said.
We are the fortunate ones with jobs and security. Understand those who vote for Trump, want hope. And they need our compassion and support.
Assunta can be reached at assunta@nwasianweekly.com.