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diggHillary Clinton’s family manifesto
It is ten years since she published "It Takes a Village", and Mrs Clinton still sounds the same.
This book was first published in 1996, three years into Bill Clinton’s first term as President. It was reissued, with a new introduction, in 2006 -– just in time for Hillary to launch her own bid for the Democratic nomination in the forthcoming Presidential elections. So it is hard not to see it as her "political manifesto" ("vision" is too elevated a word), precisely calculated to aid her campaign.
Having already formed my own, somewhat prejudiced, opinion of Mrs Clinton I will confess that I did not read it with an open mind. Yet if not exactly open, I was curious: curious to see how much of herself she would reveal and what might lie behind the formidable public persona she projects to the media.
Having read it I am none the wiser. This is not because she does not talk about herself; she does, for 300 pages –- which itself is a little indigestible. It is because the book is a continuous and polished performance. She is never off-stage, weary, wiping the grease-paint off her face; she is always facing the spotlights, facing her audience, facing down those who might put up their hand to ask a question and thereby obstruct the flow. My question would be: “Will the real Hillary Clinton please step forward?”
The title of the book comes from an African proverb: It takes a village to raise a child. As Hillary points out, the village she refers to is no longer so much a geographical place as “the network of values and relationships that support and affect our lives”. The title might suggest that she does not rate the work of parents as highly as she does this wider network, but this would not be true. She tries to be even-handed, valuing all parents, whether single, married, working or at home, though she does add that “Every society requires a critical mass of families that fit the traditional ideal.” This is quickly qualified by a description of Bill’s dysfunctional background and how he surmounted it with the love of his strong-willed mother and the help of others, the teachers and mentors in his “village”. In general she assumes that it is best for children to enter this “village” early in life: “Imagine a country in which nearly all children between the ages of three and five attend preschool in sparkling classrooms...” The focus is less on home care as on good childcare; why isn’t childcare in America as good as it should be, she frets.
As a consummate political animal, Hillary knows how to hedge her bets so as to please everyone. One is not surprised to learn that nature and nurture “work hand in hand.” Indeed, every statement is followed by the kind of high-flown bromides that politicians excel at, but which, when examined, dissolve into this air, such as: “As long as we face our challenges and never give up on our children, we can re-build a world where justice and hope and peace can overcome the forces of terror and fear”; or again, “Children who get the early attention they need, from the family and from the village, will repay our efforts a 1000-fold”; finally, “We must make childcare a priority and begin to value the important of raising strong, healthy and happy children”. You get the idea. The author is either bent on a one-woman mission to make the whole world a safer place for children or she is in love with the sound of her own rhetoric.
Reading between the lines (which is difficult because Hillary’s voice imposes itself between the lines as well as on the lines), we learn something of what made this woman who she is today. Coming from a close, traditional, Methodist family, she had parents who spared no effort to stimulate, discipline, educate and form their daughter’s character. When faced with a problem, her father would say, “Hillary, how are you going to dig yourself out of this one?” No doubt these early lessons in problem-solving have helped her later on, when facing the ordeal of allegations about her husband’s private life and his possible impeachment. Her mother used to ask her, “Do you want to be the lead actor in your life or a minor player?” a further question that is not without significance when one looks at her determined bid for centre-stage position in later life.
As a mother herself, Hillary did not follow her own mother’s traditional role. She spent four months bonding with her baby daughter, Chelsea, before returning to her law practice full-time. The child-minding arrangements for Chelsea are deliberately not spelt out, but it is safe to guess they ran along the same professionally organised lines as everything else. Yet I do not want to sound churlish here; Chelsea seems to have developed into a poised and balanced adult; she is not a spoilt celebrity or neurotic wreck and tribute must be paid to her parents for this outcome. She was certainly precocious: aged four and at a church service on Mothering Sunday, she was asked by the minister what gift she would give her mother. She replied, “Life insurance”.
Much of the book seeks to highlight and promote husband Bill’s legislation on behalf of children; the rest draws attention to her own valiant efforts to promote children’s welfare, as she restlessly travelled America and the world, visiting clinics, youth groups and play-schemes around the globe. “As I said in my speech at the United Nation’s Fourth World Conference in Beijing...” or “when I worked on education reform in Arkansas...” are typical preambles to set-piece sermons. Hillary has done that, been there and bought the T-shirt –- and the sharp suit, the slacks and the swim-wear for every photo-opportunity.
Political journalist John O’Sullivan has described her public performances in the recent Democratic primaries as “wooden and wonkish”. This is not true of her book. In keeping with her legal training, she demonstrates here that she has mastered her brief with comprehensive fluency. What is this brief? Not so much to work for child welfare as to win friends and influence people so as to achieve the highest power. She may still achieve it.
Francis Phillips writes from Bucks, in the UK.
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The family is as good as any solution can get. There's no need for more.
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