The last thing the left needs is the third iteration of a failed political dynasty.
Amid investigations into Russian election interference, perhaps we ought to consider whether the Kremlin, to hurt Democrats, helped put Chelsea Clinton on the cover of Variety. Or maybe superstition explains it. Like tribesmen laying out a sacrifice to placate King Kong, news outlets continue to make offerings to the Clinton gods. In The New York Times alone, Chelsea has starred in multiple features over the past few months: for her tweeting (its become feisty), for her upcoming book (to be titled She Persisted), and her reading habits (she says she has an embarrassingly large collection of books on her Kindle). With Chelseas 2015 book, Its Your World, now out in paperback, the puff pieces in other outletsElle, People, etc.are too numerous to count.
One wishes to calm these publications: You can stop this now. Havent you heard that the great Kong is no more? Nevertheless, theyve persisted. At great cost: increased Chelsea exposure is tied closely to political despair and, in especially intense cases, the bulk purchasing of MAGA hats. So lets review: How did Chelsea become such a threat?
Perhaps the best way to start is by revisiting some of Chelseas major post-2008 forays into the public eye. Starting in 2012, she began to allow glossy magazines to profile her, and she picked up speed in the years that followed. The results were all friendly in aim, and yet the picture that kept emerging from the growing pile of Chelsea quotations was that of a person accustomed to courtiers nodding their heads raptly.
Here are Chelseas thoughts on returning to red meat in her diet: Im a big believer in listening to my bodys cravings. On her time in the fiercely meritocratic workplace of Wall Street: I was curious if I could care about [money] on some fundamental level, and I couldnt. On her precocity: They told me that my father had learned to read when he was three. So, of course, I thought I had to too. The first thing I learned to read was the newspaper. Take that, Click, Clack, Moo.
Chelsea, people were quietly starting to observe, had a tendency to talk a lot, and at length, not least about Chelsea. But you couldnt interrupt, not even if youre on TV at NBC, where she was earning $600,000 a year at the time. When you are with Chelsea, you really need to allow her to finish, Jay Kernis, one of Clintons segment producers at NBC, told Vogue. Shes not used to being interrupted that way.
Sounds perfect for a dating profile: I speak at length, and you really need to let me finish. Im not used to interruptions.
What comes across with Chelsea, for lack of a gentler word, is self-regard of an unusual intensity. And the effect is stronger on paper. Unkind as it is to say, reading anything by Chelsea Clintontweets, interviews, booksis best compared to taking in spoonfuls of plain oatmeal that, periodically, conceal a toenail clipping.
Take the introduction to Its Your World (Get Informed! Get Inspired! Get Going!). Its harmless, you think. My mom wouldnt let me have sugary cereal growing up (more on that later), writes Chelsea, so I improvised, adding far more honey than likely would have been in any honeyed cereals. Thats the oatmealand then comes the toenail:
I wrote a letter to President Reagan when I was five to voice my opposition to his visit to the Bitburg cemetery in Germany, because Nazis were buried there. I didnt think an American president should honor a group of soldiers that included Nazis. President Reagan still went, but at least I had tried in my own small way.
Ah, yes, that reminds me of when I was four and I wrote to Senator John Warner about grain tariffs, arguing that trade barriers unfairly decreased consumer choice.
At first glance, of course, Chelsea seems to be boasting that at age five she was interpreting the news with the maturity of an adult. But we should consider whether its instead a confession that as an adult she still interprets the news with the maturity ofwell, lets just submit that perhaps she thinks what other people tell her to think. Which brings us to Chelseas Twitter feed.
Since Chelsea has 1.6 million followers, we can only conclude that some people enjoy ideas like Yes. Yes. Yes. Closing the #wagegap is crucial to a strong economy. And maybe theres no sin in absorbing and exuding nothing but respectable Blue State opinion. But its another thing to insist on joining each days designated outrage bandwagon. Did we need to slap down a curmudgeonly Charlotte Rampling, age 71, for griping about #OscarsSoWhite activists? Yes, and heres Chelsea: Outrageous, ignorant & offensive comments from Rampling. Is gender identity not going to be included on the 2020 census? Heres Chelsea: This is outrageous. No one should be invisible in America. Not that there arent breaks for deeper thoughts: Words without action are ... meaningless. Words with inaction are ... just words. Words with opposite action is ... hypocrisy.
That is
beautiful.
The crude conventional wisdom is that Bill Clinton craved adoration and Hillary Clinton craved power. But Chelsea Clinton seems to have a more crippling want: fashionabilityof the sort embraced by philanthropic high society. So you tell The New York Times that your dream dinner party would include James Baldwin, Shakespeare, Franz Kafka, Albert Camus, Jane Jacobs, and Jane Austen, and discussion would be about how people and communities can evolve to be more inclusive, more kind, have a greater and broader sense of solidarity, while still respecting individual liberties; what provokes or blocks those changes; and what stories might resonate today to encourage us toward kindness, respect, and mutual dignity. You almost have to bow down before someone who could host Shakespeare for dinner and make the agenda wind up sounding like a brochure for the Altria Group. At least Kafka would be on hand to capture the joy of the evening.
To find fault with the former First Daughter is to invite the wrath of thousands. Love of Chelsea correlates closely with love of Hillary, toward whom her fans have long felt an odd protectiveness, as if she were a stroke survivor regaining the power of speech rather than one of the most influential people in the world. That goes even more for Chelsea, who is often treated less like an independent 37-year-old multi-millionaire and more like the 12-year-old who still deserves to be left alone.
But lets have a reality check. No one bothers George W. Bushs daughter, Barbara Bush, who quietly works on her nonprofit, Global Health Corps. On the other hand, if youre posing for magazine covers, granting interviews, doing book tours, placing your name on your parents multi-million-dollar foundation, and tweeting out daily to 1.6 million people, thenguess whatyoure a public figure. And if youve openly entertained the possibility of running for office if it was something I felt called to do, then assurances to the contrary arent quite good enough. Youre a public hazard.
God has decreed that American political dynasties decline sharply in suitability for office with each iteration. Call it the George H.W.-George W.-Jeb rule. Quit after the first iteration. Dont trot out the second one. And, for the love of God, dont trot out the third. Forgetting that rule harmed the Democratic Party in 2016 and blew up the Republican Party entirely. The Democratic Party is surprisingly cohesive these days, thanks to anti-Trump sentiment, so a Jeb-style destruction is unlikely. But never say never. If anyone could make it happen, Chelsea could.
Poster Comment:
A rather insightful piece regardless of the source. Frank appears as a foppish sort of writer, but there is much truth in what he says about this motor-mouthed, obnoxious brat offspring of two of the most evil beings to ever step foot in the White House, which they both disgraced.
It is abundantly clear that what all this splashing about of Chelsea means is that her bloody parents want a political career for this mouth.