Camille Paglia on Hillary: “The woman is a disaster!”

As some of you long-time readers will recall, I have a grudging respect for Camille Paglia. She’s wrong about a lot of things, but she’s the rarest of the rare: an honest feminist.  She’s a realist. And, like her hate her, she’s a gas to read.

I saw this interview with Paglia at The Spectator:

‘The woman is a disaster!’: Camille Paglia on Hillary Clinton
A wide-ranging interview with the iconoclastic professor

[…]

Talking to Camille Paglia is like approaching a machine gun: madness to stick your head up and ask a question, unless you want your brain blown apart by the answer, but a visceral delight to watch as she obliterates every subject in sight. Most of the time she does this for kicks. It’s only on turning to Hillary Clinton that she perpetrates an actual murder: of Clinton II’s most cherished claim, that her becoming 45th president of the United States would represent a feminist triumph.

‘In order to run for president of the United States, you have to spend two or three years of your life out on the road constantly asking for money and most women find that life too harsh, too draining,’ Paglia argues. ‘That is why we haven’t had a woman president in the United States — not because we haven’t been ready for one, for heaven’s sakes, for a very long time…’

Hillary hasn’t suffered — Paglia continues — because she is a woman. She has shamelessly exploited the fact: ‘It’s an outrage how she’s played the gender card. She is a woman without accomplishment. “I sponsored or co-sponsored 400 bills.” Oh really? These were bills to rename bridges and so forth. And the things she has accomplished have been like the destabilisation of North Africa, causing refugees to flood into Italy… The woman is a disaster!

[…]

Which brings us back to Hillary and the so-called victory her re-entering the White House would represent: ‘If Hillary wins, nothing will change. She knows the bureaucracy, all the offices of government and that’s what she likes to do, sit behind the scenes and manipulate the levers of power.’

Paglia says she has absolutely no idea how the election will go: ‘But people want change and they’re sick of the establishment — so you get this great popular surge, like you  had one as well… [Brexit] This idea that Trump represents such a threat to western civilisation — it’s often predicted about presidents and nothing ever happens — yet if Trump wins it will be an amazing moment of change because it would destroy the power structure of the Republican party, the power structure of the Democratic party and destroy the power of the media. It would be an incredible release of energy… at a moment of international tension and crisis.’

All of a sudden, the professor seems excited. Perhaps, like all radicals in pursuit of the truth, Paglia is still hoping the revolution will come.

Paglia for Trump?  She doesn’t say so.  But…

If I would vote for the corpse of Millard Fillmore to block Hillary’s disaster, she might opt for the very living Trump.

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36 Comments

  1. WVC says:

    I, too, have a slight, grudging respect for Ms. Paglia. Another interesting one to watch is Scott Adams (the Dilbert comic strip creator – a daily read for me). His blog has been a fascinating read this election cycle. He started out just looking at the persuasion skills of Trump v. Hillary, and he predicted early on, that even though he didn’t endorse Trump or approve of most of his policies, that Trump would win in a landslide. However, at some point he crossed the line, and even though he’s socially liberal and an atheist, the powers that be decided to take him out. He’s been shadow banned on Twitter so that his followers can’t see his posts. Meanwhile he’s received tons of insults and threats on Twitter, his latest book on Amazon is suddenly getting 1 star reviews by Clinton trolls, and three separate articles/hit pieces were simultaneously published on him by places like HuffPo. Knowing how well Clinton’s camp controls the media (confirmed by WikiLeaks), it was obviously a coordinated attack to silence Adams.

    The result is that he’s now fully endorsed Trump and is fighting back against the bullies. I wish him the best of luck.

  2. Pingback: Camille Paglia on Hillary: “The woman is a disaster!” | Fr. Z’s Blog | Deaconjohn1987's Blog

  3. anilwang says:

    I definitely understand the sentiment. Even if Trump was a pro-establishment “status quo” candidate and Hillary were just a regular “status quo” Democrat, if I were American I’d consider voting for Trump precisely because he is a lewd, crude, and egomanical. As it stands, North America has gotten too PC. Our former mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford fit into this mold. He was by no means a role model of anything, but he is the only mayor of Toronto who dared say that he won’t attend the Gay Pride parade because his family always went to the cottage together during January 1, Canada’s birthday. For this he was raked over the coals in the press, but he didn’t care and stood his ground and for a time gave cover for other politicians to “have other plans” on Canada Day. Unfortunately, things have reverted back to the “we have to honor gays on Canada day” since our new respectable and well liked major took office. Sometimes it takes a brute to break things or provide cover so virtue can gain courage in others.

    I’ve come to appreciate G. K. Chesterton’s love of the common brute (not merely the common respectable man). Without them, the polite good person that is just trying to raise a family is at the mercy of powerful polite bullies who take advantage of the good nature of them. A brute takes no guff. Even if they are wrong more times than they are right, they foil the plans of the polite bullies so that the polite good person are no longer the target. As a result, good person are allowed to do good work.

  4. THREEHEARTS says:

    Trump could easily win if he follows the Pope’s lead. Francis asked that all catholic parishes formed a medical clinic on their property. All Trump would have to do is to agree that all religious denominations would receive financial assistance in doing so according to their beliefs and have all users recorded. Clinton would have absolutely no answer. Could you see her allowing Catholics and some other christian denominations not prescribing birth control, euthanasia and God forbid abortions? Think of how much less expensive would be health insurance which seems to be going up under Obamacare

  5. Ellen says:

    I too respect Camille Paglia. She is blunt, she is honest and she can write well enough to almost persuade a person that Madonna is a great artist (sorry Camille, I’m not buying it).
    I too have been following Scott Adams with great interest. If Trump wins, the press will go into full kill mode.

  6. hwriggles4 says:

    Here is an analogy about Trump that makes a great point. This analogy came from Mike Huckabee:

    “He is like Captain Quint in the original movie JAWS. He is vulgar and salty. He is the guy who is going to save your behind and save your family. Hillary is the shark. She is going to eat your boat and she is going to have open borders and immigration out the kazoo. So the choice is: Do you vote for Captain Quint who is going to save your family, or do you vote for the shark?”

  7. DavidJ says:

    But Quint didn’t save anyone. He ended up getting his boat wrecked and died because he was stubborn and obsessed, right?

  8. LarryW2LJ says:

    hwriggles4
    Here’s another good one from Mike Huckabee – and it has some truth to it:

    “One of the best comments I saw online was from someone in the Yahoo News comments section, who said that Trump reminded him of a doctor with no bedside manner. He tells you that you need to lose 100 lbs and stop smoking. You’re offended, you’re angry, you come up with 10 reasons why he’s crazy….and then you finally realize that he’s the only one telling you the truth.”

    We’re at a pivotal moment in history. In my most humble and uneducated opinion – nay, more of a gut feeling – we either see the Constitution of the United States continue on or become irrelevant. The Supreme Court picks of the winner of this election may very well determine that, one way or the other.

  9. frjim4321 says:

    I suspect that most people here do not like Hillary very much, and they would contend that she is the least of two evils. IMHO that distinction is held by her less-than-auspicious opponent, who is as likely to win the election as is Titanic to rise under its own power to the surface of the North Atlantic Ocean. That being sad, the time has come for the RNC to rehabilitate itself and my suggestion would be that it should reorganize around the principle of a consistent ethic of life. If the RNC were to become truly pro-life they might have a chance at redemption. Otherwise I fear that the party’s implosion is permanent, and it may be replaced by something even more evil than itself.

    Nor do I think that my party is by any means perfect nor that our candidate is excellent. It is just the only reasonable, moral choice for me at this time.

  10. frjim4321 says:

    Oops, I wish that like a similar blog, PrayTell, there would be an edit key.

    I meant to say that most people here probably think that Hillary is the greater of two evils.

  11. iamlucky13 says:

    I don’t have much exposure to Paige. Her vulgarity surprised me a bit, but then again, I don’t know why. I encounter far worse vulgarity in all corners of the political spectrum and at all education levels – it’s amusing to me to see people condemn Trump’s petulance when they themselves act the same way, simply because Trump is able to do it on TV on they’re not (besides, numerous sources have claimed that Clinton is also very foul-mouthed and even downright mean).

    She’s right about women being feminists means standing up for themselves, not demanding to be coddled. That passage brings to mind several women I know, none of whom ever needed a “safe space.”

    Her prediction that Trump will destroy the power structure of the Republican party has probably already come true. I half hope it has, and that something better will emerge from the ashes. I can’t imagine what or who is holding the Republican party together at the moment except Hillary Clinton.

    He won’t destroy the power structure of the Democrat party, however. They had an opportunity to shake up the party and nominate a candidate who almost certainly would have crushed Trump. Instead they turned on him and excoriated him for nothing worse than wanting to continue campaigning until the primaries were actually settled. That spoke volumes about how well-entrenched the power structure of the Democrat party is.

  12. Benedict Joseph says:

    Camille Paglia. She is like the untamed lightening.
    She is a vehicle of grace without knowing it.
    It is my prayer that she will know it before she someday makes her exit, and that before then she will have abandoned that which is grossly mendacious, and revel in the uncomfortable truths the zeitgeist would not have heard if not from her.

  13. juergensen says:

    @frjim4321:

    Trump promises to appoint identified justices to the Supreme Court in the mold of Justice Scalia who will overturn Roe v. Wade and return the issue of abortion to the states, where abortion will be severely restricted in most states and even banned in some, saving literally millions of babies’ lives. Clinton promises to appoint justices to the Supreme Court who will uphold Roe v. Wade and continue the slaughter of more than 1,000,000 babies in the womb each year in the U.S. How can you contend Clinton is the “lesser of two evils”? “Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness” (Isaiah 5:20).

  14. SKAY says:

    frjim4321 said:
    “Nor do I think that my party is by any means perfect nor that our candidate is excellent. It is just the only reasonable, moral choice for me at this time.”

    Amazing statement. Our ideas of morality are quite different.

  15. LouLou says:

    THREEHEARTS – I am interested in finding the source: ‘Francis asked that all catholic parishes formed a medical clinic on their property’. I searched but found nothing.

  16. Absit invidia says:

    frjim, wait … are you talking about Hillary? Hillary is the only “reasonable and moral choice?” Hillary?? Are you out of your mind? She is the more if not the most pro abortion candidate the planet has ever seen.

    Trump is pro life and had vowed to remain just that – pro life. Hillary is pro abortion – and has vowed to remain just that – pro abortion. NARAL gives her 100% approval.

    Voting for Hillary, knowing that she supports unnatural marriage and haughtily supports the greatest crime inflicted on the human race is like living in 4th century Rome and supporting Emperor Diocletian himself.

    Hillary is unabashedly pro abortion and will appoint judges that Being one step removed from the crime doesn’t let us off the hook when we stand before the judgment seat of the Almighty.

  17. Absit invidia says:

    She is. Period.

  18. Chrisc says:

    Fr_jim: I’m confused. If the republicans take over the seamless garment idea about being pro-life, then what is left for the democrats? You know, besides the Moloch worship?

    As to your question, no trump is not the lesser of two evils…. He’s an unknown candidate who represents a movement of people far greater than himself. Trump is not the agent of change, the people are, and we are using him , in Michael moore’s words as a human Molotov cocktail to blow up the utter morass of bribery, money laundering, and pandering that is hidden by the media’s constant obsession with the vanity of political correctness. What makes this country great is not the halls of DC nor the pockets filled with the money from the 99%… But the generous people who are tired of being abused. ( see the 65 year old black homeless lady who took up residence on Hollywood Blvd to guard trump’s star. She had a sign saying ’20 million illegals, but we don’t care about homelessness. Vote trump!’) The lower classes are tired of being told what to say, what to pray, and what to eat. They want real freedom that comes not from choosing which piece of junk bike to buy at Walmart, or which region of the world we will go attack next, or which person in the family needs a second job to pay for their stupid obamacare. They want something, some ideas, some way to be free– not the fear-mongering, hand-wringing of a treasonous snake.

  19. un-ionized says:

    LouLou, a clinic for the homeless was set up in the Vatican. you can find articles about that. Pope Francis didn’t say everyone is to do the same, though how I wish my former parish would, right there in the middle of the city and assiduously working to keep the poor people out of the building. Their version of the New Evangelization.

  20. frjim4321 says:

    Not to sound like a broken record, but with regard to the elective termination of human embryonic life, if that is indeed the worst thing in the world, then we should be more concerned with the actual rate at which this takes place as opposed to the political rhetoric around this issue.

    Further, the increased likelihood of a nuclear holocaust somewhere in the world during a prospective Trump presidency puts the abortion issue in an different perspective.

    Finally, I don’t think voting for Rape Culture will make our country more “pro-life.”

  21. un-ionized says:

    Fr. Jim, I have experience with those so-called wonderful liberals and they are even more likely to exhibit the characteristics of people involved in the so-called rape culture than the conservatives because they have no religious values.

  22. Chrisc says:

    Ok, let’s set up a wager. In the US we have had 60 million deaths from abortion and zero from nuclear war. I’m going to bet the under on whether trump will cause the death of 60 million Americans. Well, hey, under Clinton we would only have about 6 million… So I’m still taking president trump for causing fewer than 6 million deaths due to nuclear war.

  23. jhayes says:

    Chrise, Pope Francis didn’t use the expression “seamless garment” in his answer, but his analogy of a human hand gets at the same point.

    He was asked by the interviewer why he doesn’t use the expression “non-negoriable values”

    Non ho mai compreso l’espressione valori non negoziabili. I valori sono valori e basta, non posso dire che tra le dita di una mano ve ne sia una meno utile di un’altra. Per cui non capisco in che senso vi possano esser valori negoziabili. Quello che dovevo dire sul tema della vita, l’ho scritto nell’esortazione Evangelii Gaudium».”

    http://www.corriere.it/cronache/14_marzo_04/vi-racconto-mio-primo-anno-p

    more or less:

    “I’ve never understood the expression “non-negotiable values.” Values ??are values ??and that’s it. You can’t say that among the fingers of one hand there is one less useful than another. So I don’t understand in what sense there may be negotiable values. What I had to say on the subject of life, I wrote in Evangelii Gaudium “.

  24. WVC says:

    frjim4321,

    You don’t sound like a broken record. You sound like Rachel Maddow.

    I’m afraid you’re suffering from cognitive dissonance. Despite the fact that Trump is, objectively, the less evil of the two candidates with regard to policy and potential capability as Commander in Chief, you have invented a complete hallucination to rationalize your endorsement of Clinton. You ignore the (at this point) mountains of evidence that shows her to be absolutely corrupt beyond compare. Have you read any of the news stories coming from the WikiLeaks emails? Here’s a person who manifestly destabilized entire regions of the globe during her tenure as Secretary of State and who wants to threaten nuclear war with Russia over Syria, and you claim Trump is the one who puts us in danger of a nuclear holocaust. Even Jill Stein, no Trump fan, has said Hillary is the more likely to start a nuclear war. Trump has talked about finding ways to shrink our military footprint across the globe and reconsider treaties that aren’t in our best interest (including NATO, which binds America to such absurd propositions as going to war with Russia over Turkey – do you have any idea how many times Russia and Turkey have gone to war?) Clinton, on the other hand, has been a war hawk at every opportunity, and she’s shown she’s more than willing to put radical and uncompromising ideology before any practical negotiations when it comes to our international policy.

    As far as abortion goes, you’re comparing a candidate who, regardless of his personal views, has given a list of names for the Supreme Court and a plan to return the issue to the States (where it should have always been), actions more clear than any Republican candidate in the history of the party, with a candidate who wants to actively promote abortion. She wants to remove all restrictions, including partial birth abortion restrictions, name Supreme Court Justices to secure this so-called Federally guarded right for all eternity, and funnel as much tax money to support it as possible. You’re saying, “When it comes to fighting a fire, it’s much more practical in terms of ACTUALLY reducing the fire by supporting the person who wants to throw barrels of gasoline on the fire rather than the person who wants to use water.”

    You can do whatever you like, but to try to pass of a vote for Clinton as the “moral” thing to do is simply beyond the pale. At this point, why don’t you just go ahead and make a case to rehabilitate Satanism? I mean, I, too, am concerned with the practical outreach to the youth of today, and you can have all your rhetoric about Christ, but young people just don’t find it appealing. The only practical and moral thing to do is to use Satanism to actually get in touch with the young folks and bring them into our fold.

  25. WVC says:

    Also – “Rape Culture”? Are you referring to Mrs. Clinton, the husband of actual accused Rapist Bill Clinton? The woman who actually prosecuted Rape Victims? The woman who harassed, belittled, and persecuted her own husband’s sexual victims?

    Seriously. Cognitive dissonance. Look into it.

  26. jhayes says:

    Here is a working link to the Francis interview

    HERE

  27. LarryW2LJ says:

    Anyone who complains about groping, misogyny, and “rape culture” ….. yet voted for Bill Clinton has some serious introspection to do. These things are horrible indeed! But if they weren’t important to you back then ….. it seems fishy that they are so important now.

  28. robtbrown says:

    frjim4321 says:

    Further, the increased likelihood of a nuclear holocaust somewhere in the world during a prospective Trump presidency puts the abortion issue in an different perspective.

    I think a nuclear event in the next few years is quite likely, but it will not be relevant who is in the White House.

  29. un-ionized says:

    Larry, yes, I decided to go into a traditional male field because I was good at it and I could support myself comfortably but it has been no picnic. I knew that when I went in though so I was prepared (as much as one can be, ick). You learn to fight back or not as conditions warrant, keeping in mind that the victim is always to one to be fired at the lower levels of a company.

  30. WVC says:

    jhayes,

    That’s funny (and a little sad) because the hand analogy clearly doesn’t hold up. My pinky finger is obviously not as valuable as my index finger or thumb. I would give up both pinkies before I had to give up one thumb.

    Maybe he meant it in the context of touch typing on a keyboard? I’m sure that’s how the Vatican spin doctors will explain it.

  31. boxerpaws63 says:

    the FBI has re-opened the investigation into Hillary’s emails-probably to save face. The Attorney General Lynch has pleaded the 5th-probably to cover for Obama,Clinton and herself. Robert Mook,Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager,has deleted his entire twitter feed. According to Wikileaks the Clinton campaign has been feeding the media the poll numbers.SHOCKED? Not a bit.I never believed them.It’s the media who happen to be in the tank for Hillary.They were keeping everyone distracted with the Trump ‘scandals’ for a reason. Meantime Planned Parenthood is spending huge amounts of money to stop Trump.[ I don’t think it’s going to work. ]Wikileaks has also revealed what the Clinton campaign thought about another group and i can’t even repeat all of it.To date we have deplorables,irredeemables, bastardized Catholics, basement dwellers,Taco Bowls, Needy Latinos, Ner Do Well Blacks and last but not least-the new one-dumb #### millenials. Hard to keep up.

  32. FXR2 says:

    Father Jim,
    I think you may have snagged your seamless garment on the intrinsic evil of abortion, the willfull and deliberate taking of innocent human life. Take a look it seems to be unravelling all around you. So taxpayer funding of abortion, as supported by Clinton, will reduce the rate, sure it will.

    “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
    before you were born I dedicated you,
    a prophet to the nations I appointed you.” Jeremiah 1:5

  33. Midwest St. Michael says:

    A DRE friend of mine sent me the following. I thought I would share:
    —————————————————————————————————–

    With all of the election garbage that I overhear–I just wish people would actually go on-line and READ the party platforms. If they would actually READ the party platforms instead of playing “popularity” contests–the D platform should scare them. It is part of their party platform to get rid of the Hyde amendment and interfere in religious freedom issues.

    Some things from the D platform:

    “Democrats are committed to protecting and advancing reproductive health, rights, and justice. We believe unequivocally, like the majority of Americans, that every woman should have access to quality reproductive health care services, including safe and legal abortion—regardless of where she lives, how much money she makes, or how she is insured. We believe that reproductive health is core to women’s, men’s, and young people’s health and wellbeing. We will continue to stand up to Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood health centers, which provide critical health services to millions of people. We will continue to oppose—and seek to overturn—federal and state laws and policies that impede a woman’s access to abortion, including by repealing the Hyde Amendment. We condemn and will combat any acts of violence, harassment, and intimidation of reproductive health providers, patients, and staff. We will defend the ACA, which extends affordable preventive health care to women, including no-cost contraception, and prohibits discrimination in health care based on gender.

    We will address the discrimination and barriers that inhibit meaningful access to reproductive health care services, including those based on gender, sexuality, race, income, disability, and other factors. We recognize that quality, affordable comprehensive health care, evidence-based sex education and a full range of family planning services help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and thereby also reduce the need for abortions.”

    and also:

    “We will oppose all state efforts to discriminate against LGBT individuals, including legislation that restricts the right to access public spaces. We support a progressive vision of religious freedom that respects pluralism and rejects the misuse of religion to discriminate.”

    Basically, the D platform declares war on unwanted babies and churches. The phrase “misuse of religion” in this context should make people pause and think. They take God out of the D platform and then use the phrase “misuse of religion.” There is so much wrong in the platform…there’s not enough time to list everything.

    And yes, the R platform uses the Words: “Creator” and “God” and “God-given” and “religious liberty.”

    Hand these platforms to St. Thomas More or St. Thomas Aquinas–which would they prefer? I have the feeling that most bishops and priests have not read the platforms.

    Some politicians might not live up to their party platforms if elected…but the party platforms are not minor considerations.

  34. Absit invidia says:

    frjim said “I don’t think voting for Rape Culture will make our country more “pro-life.”

    Yet voting for the Death Culture does?????

    Abortion is he direct killing of in innocent harmless baby. Being one step removed from this crime with your vote for Hillary – a crime that cries out to heaven for vengeance – doesn’t let you off the hook from being an accomplice to abortion.

    Pope Francis as Cardinal once said:

    “Defend the unborn against abortion even if they persecute you, calumniate you, set traps for you, take you to court or kill you. No child should be deprived of the right to be born, the right to be fed, the right to go to school.”

    – Cdl. Bergoglio in 2005

    http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/argentine_cardinal_defend_the_unborn_unto_death/

    Are you more Catholic than the pope?

  35. Y2Y says:

    “Nor do I think that my party is by any means perfect nor that our candidate is excellent. It is just the only reasonable, moral choice for me at this time.”

    Wow. Just, wow.

    As the inimitable Gary Larson noted “…here’s your accordion.”

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