Supporter to Hillary: Use “Radical Transparency” to Beat Trump

What do you do when your favorite presidential candidate has a glaring weakness? Why, you go out there and try to convince readers (and possibly yourself) that the weakness is actually a strength!

That seems to be the philosophy of Jill Abramson, a writer for The Guardian who said Monday that Hillary Clinton can defeat Donald Trump…if she comes clean with the American people.

“The time has come to do something daring to try to restore trust,” wrote Abramson. “It goes against every fibre of her nature, but Clinton should now become radically transparent.”

You may wonder why a person with something to hide would suddenly think that exposing that something to the public is a good idea, but Abramson is of the belief that Hillary doesn’t actually have anything to be worried about. According to her, all of that nonsense about Hillary being secretive and scandalous is just a combination of right-wing paranoia and plain old sexism.

“She resents being held to a higher standard of transparency than Trump or other male politicians,” Abramson wrote. “She resents being scrutinised more heavily than men, which she is.”

Even so, she wrote, Hillary should bite the bullet and release everything:

She should release the transcripts of her Wall Street speeches. She should release a comprehensive list of all of her paid speeches. She should release any records or correspondence that help clarify her role at the Clinton Foundation. She should announce that no member of the Clinton family, including her daughter, Chelsea, will be involved in the foundation while she is president. She should release detailed health records, including the treatments she received following her concussion several years ago. And, now, the full details of her abrupt departure from the 9/11 ceremony. The campaign should never go dark when something happens, even if it’s not serious.

If she has personal calendars from her time as secretary of state and New York senator, she should release those. She should release any remaining emails in her possession that are even mildly work-related. She should once again release her tax returns, putting renewed pressure on Trump to release his. Even if she has already released some of this material, put it out again. Let it all go.

As much as we are with Abramson on this call for “radical transparency,” we don’t have much hope that Hillary will take our advice. And, for the good of her presidential aspirations, she probably shouldn’t. Because while her supporters may be convinced that all of this scrutiny has something to do with America’s latent misogyny, the fact is that every presidential candidate is subject to the same glare of the spotlight. If you are constantly avoiding that spotlight, well, it’s not “sexist” to assume that you have something to hide. Especially when you habitually lie to the American people.

But yes, by all means Hillary, let’s see everything you got. Prove to us that it was a right-wing conspiracy all along.

If you first need to wait until the blistering high-70s NY temperatures let up, we’ll understand.