With Hillary

Published in El País
(Spain) on 30 July 2016
by Editorial (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Jamie Agnew. Edited by Danielle Tezcan.
Finally, after a political career spanning more than 25 years, Hillary Clinton has been nominated as the Democratic candidate for the U.S. presidency. If by becoming the first African-American president in 2009 Obama broke a racial taboo, Hillary has before her a different ceiling to break — that of becoming the first woman to make it to the White House.

Her candidacy marks another milestone for U.S. democracy, which gave women the vote in 1920 after a series of harsh political and judicial battles started by the suffragette movement in 1869. However, until this moment in time, no female candidate who has run in the primaries has gone on to win her respective party’s nomination.

Paradoxically, despite both the encouraging profiles of Clinton and Obama, a woman and an African-American, and the longevity of American democracy, the problems of racism and inequality remain present in the country’s politics and will form central pillars of the campaign: first, because the Republican Party has nominated a candidate who is openly xenophobic, racist and misogynistic; and second, because inequality remains one of the issues about which Americans are most concerned, as highlighted, with differing emphases and approaches, by the Trump and Sanders campaigns.

The challenge faced by Hillary Clinton has been expressed by Barack Obama’s natural elegance and inspiration. She is tasked with uniting Americans behind those values that best represent the American dream — that all are equal before the law and that all may benefit from and share in the country’s prosperity. All that is left for us is to wish her well, for everyone’s sake.


Por fin, después de una carrera política de más de 25 años, Hillary Clinton logra la designación como candidata del Partido Demócrata a la presidencia de Estados Unidos. Si Obama rompió en 2009 el tabú racial convirtiéndose en el primer presidente afroamericano, Hillary tiene ante sí otro techo que romper: el de ser la primera mujer en llegar a la Casa Blanca.

Su candidatura marca otro hito relevante para la democracia estadounidense, que concedió el voto a las mujeres en 1920 después de una serie de duras batallas políticas y judiciales impulsadas a partir de 1869 por el movimiento sufragista, pero que hasta ahora no había logrado que ninguna de las candidatas que se habían presentado a las primaras lograra la designación.

Paradójicamente, pese a los perfiles esperanzadores de Obama y Hillary, y pese a la longevidad de la democracia de Estados Unidos, los problemas raciales y las desigualdades siguen muy presentes en la política del país y serán, de hecho, un elemento central de la campaña. Primero porque el Partido Republicano ha designado a un candidato abiertamente xenófobo, racista y misógino. Segundo, porque la desigualdad es, además de las relaciones raciales, el principal problema que enfrenta la nación y el que —como han puesto de relieve, desde énfasis y planteamientos radicalmente distintos, las campañas de Bernie Sanders y Donald Trump— más preocupa a los estadounidenses.

El reto al que Hillary Clinton se enfrenta ha sido expuesto por Obama con su habitual elegancia e inspiración. Se trata de unir a los estadounidenses bajo aquellos valores que mejor representan el sueño americano: la promesa de una igualdad real ante la ley y, también, de que todos puedan acceder y compartir la prosperidad. Solo cabe desearle suerte. Por el bien de todos.
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