Hillary Clinton has been accused of many things, including being some shady underhanded crook who shouldn’t be trusted. The media and her opponents will tell you that she’s raked in millions in speaking fees and has received hefty donations from big business, which is the very evil that Democrats have been accusing the GOP of for years. I’m going to explain why the voters can and should forgive her for this.

In the world of todays politics its become very clear, you’re not going to get the prize if you don’t have the coin.

The United States is where it is today in part due to something seemingly innocuous that occurred at the beginning of the 1980’s. A woman from Missouri by the name of Harriett Woods was running as a Democrat for the U. S. Senate. Harriett was a mother of two that had followed an improbable path into politics, all the while gaining valuable experience at the city and state level. Her senate race had her running against Republic Senator John Danforth. (Now follow me here as this all comes full circle) Senator Danforth was not only an incumbent but also a former attorney general of Missouri, an ordained priest and the wealthy grandson of Ralston Purina. (Money, Money, Money by ABBA should be playing in your ear at this point)

Even with all this going for him, Senator Danforth found himself in a tight race with Harriett Woods, with Woods even winning some of the most rural Republican areas in Missouri. That was until the final week of the election cycle when the Woods campaign ran out of money which meant that she couldn’t afford to counter the last minute storm of virulent attacks broadcast by her opponent.

This heartbreaking defeat drew special attention, particularly due to the fact that Harriett Woods was the only female U.S. Senate Candidate in the whole country. It became so clear that she could have won with financial support to answer the attacks, that her race inspired the founding of EMILY’s List, (say it with me West Wing Fans ‘E’arly ‘M’oney ‘I’s ‘L’ike ‘Y’east) one of the biggest PAC’s in the nation.

So Senator Danforth did win and on his way to Washington, he took with him, an African American lawyer named Clarence Thomas, who had been working for Monsanto, the agrochemical giant responsible for Agent Orange, GMO seeds/foods and so much more.

Now here is where we bring it full circle:

1. If Harriett Woods hadn’t been defeated by less than 2% of the votes in Missouri, Danforth would not have gone on to be a U.S. Senator.
2. If Danforth hadn’t been a U.S. Senator, he wouldn’t have taken Clarence Thomas with him to Washington as a staff member who would then go on to be appointed by George H. Bush to the Supreme Court.
3. If Thomas hadn’t been on the Supreme Court, he couldn’t have supplied the one-vote difference that halted the Florida court-ordered recount in Gore V. Bush.
4. If the recount had continued, Al Gore would have been president not George Bush.
5. If George W. Bush had not been president, the U.S. would have been far less likely to launch the longest war in U.S. History, costing billions in tax dollars given to twenty thousand contractors, with thousands killed and wounded on both sides.
6. If Al Gore had been president, global warming would have been taken seriously. And, the U.S. would not have falsified evidence to justify invading oil-rich Iraq, which along with Afghanistan, convinced some Islamic countries that the U.S. is waging war against Islam.
7. With no George W. Bush presidency, there would not have been the biggest transfer of wealth into private hands in the history of this nation: a pay ratio where the average CEO earns 475 times more than the average worker (in Canada, it’s 20 times); an executive order giving an estimated $40 billions in tax dollars to Catholic, Evangelical and other religious groups, without congressional approval, often with the appearance of turning churches into a vote delivery system.

If you’re not screaming already, here is one more…

8. Without Clarence Thomas to supply the one-vote majority, the Supreme Court might not have ruled that corporations are people, therefore allowing them the right to unlimited political spending, which is why, my friends and fellow voters, Hillary needs to follow the money.

Hillary learned her lesson during the last election primary. This time, if she doesn’t dance with the devil, it won’t be President Sanders that you’ll be hearing at the 2017 Swearing-In, it’ll be President Trump!

This blog post was inspired by Gloria Steinem’s latest book – My Life on the Road