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Ross K. Goldberg| Your Turn

I am a lifelong Democrat since my days as a student volunteer for Robert Kennedys presidential run in 1968. I provide that admission because I am about to endure the scorn of my political brethren by speaking ill of two of the partys beloved icons. But here it goes.

Much of the problems that America faces today can be laid directly at the feet of Hillary Rodham Clinton and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and its about time they no longer get a free pass for their actions.There, Ive said it.

In 2016, the Democrats anointed Hillary Clinton with its partys nomination because it was her turn. But history tells us that my turn has never been a good enough reason for such an honor. Just ask Mondale, Dole, Gore, Kerry, McCain or Romney. It was all of their turns and they all lost. In fact, the last my turn candidate to win the presidency before Joe Biden was George H.W. Bush 34 years ago.

Conversely, it is often the ones whose turn it isnt Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Obama, Trump whose insurgency carried them to surprising victory. Sadly, the Democrats chose to ignore this truism and, instead, shamefully stacked the deck in the nominating process to favor their favorite. They should have known storms were on the horizon when, even despite the game being fixed, she barely edged out an aging, little known socialist from Vermont.

Once nominated, the carefully orchestrated crescendo eroded into a misguided campaign from Day 1. Her arrogance was apparent throughout and such inner divinity prevented her campaign from candidly acknowledging her weaknesses. Her relationship with the media was dreadful and its erosion was felt by ordinary people. She failed to get young people and minorities, two constituencies she desperately needed, excited about her candidacy. She miscalculated the electorates appetite for change over consistency. Worst of all, she never really could articulate why she was running other than because it was her turn.

Despite all this, she still won the popular vote by three million which indicates just what a winnable election it was. But popular vote has never been the payoff window. And consider this: while Clinton won the popular vote by three million, she won California (a state Trump strategically ignored) by four million. That means she lost the other 49 by over a million.

Ruth Ginsberg had her turn, too. Regrettably, however, she didnt know when her turn should have been up and for that she deserves both credit and criticism: credit for her passionate desire to serve and criticism for ignoring the political consequences of her actions.

As far back as 1999 her well-documented health challenges began when she was diagnosed withcolon cancer, the first of her fivebouts with cancer. Nearly a decade later, Ginsburg fell in her office,fracturing three ribs, for which she was hospitalized. While in the hospital a CT scanshowed cancerousnodulesin her lungs. She underwent a left-lunglobectomyand months later she completed three weeks of focused radiation treatment toablatea tumor found in herpancreas. Less than a year after that, Ginsburg was once again receiving treatment for a recurrence of cancer.

WhenJohn Paul Stevensretired in 2010, Ginsburg became the oldest justice on the court and rumors swirled that she would retire because of advancing age, poor health, and the death of her husband. Several times during Obamaspresidency progressive attorneys and activists called for Ginsburg to retire so that Obama could appoint a like-minded successor.

In 2013, Obama himself invited her to the White House when it seemed likely that Democrats would lose control of the Senate, but she again refused to step down. We all know how that ended. In the ultimate ironic twist, it turned out that the final act of this heroine among feminists was to do a great disservice to women by remaining on the bench through the transition to a Republican president.Credit must be given to Justice Breyer for not making the same mistake.

If the Democrats had not stacked the deck in 2016, or if Clinton would have run even an adequate campaign, there would have been no Trump presidency, meaning no scoffing at climate change, no cavalier response to COVID-19, no big lie and no Jan. 6.

As for Ginsburg, had she not let stubbornness eclipse logic in 2013, her seat would have been filled by Obama, not Trump. That would have meant no dramatic shift of the court to the right, voting rights would not be in jeopardy, Second Amendment challenges would likely have a far different outcome, issues of separation of church and state would be adjudicated more evenly and the cause for which she fought a lifetime to protect Roe v. Wade would not have been abolished.

Hillary and Ruth. Two very smart individuals. Two very loyal Democrats. Two heroes to millions. But as F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy. Sadly, the tragedy this time is the state of our republic.

Ross K. Goldberg is a resident of Westlake Village and author of the book I Only Know What I Know.

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Guest column: Hillary Clinton and Ruth Bader Ginsburg deserve some of the blame - VC Star