Written by Tsun-yan Hsieh and Huijin Kong
Hardly close followers of American politics, by chance YouTube served up a video of Hilary Clinton’s speech at the 2024 Democratic Convention last week, and it inspired us in a totally unexpected way.
Contrary to her image of the hardened politician and polarising figure, during the speech’s 15 minutes, Hilary was deeply in touch with her full being in encouraging people to “keep going” on working on what truly matters. While she uses the message to encourage votes and support for the Democratic Presidential Nominee Kamala Harris, anyone can be inspired to do more for what matters to him and her. As someone who experienced the ultimate defeat in losing the US presidency despite winning the popular vote, the message of perseverance is particularly poignant.
Keep Going
Hilary’s speech is enlivened by the example of many women who blazed the path for other women. These were giants among ordinary people, for example Shirley Chisholm, the first woman to run for the Democratic party’s presidential nomination in 1972. Clinton references to mothers abound, including her own mother, Dorothy Howell, born in 1919, a year before American women got the vote, and the mother of the state politician in the last state to ratify the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote. She continues her speech with their mother’s encouragement to “keep going” despite defeat and setback; to “keep going” when “building families”, “affording childcare” and “paying rent”. Not to take comfort in the past, and to challenge herself and the audience to keep going and looking forward. This intergenerational inspiration creates powerful momentum, so is the phrase “when one person makes it, we all make it”, touches on the universality of barriers, and the call to push forward with barrier breaking. While one could receive the messages literally, as about women’s rights, and a battle cry, it inspires non-American men (like Tsun-yan Hsieh ) and women alike, to persist in the struggle for change and to keep going for breakthroughs in glass ceilings of all kinds.
Rise Above Loss
It is impossible not to relate Clinton’s speech to her excruciating loss in 2016, but she didn’t dwell on it. We know all too well how hard that is. Many leaders cannot control themselves but go off on tangents about their own scars and triumphs. Clinton did touch on 2016, but only momentarily in describing and encouraging people’s efforts to continue, describing her 2016 experience as part of the journey. This high degree of self-control suggests a high level of self-mastery, to use one’s own experiences for the greater cause without being enmired in her own pain. In a Vanity Fair article, Hilary describes the emotional prep work she did: Night. “When I was working on the speech and practicing the speech, I got emotional numerous times, and had to kind of work through it so that I could get through it up onstage.” Hilary also didn’t talk about her own accomplishments and strengths, in what could be the last speech of her life and career under the national spotlight. Instead, she focused her speech on the shared values of persistence in the face of struggle and setback. In turn, she was rewarded with catharsis: “It certainly was cathartic for me,” she continues, “and based on both the reception I got in the hall and the follow-on outreach that I’ve gotten, it was cathartic for many, many people.”
From the Heart
Hilary Clinton never struck us as being heartfelt; words like aggressive and the nickname ‘Lady Macbeth’ were used to describe her in the past. Yet during this speech, we could feel her heart and her being. Perhaps because of what this speech meant to her, and what it brought out of her. According to Vanity Fair, “From the start, Clinton appeared more relaxed than many people had seen her before.” Clinton also let herself be fully immersed in the moment with all of herself: “I didn’t feel like I was up on a stage apart from the crowd, but that I was really right in the midst of the crowd. And so it was a really emotional sense of [an] embrace that I felt from the moment that I walked out there.” “Overall,” she adds, “it was even more emotional than I thought.” Emotion could be felt in every second throughout her speech. It didn’t relent nor lose its depth and intensity even during the crowds’ reactions that often interrupted her. We can’t help but respond to her being, since we are all human beings. The crowd really connected with Hillary that night, no doubt because she brought and bared her heart and being.
Whatever your politics might be, and whether you like or dislike Hilary Clinton, this speech is a reminder to inspire ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren to keep going, especially when the going is tough; to dig deep into our hearts and minds and rise above the setbacks in our pursuits of what matters to us.
