Hillary Clinton offered a powerful message of resistance and hope during her commencement address to Wellesley College graduates Friday, taking the opportunity to skewer President Donald Trump.
The former secretary of state and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee returned to her alma mater 48 years after delivering the college’s first student commencement speech, which would help launch her into the national spotlight.
“I couldn’t think of any place I’d rather be this year than right here,” Clinton said during the school’s 139th commencement ceremony. “You may have heard that things didn’t exactly go the way I planned, but you know what? I’m doing OK.”
Clinton encouraged graduates to continue to “break glass ceilings” and defy sexism in politics, a message easily embraced by the small liberal arts college for women some 20 miles west of Boston, Massachusetts.
“Don’t let anyone tell you your voice doesn’t matter,” Clinton said. “In the years to come, there will be trolls galore ― online and in-person ― eager to tell you that you don’t have anything worthwhile to say or anything meaningful to contribute.”
“They may even call you a nasty woman,” she added. “Doors that once seemed sealed to women are now open. They’re ready for you to walk through or charge through, to advance the struggle for equality, justice and freedom.”
Clinton didn’t shy away from addressing the country’s current heated political climate, comparing Trump to former President Richard Nixon and warning against further polarization.
“By the way, we were furious about the past presidential election, of a man whose presidency that would eventually end in disgrace with his impeachment for his obstruction of justice,” Clinton said of 1960s, referencing Nixon’s Watergate scandal.
“We got through that tumultuous time,” she said. “We turned back a tide of intolerance and embraced inclusion ... The ‘we’ who did those things were more than those in power who wanted to change course, it was millions of ordinary citizens, especially young people, who voted, marched and organized.”
Clinton also decried the administration’s budget proposal, calling it “an attack of unimaginable cruelty on the most vulnerable among us.”
When people in power invent their own facts and attack those who question them, it can mark the beginning of the end of a free society.
Hillary Clinton
She also denounced the administration for its aggressive stance toward the media and willingness to embrace conspiracy theories.
“You are graduating at a time when there is a full-fledged assault on truth and reason,” Clinton said. “Just log on to social media for 10 seconds, it will hit you right in the face.”
“Some are even denying things we see with our own eyes ― like the size of crowds,” she added, taking a jab at Trump’s obsession with his inauguration attendance. “And then defending themselves by talking about ‘alternative facts.’”
“When people in power invent their own facts and attack those who question them, it can mark the beginning of the end of a free society,” she said. “That is not hyperbole it, it was authoritarian regimes throughout history have done. They attempt to control reality.”
Clinton ended her address by imploring the audience to stand up for free speech and human rights by registering to vote, marching in protests, running for office and promoting plurality.
“We’re going to share this future ― better do so with open hearts and outstretched hands than closed minds and clenched fists,” Clinton said. “Make defending truth and a free society a core value of your life every single day.”
Clinton first came to national attention as a student at Wellesley College in 1969, when her peers selected her to deliver the school’s first-ever student commencement speech. In her address, the student body president said that although those of her generation weren’t yet in positions of power and leadership, they had “that indispensable element of criticizing and constructive protest.”
Her comments were a direct rebuke of the speech Sen. Edward Brooke (R-Mass.) had delivered right before she took the stage, as he had argued against the effectiveness and need to protest. Clinton made The New York Times, The Washington Post and Life magazine. She began to get noticed, speaking around the country.
Clinton only recently emerged from the sidelines after her devastating defeat in the 2016 president election. She mentioned her months-long absence from the public eye, joking that she recovered from the loss by taking long walks in the woods and organizing her closets.
“I won’t lie ― chardonnay helped a little, too,” she said, prompting the crowd to roar with applause.
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