Have you noticed how we have been bombarded recently in the mainstream media about a push to replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill with a woman? The organization behind this drive is Women On 20s. What you almost never hear or read, with the exception of the New Yorker, is that the woman who founded that organization, Barbara Ortiz Howard, was a Hillary Clinton political operative. Also all of the women who made the final, and also the preliminary list, were PC. Nary a conservative in the bunch although one such woman to be discussed below is more qualified than any of the finalists in terms of accomplishment.
Does anybody think it is a coincidence that the campaign to place a PC woman on a $20 bill headed by a former Hillary Clinton political operative is coinciding with the imminent official kickoff of the Hillary Clinton campaign? Below yet another MSM plug for this campaign with the ulterior motive on NBC Nightly News yesterday is the New Yorker excerpt that reveals Howard's political past:
Howard, who is sixty-two years old, told me, “I grew up in the sixties and had strong feelings about women’s rights, and everyone’s rights. We marched against the Vietnam War and for civil rights and women’s rights back then.” Then she started a family and opened her business; she hasn’t been involved in serious activism for some time, other than canvassing for Hillary Clinton in 2008.
Here is the list of women from which the finalists were chosen. Notice what's missing?
Howard and Ades Stone registered their nonprofit, called Women on 20s, and recruited others, including a co-founder of the National Women’s History Project, to join the campaign. Over several months, they built a Web site, and started a Twitter feed and a Facebook page. On Sunday, Women on 20s began inviting people to visit the site and vote for their favorite candidates to replace Jackson on the twenty-dollar bill; the choices include Alice Paul, Betty Friedan, Shirley Chisholm, Sojourner Truth, Rachel Carson, Rosa Parks, Barbara Jordan, Margaret Sanger, Patsy Mink, Clara Barton, Harriet Tubman, Frances Perkins, Susan B. Anthony, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The women were selected from a longer list of a hundred names based on their societal impact and the difficulties they faced in pursuing their goals.
If you had guessed that what was missing from the list was anybody conservative, you would be right. To make it completely laughable in a politically partisan way is that the one woman who completely outshines any of the women on that list in terms of accomplishment is missing: Clare Boothe Luce. Yes, Eleanor Roosevelt is better known than Luce but the former First Lady is primarily known for being just that, a First Lady. Now to review just some of Clare Boothe Luce's many accomplishments is to highlight on how Woman on 20s is basically a leftist political hackery to coincide with the Hillary campaign.
Luce was a managing editor and contributor of highly acclaimed humor pieces to Vanity Fair. She also wrote the smash hit The Women which ran on Broadway in 1936 which later became a major motion picture. She also wrote a couple more plays that became motion pictures. Perhaps the most successful picture magazine of all time was Life which came about as a result of her suggestion to her husband, Time Magazine publisher, Henry Luce.
Elected to Congress in 1942 as a (uh-oh) Republican, she called for repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act and advocated aid for war victims. Her activity increased during her second term in Congress when she was instrumental in the creation of the Atomic Energy Commission. She also traveled to Europe in April 1945 and was present at the liberation of several Nazi concentration camps. One interesting fact is that during this period, Luce was a personal friend of the father of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyu, Benzion Netanyahu, with whom she worked to resettle Jewish refugees of World War II.
I believe I already made the case about why it was ridiculous for Women on 20s to not include Clare Booth Luce on its list but wait! There's more!!!
In 1953 she was appointed to the top diplomatic post for a woman until that time, as Ambassador to Italy. Although the Italians were at first a bit wary of having a woman acting as U.S. representative to their county, her over the top energy and ability soon won most of them over and they endearingly referred to her as "La Signora." Her principal accomplishment in Italy was defusing a Cold War hot spot at Trieste where a border dispute between Italy and Yugoslavia threatened to break out into war.
There is much, much more to cover in her career but I think you get the point about how ridiculous it was for Women on 20s to leave her off the list. Of course, the fact that Luce was a strong anti-communist and supported Barry Goldwater for president in 1964 made her taboo for any liberal group with agenda of placing a PC woman on the $20 bill right when Hillary is about to run for president.
Exit question: If Congress approves Clare Boothe Luce for the $20 bill, would Women on 20s change its name to "Not THAT Woman on 20s?"
