Sociopath alert: Hillary Clinton

From the blog Just Not Said: For a long time, I thought Hillary Clinton a normal person who had been corrupted by her proximity to her sociopathic husband and by having been given so much power. (Power does have a corrupting influence.)

She didn’t seem to have a full complement of sociopathic traits. She lacks the glib salesman’s charm that characterizes so many sociopaths. When Barack Obama characterized her in 2008 as being “likable enough,” that was in fact being generous. Her strident, grating personality does not cast a spell.

It also seemed less likely that Hillary was a sociopath simply because she was married to one. Sociopaths are rarely drawn to each other as spouses: they usually prefer someone they can dominate and manipulate, not an “equal.” But, that marriage appears more and more to be a rare case of two partners in crime.

And ever since Hillary ran for Senator in 2000, she has more or less escaped Bill’s shadow. This has put her own personal qualities in high relief. And it’s hard to escape the conclusion that she, too, is a sociopath.

Dishonesty is one of the main hallmarks of sociopathy.

Hillary has lied, in some way, about practically every aspect of her life that has come to public notice. The bribe she got via the cattle futures trading (which, in all fairness was for her husband, and merely funneled through her) was something she claimed she achieved through having studied the Wall Street Journal. (If she was so good at it, why would this famously money hungry woman suddenly quit trading?) She lied about Travelgate when she claimed that the longtime White House employees had committed embezzlement, which was not true. (Hillary wanted to install her friends in the job.)

Hillary has lied about Benghazi (claiming it was a spontaneous reaction to an internet video), her email setup (which she initially claimed was in accordance with all regulations), and countless other episodes. But these are the types of lies which non sociopaths might utter, if their backs were against the wall and their political survival were dependent on it.

What’s far more telling, personality-wise, is that Hillary lies even when she doesn’t have to. All of the small lies she’s told about her own life have had no impact on policy. But while they seem to matter little, they do speak volumes about Hillary.

Hillary has claimed that she was named after Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb Mt. Everest. But she was born in 1947, six years before that event, when Edmund was only an obscure beekeeper in New Zealand.

Hillary has claimed that all four of her grandparents were immigrants. Only one of them was.

Hillary has said that she tried to join the Marines in 1975, but was turned down. While this claim hasn’t been definitively debunked, it seems highly, highly unlikely.

Hillary has famously claimed that as Secretary of State, she once landed in Bosnia under sniper fire, and had to run for cover on the tarmac. No such thing occurred. Here is a CBS clip debunking Hillary’s account, with footage of her actual arrival.

(These last two lies are a little reminiscent of a male sociopath who claims to have been a Navy SEAL, or to have worked for the CIA, when he hasn’t. These types of lies are generally referred to as “stolen valor.”)

Hillary has also famously claimed to have been “dead broke” when she left the White House in 2001.

These are all “sport lies,” a specialty of sociopaths, who will use any occasion to falsely burnish their resume.

Hillary’s lying predates her political career. There are conflicting reports about whether she was technically fired from her job as a young 27-year-old lawyer on the Watergate Committee for her unethical behavior. But her boss at the time, lifelong Democrat Jerry Zeifman, has been quite public about his opinion of her dishonesty.

Another characteristic of sociopaths is that when they lie, they do so straightforwardly, with no hint of shame or embarrassment. Can you think of just one occasion when Hillary came across sheepish, rather than brassy?

About Luke Ford

I've written five books (see Amazon.com). My work has been covered in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and on 60 Minutes. I teach Alexander Technique in Beverly Hills (Alexander90210.com).
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