Why Hillary Clinton’s physical health should not be an election issue

I have always found the questioning of a political leader’s health to be an exercise in the most reductionist vulgarity possible. One of the lessons of the Soviet triumph over fascism in Europe is that one must judge a person whether a politician or otherwise, the basis of their human ability and basic rights as a member of the human race, rather than on disabilities which are a result of misfortune and medical happenstance.

Therefore, I am not here to reverse such a position, but rather I seek to illustrate another instance of western hypocrisy when it comes to mixing medicine with politics.

When in 1984 Konstantin Chernenko became the leader of the Soviet Union, the western press were bending over backwards with sensationalist stories of his ill health. From rumours about Chernenko needing his hand held in order to sign documents, to comical slandering of the elderly statesman when he had trouble ascending stairs, the western media could not get enough of stories, whether real or fabricated, about the health of Chernenko.

Now, many stories about the health or lack thereof, of Hillary Clinton have surfaced and the mainstream media are quick to label such stories with every nasty word in the book. I believe Hillary Clinton to be a disaster waiting to happen. Her record as America’s Secretary of State was a prolonged nightmare of disaster upon disaster. Yet I do not feel it is right to question her physical health, psychological health is of course a different matter entirely.

If one is going to take the high road, instead of question her physical health, one must simply remind western pundits of their vulgar treatment of Konstantin Chernenko and indeed of the story that went nowhere in 2015 that Vladimir Putin, one of the most physically active leaders of any country in the world, was somehow on the verge of death.  This was of course an outright lie and quite possibly a libellous one at that.

It is imperative not to descend to a vulgar level which leads to a slippery slope of questioning one’s genetic background, something which is eerily reminiscent of the ideology which millions of Red Army soldiers gave their lives to banish from this earth during the Great Patriotic War.

Whether she can easily walk up a flight of stairs or not, should not be a matter of public record. The fact that she intends to push the world closer to war ought to be the issue people discuss. The focus should always be on policy, record and rhetorical comportment and in each of these categories Hillary Clinton fails every exam. Hillary Clinton is a dangerous person, a deluded person, possibly a mad person. But whether she is physically ill is a matter that ought to remain private.