This spring I read
Off the Sidelines by New York State Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. Seriously, it was inspiring. If you are interested in politics, in women's rights, in being a working mom, whatever; you should read this. Here's what i have to say...
Kirsten Gillibrand was elected to the House of
Representatives to represent New York State’s 20th Congressional
District in 2006. In 2008 she joined Chuck Schumer as New York’s junior
senator. In 2014, she published Off the Sidelines: Raise Your Voice, Change
the World. In her autobiographical text, she discusses her career in the
law, her election process, and the work she has done in Congress since being
elected. Though she touches on a number of topics, the main themes of her work are
the fight for women’s rights and the ability to fight for your beliefs: in
Congress, in politics, in the working world, in schools, and everywhere else in
American life.
Not
everyone who goes in to politics starts out there. Kirsten explains this in her
book while describing her law career. She attended Dartmouth University as her undergraduate
and graduated from University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Law in 1991. After
graduation she was hired at Davis Polk law firm in Manhattan where she was a
defense attorney and worked major litigation cases. She made good money and was
well respected. For years, she kept her life busy- working hours on end and
either running outside or going to church in her little free time. She says
that it was not until a few years later when she considered other options. In
1995, Hillary Clinton, who was the first lady at the time, spoke at the Fourth
World Conference on Women which was being held in Beijing. At the time, Kirsten
had not been feeling that her heart was in her work, and Hillary’s words made
her see things clearer: “On that day, Hillary said her line about women’s
rights being human rights, a line that I’ve repeated almost once a week for the
past ten years. Her words were so simple, brave, and powerful, and when I heard
them, something woke up in me.” Listening to Hillary speak made Kirsten realize that she needed to be focusing
on the things that were really important to her. After thinking about it, she
realized that what she wanted to be doing was changing the world for people,
and she could not do that by working as a New York City attorney. Her
experience is proof that in our society, not everyone is automatically
interested in politics, but the politicians we have elected have the ability to
instill that interest. In a democracy, the elected officials are not only
expected to represent, but to make their constituents interested in the
politics that surround them.
Becoming a
member of the political world is difficult, even when you have connections. Kirsten
had relatives in politics, and therefore plenty of family friends in the field.
Her first piece of advice she was given about joining the political world was
to join the New York City chapter of the Women’s Leadership Forum. She just
needed to give them $1000. She
quickly learned that to join the political world, you do what needs to be done,
whether it seems productive or not. She was taught, “in politics, you do what’s
needed. If a candidate needs you to stuff an envelope, you stuff an envelope.
When you believe in a cause, you aren’t picky; you just help. I
think her argument here is difficult to accept, but true. Passion means taking
on whatever it is that you are passionate about, and supporting it in whatever
way you can. Citizens of the United States are being taught that to support
something, they may be required to do small jobs, or simply donate money, which
can feel defeating. However in our democracy, little jobs can equal big
results.
Kirsten continued to be inspired by
the politicians that she already looked up to. Joining the Women’s Leadership
Forum gave her the ability to attend an event at which Hillary Clinton was
speaking. There, Hillary said something that finally gave Kirsten the push to
jump right into the political world. Hillary said, “Decisions are being made every
day in Washington, and if you are not a part of those decisions, you might not
like what they decide, and you’ll have no one to blame but yourself.” After that, Kirsten joined every political program she could find- boards,
committees, mentor groups, etc. When Hillary Clinton decided to run for the New
York State Senate in 2000, Kirsten wanted to join her campaign. However, it was
incredibly difficult. She made calls and sent emails, but no one in the
campaign offices had anything for Kirsten to do. She attended one of Hillary’s
events and told her how much she wanted to help. Hillary gave Kirsten her secretary’s
information, but when Kirsten contacted her, they still didn’t have work for
her to do. Kirsten went to numerous events held by Hillary Clinton until finally she told
her that no one in the office was giving her the ability to help out. So right
then and there, Hillary gave Kirsten a job: to host a breakfast get-together with
young women around the state who were like Kirsten, to talk to them about the
issues and enlist their help and their votes. After Hillary’s
election, Kirsten got in touch with Andrew Cuomo, who was serving as Secretary
of Housing. He told Kirsten that if she truly wanted to be in the political world
that she could not help from New York; she needed to move to Washington DC. So
she did. Hillary showed Kirsten one of her early lessons about being a good
representative: it’s hard to hear everyone’s voice at once, but always enlist
help when it’s offered. You can never get too much help and as a representative.
The best way to serve your people is to let them be involved. In a democracy
such as ours, citizens have the opportunity to do that.
It is
difficult to gain support for an election when you have little background in
politics. When Kirsten ran for the House of Representatives in the 20th
District, she was facing an area that had for years been Republican, and she
was a Democrat. When she decided to run, she reached out to a friend who was a
pollster, and he told her she had no chance of winning. He did not let her down easy or beat around the bush. He said that no matter
how much she campaigned or how much money she raised, there would always be too
many Republicans in the district. Even her own husband said he did not want to
support her initiative unless she could prove to him that she could win. Also,
Hillary Clinton was not sure that Kirsten should go for it. She questioned Kirsten
on what she would do about her husband and her family and her other commitments. In other words, when you decide to run for office, you might not have everyone
you want on your side. That is why as a representative, it is important to
reach out to the people and gain their respect. Candidates with little
political background have to rely on their voters and therefore be connected
with the people because that can be their biggest source of support.
Being a Congressperson can come
with a lot of negative politics. When Kirsten decided to run for office, Hillary
Clinton told her, “Campaigns can be nasty stuff. You need to have a thick skin.” When
you run for office, your entire life becomes public knowledge. Kirsten could
not hide her family from the public eye, nor could she hide her personal life.
Everything from her weight to her fashion to her marriage was looked at and
criticized. Opponents attacked all the men in her family: her dad, her brother,
and especially her husband. Her opponent, incumbent John Sweeney, ran numerous attacks ads against her that
led to a truly nasty campaign. Although, Kirsten accredits a lot of these
attack ads to her eventual win in late 2005. Attack ads are not uncommon;
representatives use them all the time. What does that say about the role of
being a representative? For us, it could say that being able to represent your voter’s
means having to attack other representatives. It says that representatives
cannot be in it to help each other, because helping others can mean the loss of
your own ability to help your constituents. There is room for hundreds of
representatives in the House, but only one in each district. Sweeney’s use of
attacks ads displays the idea that wanting to be a representative means using
whatever means necessary to ensure other people cannot do the same.
Kirsten
Gillibrand stresses that to be a good senator, you need to know what issues to
fight for, and this happens by listening to your constituents. She states, "You can drop stacks of paper on my
desk, but they won't be as effective as a single human being willing to speak
honestly about her life." She continues to say that, "Good ideas don't come from Washington. They
come from individuals willing to share their experiences and needs." For Kirsten, being a Congresswoman, means following the idea of a delegate-representative.
She fights for the issues that her constituents want her to fight for, not necessarily
what she personally wants. However, I think Kirsten is both a trustee and a delegate.
She listens to what the people of New York bring to her, and then she takes
those matters on and fights for them the way that she sees best fit. Kirsten
Gillibrand is proof that representatives do not have to be one or the other;
they can be both.
Being a woman in politics, and in any
business, is extremely difficult. Kirsten begins by talking about the stigma in
America that assumes women should either want to work small jobs while their
husbands make the big bucks or be stay-at-home moms. Women can be smart and empowered and work any job they want. However, when a
woman stands up and enters into the world of business or politics or science,
she is put down. Kirsten says, "It frustrates me how many people
automatically assume the worst about ambitious women. Too few people believe
that you can be ambitious, feminine, and a decent person at the same
time." For Kirsten, taking a stand on issues meant people looking negatively at her as
a woman, ignoring the issues themselves. On top of that, she found that being a
woman at all made her a target, regardless of the issues. A study she was shown
told her that “all comments about women, positive or negative, hurt what voters
think of them." What does this say about our nation? Women are still such a rarity in
government that they cannot become a part of the public eye in any way without
being put down.
As a woman
in politics, Kirsten found that if she was not being ignored because of her
gender, she was being critiqued on her looks. Unfortunately, much of the focus
on women is about how they look, not what they do. As an attorney, Kirsten was
told not to dress too fancy because no one would take her seriously. She
refused to wear anything other than a gray or navy pantsuit. She worried that
if she wore a skirt instead of pants, or red instead of black, that she would
put off the image of caring more about her style than her cases. This viewpoint did not change when she became a senator. She was constantly
criticized for changing her looks. Men in Congress would either comment on her
weight gains, or hit on her. She once received a comment from a male senator
saying, “You’re even pretty when you’re fat!” When she was up for reelection, her campaign manager told her, “To win the
election, you need to be pretty again.” He said it not because he thought she was unattractive, but because election statistics
show that politicians whose appearances change (looking heavier, older, more
tired) while in office do not get reelected. Kirsten explains the issue that
men are not held to this same standard. No woman in Congress would hit on a man
in Congress. No Congresswoman would tell a Congressman that he needed to bulk
up. Yet in our current politics, women are criticized for their looks more than
for their policies. Being a good representative should not depend on gender,
however in the American democracy, being able to be heard by other members of
Congress is much more difficult as a woman.
Kirsten’s ability to get into the
political world suggests that it is not necessarily about education, but about
connections. Kirsten went to UCLA Law not because she thought it was the best
school, but because she was following her current boyfriend. Though UCLA is a great school, we cannot be sure what type of education she
received there and how prepared she was for a role in the political world,
since she attended the school to be an attorney. Her ability to join politics
came from the fact that her mother was an attorney, her father a lobbyist, and
her grandmother the founder of the Albany Democratic Women’s Club. Of course they did not do the work for her. She had to educate herself, put
herself out there, join groups, listen to the news and speak up about it; but
she was able to do so because she had family friends in the business who gave
her those opportunities. During her race, she contacted every woman in politics
she had ever been introduced to, as well as judges, pollers, lobbyists, government
officials, and scholars. Kirsten’s book shows that she understands how Congress
works and is efficient at her job, but the process of her getting there
suggests that without connections, one may not stand a chance of being elected.
This says that in our democracy, hard work does not necessarily lead to
success, but knowing the right people does.
Kirsten’s explanation of the best
way to be an efficient representative is the simple phrase: keep your friends
close but your enemies closer. When Kirsten sought out to be a member of the House
of Representatives, she was in a district surrounded by Republicans. She knew
she was up for a fight, and it was not the democrats she needed to win over.
She consulted with polling specialists who told her that the democrats in the
district would vote democrat, but the Republicans might not necessarily vote
Republican. Therefore, it was her job to give them a reason to vote for her: "If you only talk to your supporters, you'll
never change anybody's minds." As a representative, not everyone you represent will agree with your policies.
I admire Kirsten’s outlook that she sees it as her job to meet and talk with
these people and make them understand why she does what she does.
Kirsten has no secrets, whether it
is her choice or not. As a politician, she cannot hide anything in her life.
Sweeney used this against her in their congressional race. However, Kirsten has
come to embrace it. After her senatorial election, she began posting her
schedule online for the public to see, figuring that “anybody could Google
anything these days.” Her staff worried that it would hurt her, since no other member of Congress did
that. However, Kirsten argues that people have the right to know what she is
doing, saying “If I can’t defend taking a meeting, then I shouldn’t be taking
it.” This is another thing I admire about her. She believes in herself enough to
feel comfortable letting her constituents know the details of her work. She
knows what she is doing is important, and can defend herself as so. She
understands that to be a good representative, she needs to prove that her constituents
can trust her; something that not many politicians do.
Kirsten offers three important
lessons in her book. Lesson 1: Don’t wait to tell your story. She finds that she is most fueled to fight for an issue when it was brought to
her by someone who is really passionate about it. She has had women with
low-paying jobs come to her about healthcare, or victims of rape come to her
about sexual assault in the military, or men diagnosed with diseases after
working at 9/11 sites. These people are passionate about the issues they bring
to Kirsten, and it is their passion that drives her to fight for them. She has
had major victories in all three of these issues. She was able to pass a 9/11
healthcare bill that provided healthcare to people who worked at 9/11 sites and
were either injured or diagnosed with diseases. In 2014 she got a majority vote in Congress towards a bill that would keep
sexual assault cases from being decided within military ranks. She is currently working on summer programs that will help low-income families
feed their children.
Believe others will care. That is
the second lesson she offers. She understands that there may be lots of cynics in Washington, but explains
that the role of being a representative is to care about your constituents
concerns, and there are genuine people in office who want to hear them. Kirsten
serves as an example of someone who cares, as she is constantly meeting with
people all over New York State to hear what they have to say, and then bringing
those issues to Congress (which can be seen by looking at her calendar). Her
third lesson is that persistence works. There are a lot of people in this country, so though representatives do want to
hear what you have to say, it is hard, but she encourages people to call,
email, visit, and do whatever they can, because it will pay off in the end.
Kirsten said it took her dozens of phone calls with Hillary Clinton to really
make progress on some important issues, but it worked. She uses this method
herself whenever she gets the chance to see President Obama. She explains, “I’ve
learned to use every second I get with the president wisely. If I have his ear,
I have an obligation to my constituents to advocate for them. Every time I know
I am going to see President Obama, I have a mission.” She sets an example for the American people- we are all representatives. We all
fight for our own issues and continue to bring them to others who represent us,
until we have enough people on board.
If I had no other knowledge of
politics, or of Congress and representation, I would think every member of
Congress has got it right, because I would assume this was the autobiography of
the average Congressperson. Kirsten is an exception to the rule. To me, she
seems to know exactly what she is doing. She is both a trustee and a delegate.
She voices the concerns that are brought to her. She reaches out to every politician
she can for help. She does not keep secrets. She balances work and family, and her
time between DC and New York. If I were to read her book without any prior
knowledge of the government, I would not know what a standout she is. However,
reading it and knowing the struggles that other candidates face, I can argue
that Kirsten Gillibrand has got it right. Ignoring policies and political
parties, though I agree with many of them, she is the perfect example of
someone who knows how to be a representative in the United States government. I
am inspired by the work that she does and the mindset in which she does it. She
says, "I'm a big believer in making your own luck- putting yourself in the
best possible position to take advantage of your circumstances." She makes me want to be more active in political issues and reach out to my
representatives. I agree with her when she says "There are women doing
amazing things and you should be one of them."I
believe that were anyone to read her book, they would feel the same way too.
