In the dome of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., there is a painting called The Apotheosis of George Washington. The significance of this work of art cannot be underestimated. At the very least it represents a tribute to Washington for denying himself the crown and opting instead to become a chief executive officer of our newly incorporated USA. He would be the President, and he would serve a restricted term, to be replaced in an institutionalized election that ensured a continually revolving wheel of democratic and republican virtue. After all, a true republic is at its heart a democratic institution. Thus, the US bypassed the fate of being enslaved to the whims of a demonic monarch or dictator, and simultaneously ushered in the contemporary world of modern nation-states with constitutions and human rights, and so on and so forth. Many people do not realize that before America existed, master-slave relations were the norm everywhere in the world since the dawn of time. The first time in human history in which a new country and society had been officially christened as a constitutional republic in which all people had been created equal was in the USA – that is the proud history, and the true significance of America in the community of nations in contemporary history.

About the Already-Accomplished Apotheosis of Hillary Clinton

Why would I connect Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the presidency to that painting of George Washington? Because this campaign has gone where no campaign has gone before. In the past, the presidential campaign would take place, and the day after the election, everyone would dust themselves off, pick themselves up from the floor, or get themselves down from their high horse, and just carry on. That is not going to happen this time. So much has transpired in this campaign alone that the election itself and the subsequent four-year term of the presidency will seem anti-climactic by comparison. Usually we wait for the election day to anoint the next President who will carry the mantle of a democratic republic, and who will brush shoulders with the aura of Washington, if only to borrow Washington’s halo for a short time in history. But, not this time.

It was always assumed that the election of a woman for President would signal that we had officially become equalized. This is now a tattered myth at best. The truth is that we will never acknowledge ourselves to have become fully equalized. Instead, 500 years from now, every faction of possible identity-politics will have formed and announced that it is not going to take it anymore. And once they become politically awakened, they never fall back asleep – they just become moldy and outdated at some point in the future. Hillary Clinton does not need to become elected President to prove that we have an equal opportunity society for women and men.

On the level of society, women will never claim they have achieved equality because that would be the same as relinquishing their new-found political power just for being women. On the level of the individual, Hillary Clinton is quite obviously talented enough to be the President of the US and whether or not she is elected has nothing to do with that. We all know that in the US a black man or a white woman could be elected as President and there is no longer any reason to believe that most white people would rather lynch a woman or a black man than elect them President.

The point is that we all know very well that we are capable of electing almost anyone for President. It is only the politicians that will never tire of claiming their day in the sun as the first identity-politics candidate of their kind … one day someone will try to claim to be the first lesbian Samoan-American Presidential candidate in history, but Hillary Clinton has already elevated herself above this level of identity-politics. Everyone knows that she has the steely-eyed, psychopathic, intestinal fortitude of a Hannibal Lector. Hillary Clinton routinely looks danger in the eye, and smiles, as if she were greeting Mary with her little lamb whose fleece was white as snow.

 (Magnificent, charming smile) Well, that’s not what I heard Mr. Comey say, Chris.

Hillary is tough as nails. She may be stiff, snobby, staged, and unlikable, but that only means that what she consistently represents is someone who is utterly professional, impeccably calculating, brilliantly organized, and just narcissistic enough to maintain perfect self-awareness of her right to be there, in that moment, no matter what kind of hell is breaking loose all around her.

Any merely mortal human - male or female - could never hope to have that kind of reserve of conviction and the prowess of vision to be able to consistently chisel themselves up to the next level of public success against all odds, again and again. The most incredible thing about Hillary Clinton is that she has succeeded to this point, to coming within a silly millimeter of the presidency, in spite of being her own worst enemy. She is indefatigable and that is a great quality to have in a President.

Hillary Clinton no longer has anything to prove. What could she do to prove she is more than she is right now? Her very survival and the strength of her campaign have legitimated her right to flaunt that Mona Lisa smile in debates, or to act haughty and self-righteous when she appears on stage for rallies - like Elvis greeting throngs of admiring women, only they are not throngs of admiring women. They are just little people who each possess one tiny little portion of little people magic in their hands: they can vote.

Could you expect any male presidential candidate to ever out-do Hillary Clinton? We should hope not. Who could have amassed more money in their spouse’s – the ex-President's – foundation? Could any man be ready to double-dip on another bid to install the package deal of husband-wife that could possibly occupy the White House more times than any single person ever could? Could any man be more entrenched in the establishment power base of political power in Washington D.C. and media power in New York City? Clinton has soared to the top of the food chain in American politics and she has done it in spades in a way that no man ever has.

Hillary Clinton has already been apotheosized by the American people because no other woman ever got so close to being officially apotheosized, and the difference is now so close that it matters not. In reality, Hillary Clinton has already been apotheosized, she is already larger than life, she is already in the history books forever, and there is precious little that anyone expects her to do from here on out that would glorify, change, or improve her image - win or lose. That is how strange and different this presidential campaign has been. It is as if the whole mess has already been slugged out in social media, and each of us prides ourselves in already knowing all we need to know, no matter what the outcome of the election is.

Likewise, we will next time we take a look at the already-accomplished resurrection of one Donald. J. Trump.

-End of Part 1 of 2-