Hillary Clinton Gets Stuff Done the Midwestern Way

[DonViejo]

September 17, 2016 6:34 am

Jamie Stiehm

As we know from prairie pioneer diaries, hardy Midwestern women could not get faint on a summer day. They had no time to admit weakness when there were quilts to sew or pies to bake for their little houses with wolves on the wind. And Mary just went blind.

Meet the Midwestern Protestant work ethic. Forget the Puritans. I mean a mighty force in the 2016 presidential election, but known to few. Hillary Clinton lives and breathes this strand of Americana, as a daughter of Illinois. Her friends and foes know it: She is a hard worker, harder than any man running for president.

“Sorry” was never a vocabulary word on the prairie. The Laura Ingalls Wilder books, based on her family, color Ma as a capable, practical woman who keeps her cool amid hardships. Laura became a schoolteacher in her teens and had to face down the big, bad boys. How plucky, crossing Main Street in a blizzard — because if you missed the other side, you were lost on the open prairie. There was no other choice to get home.

That’s the sturdy stuff Hillary Rodham was made of as a girl growing up in a Republican family in a Chicago suburb. That’s what made her fly around the world, setting a new record for meeting heads of states, as Secretary Clinton. Stoic Midwestern Protestants are not emotive. It’s hard for them to talk much about themselves in the Southern porch style. Unlike fellow Americans on the East and West Coasts, they don’t write urbane novels or make movies celebrating themselves. We the people need to read Clinton’s Midwestern character appropriately. Then we’ll all sleep better at night.

-snip-

http://www.nationalmemo.com/hillary-clinton-gets-stuff-done-the-midwestern-way/

[livetohike]

1. Great article! Thanks for posting this.

[Cracklin Charlie]

2. I read an interesting book once.

It was written using letters and diaries from actual pioneer women who settled in Kansas.

These were strong, proud women who worked their bodies to the bone to provide a home for their families. Some of the stories were uplifting, but many were heartbreaking. Apparently, many of them lived in fear that relatives from back east would show up, and find them hungry, poorly clothed, and lacking shoes.

Such a hard life. I was left amazed by their stories of perseverance.

[Democrats Ascendant]

3. Would LOVE to read that!

Any citation?

[Cracklin Charlie]

5. Been so long, but I will try.

Another anecdote:

Many of these folks lived in little more than holes in the ground surrounded by sod "bricks". There was a huge danger in becoming lost because the house couldn't be seen from a distance. Fires were kept burning, so that the smoke or flames could be seen by those trying to get home.

If you've ever been to Kansas, you will know how likely this scenario would be. Miles and miles of wide open spaces. These accounts made me happy that I live in these times, troubling as they may be.

I will look for the name of the book.

[Democrats Ascendant]

10. Thanks!

Whenever you can

[Hortensis]

12. Would like it too. I've read one similar but

not that one. It won't be surprising, but I've also read a book about the depression, and all the problems that came with it, that was endemic on the prairie in those days. Not all people, having given up their families, friends, churches, communities, traditions, heritages, to try to build a new life in the middle of nowhere were as suited to it as Laura's parents.

[Cracklin Charlie]

7. I would like to recommend...

Another book about pioneers. Mormon pioneers.

"Devil's Gate" tells the harrowing story of Mormon pioneers who walked (yes, walked!) from Iowa to Utah. Men, women and children walked, pushing handcarts that contained all their belongings. Many, many perished along the way, but some made it, and are now venerated as heroes.

Fascinating, well-researched, and well-written.

[Democrats Ascendant]

11. Yes, that is also a very inspiring history!

[Hortensis]

13. Just ordered it. Thanks, Cracklin Charlie.

[DURHAM D]

4. Yes to this -

Midwestern Protestant women are amazingly strong and resilient, more so than popular culture knows.

I have done a lot of genealogy work on my family, focusing on the women. On one side of my family we have been in the US since the early 1600s. On the other side we came from Germany in the early 1800s and then Volga Germans who came from Russia in the 1870s.

I admire and identify with my fore mothers from Germany and Russia, mostly Lutheran and later Methodist. Women from the lower midwest know the history of their sod-busting female ancestors.

We even pass down artifacts of their daily life. I don't have any pretty stuff like jewelry and would not want any but I do have my Great Great Grandmother's butter mold, canning jars, and several kitchen utensils from another G G Grandmother. I also have a collection of quilts from G and GG Grandmothers, indicators of how they spent their "spare" time making their families more comfortable.

My favorite thing hangs on my back fence. It is the pump handle from another G G Grandmother's water well from which she carried buckets of water to her vegetable garden, washing shed and the cook house. It is a reminder that they not only raised cows, pigs, and chickens and kept the family in clean clothes and bedding but raised vegetables, planted fruit trees, canned, dressed chickens and bathed the kids.

We know that we settled the prairie.

[Cracklin Charlie]

6. Where did your people settle?

The folks in the upper Midwest (Minnesota and Dakotas) must have been especially tough.

[Lucinda]

8. I've been working on my genealogy too, and am finding the stories of their lives

fascinating. My "heirlooms" are cast iron pans and hand work. I wouldn't trade them for anything!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

9. They also don't get 6 foot portraits made to stroke their egos. . . . . nt