What’s a politico to do? I am an ardent feminist, which most of you reading already know well enough. But I’m so saddened by the way women are talking about the Democratic nomination and how they feel they’ve been sent to the back of the bus. I don’t doubt that there was some sexism at play, in the media & elsewhere, for Hilary Clinton. It’d be a surprise if there weren’t. But that’s not a good enough reason not to vote. I mean, imagine the Suffragists! Imagine what they fought for, what they went through, & imagine explaining how you, as a woman, chose not to vote because your candidate didn’t get the nomination.
I couldn’t do it. I’m not happy about Obama’s “sweetie” remark at all. And it’s true that I just don’t like Hilary Clinton and never have; her ambition scares me. Not because it’s wrong for a woman to be ambitious – I so wish more were! – but because hers seems more about what it would mean to her to be president than being about what she could do for the country. And it scares me, when someone’s goals seem more about having something to prove than about accomplishing something.
If Ann Richards had run for president, I would have worked on her campaign and given up a year of my life to get her elected. And if Obama doesn’t win the nomination, I will work to get Hilary Clinton elected. Because the sad reality is that John McCain is not pro-woman: he’s not pro-choice, he voted against the Lily Ledbetter Act, and he actually had the nerve to suggest that women should get more education and training if they want to be paid as much as men.
So please, Clinton supporters: get out & support whoever the Democratic nominee is. I will.
i think it’s absurd to decide not to vote at all or to vote for mccain. why is voting for an old white dude better than voting for obama? how does that win women anything?
there’s enmity on both sides of this, i think. some obama supporters have used sexism to support their arguments; some hillary supporters have used racism to support their arguments. i had a knock-down drag-out fight with a friend who decided that he was going to vote for mccain, and honestly when we got down to it, i think his discomfort with obama was racial. i do. and i think that there are other hillary supporters who are uncomfortable with obama because he’s black.
i mean, jeez…let’s keep our eyes on the prize, for god’s sake. who do we want in the white house in november? that’s the most important question.
p.s. the times article does the same thing that many other articles i’ve read have done: said “women” when they mean “white women.” i feel like a broken record on this, but jeez, let’s get some specificity, NEW YORK TIMES.
another one of my favorite writing ladies strikes again: http://angryblackbitch.blogspot.com/2008/05/pondering-shit-not-being-addressed.html
Honestly, my respect for Hillary has significantly decreased the longer the process continues. Never mind that she hasn’t dropped out; that’s her decision. But the “hard working voters, white voters” comment was awful, intentional or not. And one comment I can’t forget, because I don’t see how it couldn’t have been deliberate, was the “Senator Obama isn’t a Muslim . . . so far as I know” comment. That caveat spelled the end of my admiration for Hillary.
Donna