response
the stranger: “women in politics: same as it ever was“
i noticed a trend about six months ago, when the Obama race-baiting started to kick into gear. and i couldn’t help noticing that madame hills started it. more specifically, her over-zealous and over-compensating husband, who i was a huge fan of about….oh, six months ago. the arguments for singular mistreatment are being ignored by many, and no one wants to cover a story about how bad everyone is treating the senator from new york, because let’s face it, this mudslinging contest started because the “turn” that she “deserved” began to look less and less like a sure thing, and the hillary clinton campaign went virulently negative on one of the most promising and inspiring politicians that my generation has ever seen.
brett makes an excellent point in comment #5**: if a person was in fact not possessive of the qualities which others claim they have, then i suppose some piece of this argument would be more convincing. all the same, as a Black lesbian (do not read radical) feminist who was all set for another Clinton in the White House last May, i have come to realize a few things.
you can’t always expect things to work out the way you want to, but hoping that they work out for the best is our birthright. if you’d ever been victim of racial prejudice or been called a n—–r or been referred to as a “stupid c–t” because you voiced an opinion, it’s easy to become jaded and slide into bitterness. this post to me reeks of bitterness. as a matter of fact, almost every democrat that i have known or met in recent years has been bitter. that’s what eight years under an idiot will do to you. this bitterness is also indicative of every hillary clinton supporter i’ve met, and i don’t really understand that.
any reference to specific non-racialized coverage of obama must be on blogs that i don’t read. or in news wires that i don’t read. because, um, i’m pretty sure we just spend three months vetting obama’s pastor. who, last i checked, is NOT running for president. the speech he gave denouncing rev. wright made my heart ache for this man who’s never met me, because that inherently inexplicable relationship between a pastor and parishioner is hard for so many people to grasp. it’s truly like denouncing a member of your own family.
my friends and i are all about to graduate from college. most of circle is politically apathetic, but this democratic race going on for as long as it has put the idea of politics in their minds. i have been awestruck by how Barack Obama has aroused a near primordial passion for the potential greatness of this nation. i’ve had people who don’t like reading anything call me up and tell me about how excited they are after reading “the audacity of hope.”
my bottom line is this: this man is going to be our next president. you are faced with the option of continuing to exude enmity and contempt for the political process. or you can just have some damn hope. it’s not hokey, and i resent feminists who imply that i’ve betrayed something by supporting the first ever African-American president, over the first ever female president. i choose my friends based on who they are, not the color of their skin, or their genitalia, or their sexual preference. i think it’s shallow and juvenile to ignore substance in choosing your friends OR in choosing your president.
to be only concerned with making history is simply ludicrous…it will get made regardless.
**”There’s a fundamental flaw in your argument, which is that Ms. Clinton does, in fact, possess many of the wide array of negative character traits she’s accused of. It is sexist to automatically call a woman a bitch, without regard to whether she is one or not; but it is also possible to be a bitch. If you’re not willing to see how the pressure of the campaign has brought out the worst in her, that’s your problem, not Obama’s.
It is also ridiculous in the extreme to attribute to Obama the opinions of random nutjobs on the web. Not voting for him because some of his supporters are idiots — especially in the blogosphere, and the talking-head TV arena, where loudmouthed idiocy is frequently the only thing on offer — is really stupid.
If the difficulties of a woman in politics were as extreme as you pretend, Clinton would never have become a Senator. And the fact is, she DID become a Senator because she was married to a powerful man. But you have a double standard there — accusing a woman of riding her husband’s coattails is sexist EVEN IF ITS TRUE.”