Hillary Clinton and Sara Palin
***Political Post Warning***
Okay, so I told you before that when the Democratic Party was down to three (Clinton, Edwards, Obama) I was happy. I could get behind any of them. I'm not a PUMA (Party Unity My Ass). In fact I think I am the exact opposite. I was ready to back Hillary right up to the moment when I decided she willing to tear apart the party rather than loose the nomination.
And yet there is part of me that go to the Hillary-place and see the story of the Democratic primary as one in which an experienced woman who worked hard and deserved the promotion was pushed aside by the inexperienced golden boy. I've lived it. So many women have. I've gone to meetings where all the women are over-prepared and the men are just barely there -- and they are asked to be chair. I've seen men glide into positions that women don't get because the hard work that was required to get them where they are makes them unfeminine.
I can sympathize with the anger that of boomer women who see one of their own whom they admire get passed aside for a untried boy. I'm not one of those women, but I think I understand them.
And I am trying to find that place this morning. I wonder how they are reacting to McCain's announcement and Sara Palin's speech. Are they more attracted to McCain now that his vice president nominee is an untried girl? Is that all that better? Oh yeah, and she pro-life too! She governs with a baby on her hip. All those boomer women who wanted Hillary to be president, they didn't really care about reproductive rights, or education, or healthcare, or foreign policy.
Right, we justed wanted a girl.
I know there are conservative, pro-life women who were not enthusiastic about McCain who now will be. Fine.
But will the ardent Hillary supports like McCain for this? Or do they feel like I do? I know I am in a pissy mood right now. I've had a hard summer and a difficult morning, but I really want to say, "Congratulations Sara Palin. I'm sure you a wonderful person who has worked hard. I wish good things for you."
And to McCain? "F*ck you."
Like I said, really pissy mood.
Well, I am mad at all of them. I am mad at Obama for choosing an old white man who is not going to give us a new day, and I am mad at McCain for choosing an inexperienced woman to try and win over Hillary supporters and women in general, thinking that any vagina is vagina enough, and I'm mad at Sara Palin for being a pro-life conservative Republican who is going to let someone else raise her newborn son with Down Sydrome while she runs around trying to do a job she's not qualified for.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'm just pissy too. But I don't think so.
I'm insulted that McCain thinks women are that stupid. Like my pro-choice, ERA-bracelet wearing, second-wave feminist, hardcore Hilary supporter is going to be taken in by this shit. Like she is THAT stupid.
ReplyDeleteI was disgusted, too. McCain must think my vagina has an IQ of 4.
ReplyDeleteAnd you know he is sooo old he is going to die and so he chose the most inexperienced cadidate he could find and I am sure t hat just makes me feel so confident. Weren't there any other Republican women he could have tapped. I so get the scenario, choose the young inexperienced one so that you can manipulate and dominate her. i hope she is not just a pretty face, but that seems to be all McCain thinks we women need. AARRGGHHH!!
ReplyDeleteNot only that I hear she is got some issues with truth and doing the right thing and is under investigation for trying to get her brother in law fired during a messy divorce from her sister. Such a shining example of family values.
ReplyDeleteCall me naive, but isn't it a bit unfair to automatically think that Palin only got the pick because she is a woman? She does give McCain what he needs to enthuse his base: a boost with prolifers, energy policy, the only executive experience on either ticket, and she plain makes him more interesting. She's hugely popular at home, her pro-gun, Christian image will go a long way in the south, and she has built her career as a reform maverick, not tied to the GOP machine. I'm not saying all this is more than image or that it should win over would-be Hillary voters, because I think Palin is more about shoring up the GOP base. And McCain could be forgiven for believing that youth and relative inexperience aren't disqualifiers in this particular race.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, it's not about Hillary - isn't that assumption a bit sexist?
I have come to believe that Palin is more about energizing the base than trying to appeal to any sincere Hillary Clinton supporters.
ReplyDeleteI continue to believe that she would not have been picked if she wasn't a woman, and I don't think that McCain can be "forgiven" for believing that youth and inexperience are disqualifiers when he is the one who has been saying that they are.