Daily Kossackian: "I don't get Hillary" (no, I didn't write this. I wish.)

[Anouka]

(I read this and knew I wanted to keep it. It articulates many things for me. I'm disappointed after NH, but reading this -- strangely enough -- is allowing me to make peace with the results of NH. And in making peace, move forward and accept the decisions of other free people who do not think like me. I make peace, because it makes me feel better about liking Obama in the first place, perhaps, and why I like him. Things will work out, is the feeling I get after reading this.)

http://www.dailykos.com/hotlist/add/2008/1/9/22838/88034/displaystory//">I don't get Hillary
by Its All So Goofy
Wed Jan 09, 2008 at 01:15:46 AM MST

I don't get Hillary's latest message. I don't get how a longtime Washington insider is an agent for "change." I don't get how one moment she wants to be on a level playing field with the boys and the next, she's playing up the Female card. I don't get how being First Lady counts as legislative experience.

For the record, let me say I'm tired of being told how Baby Boomer Women will automatically vote Hillary or we're all somehow 'gender traitors.' It's insulting. If women today have made so much progress, why does the media assume I should blindly vote for a woman just because we can use the same bathroom?

I'm a harsh critic of Hillary. I'm a Boomer Woman, and if she were the only candidate on the ballot, I just wouldn't vote. Thanks to some very progressive schools, family members, and current events of the time, I was raised full of feminist ideals - at a time when the Equal Rights Amendment was a downright scary notion for most Americans. I served in the US Marine Corps when there were barely 2,000 women in the entire Corps. And Hillary isn't my kind of Baby Boomer feminist.

My kind of feminist wouldn't have allowed herself to be lied to be George W. Bush. Were it not for his father, he'd be a remarkably unaccomplished man at his age.

My kind of feminist would not have stuck by a man with a chronic faithfulness problem. I liked Bill. I voted for him twice without hesitation. I wanted to believe him when he said with such conviction that he never had sex with That Woman. It forever diminished whatever respect and admiration I had for him.

I was taught that feminists don't put up with thate. That we were strong enough and smart enough to not be duped by powerful men, to be prepared to go it alone if we had to, and to not tolerate disrespect from any of the men in our lives. Unlike Hillary, I haven't. When I found my significant other had the makings of a chronic philanderer, he was gone. Good riddance. And like I do with my ex, I don't want Bill back either. Tar 'em all with the same brush, I say.

So here I am, a Baby Boomer Woman who likes Obama. Why? Well, in part, because it's The Experienced People who got us into a war, drove up the deficit, turned a blind eye to illegal surveillance, and decided habeas corpus was optional. Washington, Jefferson, and Adams ran a brand-new country with nothing to refer to but a few handwritten parchments. They did okay, so I'm willing to take a chance.

Also in the Obamas I see a strong couple that have always honored their commitments to each other. I like that. It says something about honor, trust, and personal integrity. I wondered why Hill stuck with Bill but now I see why, and it's just too opportunistic for my tastes. Like I said, the feminist ideals of the day taught us that we didn't need a man to be successful. Well, most of us anyway. Apparently some of us need a boost. I wonder if she hadn't been part of the Clinton regime, would she still have run for public office? And would she have been elected?

I'm also jaded. I don't want to relive the past - whether it's the 1960s or the 1990s. I don't want to fight old battles with a cast of has-beens and also-rans (DeLay, Gingrich, etc). The Clintons have an enemies list and a thirst to settle old scores, and I'd prefer they didn't use my vote to do it. I'm tired of fighting. I want a leader, not a fighter. Things don't get done when we have fighters trying to lead.

And I don't care if the Next President doesn't know where the bathrooms are on his/her/its first day, or what the his/her phone extension is. As long as the Next President knows how to pick his/her battles, can set aside old grudges to get things done, and can tell when he/she is being lied to, I'll settle for those. Those would be a really good start.

I'm all for voting for a woman. But not this woman. And if it must be so, then I'd rather be a traiter to my gender than to my values.

[Fredda Weinberg]

1. What kind of feminism doesn't allow you to be lied to? How silly

And what a stereotype ... hostile toward her ex. Sorry, but this indicative of an immature feminist character. I'm not even sure Goofy is female.

[Skittles]

3. to be lied to by GEORGE W. BUSH

HUGE difference

[MADem]

2. How incredibly unimpressive. Apparently, Clinton isn't, at the age of sixty, sufficiently "feminist"

It's ABSOLUTELY fine to prefer Obama--that's NOT the issue. At all.

But this "justification" is childish, and frankly, sucks. To say one wouldn't vote if she were the only candidate--what does that even mean? What sort of horseshit statement IS that?

Of course one wouldn't vote if she were the only candidate--that would be a dictatorship!! Unless the poster means the only democratic candidate on the ballot, in which case, the writer is a whining, excessively dramatic ass who doesn't understand how to 'write in' a candidate.

And I like spellcheck for dramatic rants, too--it's not 'traiter'--it's traitor!!!

:eyes:

[ShortnFiery]

4. Thanks Anouka, it's spot on.

Gee, I'd have congratulated the Hillary Supporters, IF ONLY, they did not get so darn nasty at "the mere whiff" of the media whores' prediction that Obama would be the front runner coming out of NH. :(

My resolve is steadfast. As a former woman Army Officer, I KNOW the hurt and fall-out of sexism, up close and personal. The mild mannered women who have worked in traditionally female jobs are being duped by HRC. On the one hand HRC wants to wear the rank of "her husband" whom she mentions at every given opportunity, BUT she gasps when a few ignorant goof balls yell "Iron my shirt!" Yeah, I wish such low level sexism were all that women in truly hard-core traditionally male careers had to tolerate. :crazy:

In other words, HRC has enjoyed "all the benefits" of the feminist movement without paying a price NOR exhibiting an ounce of humbleness.

IMNSHO HRC is the anti-feminist. She's the type of woman that I was NOT supporting as I was one of the first women to gut-out Airborne School in Fort Benning, GA. I can only hope, pray and continue to guide my young daughter to the conclusion that - the parasitic and duplicitous human being, HRC, is NOT a stellar feminine role model.

Beyond all the above, I must concede that both Hill and Bill, EACH, in their own right, are truly megalomaniac and petty "pieces of work." The years of privilege and power have spoiled the "Hill and Bill team" along with their "DLC Machine." IMO, it's long past time for both of them to take their sense of "arrogant entitlement" and mercifully fade-off OUR national political radar screen. :thumbsdown:

[Lugnut]

6. What ShortNFiery said

I'm kicking this topic for this post.

[DCKit]

16. Wow. Really. No Shit.

And all eloquent like.

Rec'd for the scary/smart ShortNFirey.

[Orsino]

5. "Playing the femme card"? This I don't get.

A "level" playing field, in which Clinton's sex doesn't work against her, still may allow her sex to work for her. Personally, I think her being a woman is a plus--perhaps this is the best thing about her as a candidate.

The first female front-runner in a presidential race is big news. She'd have to be a fool not to make the most of it, and we'd be foolish not to expect this.

[LostinVA]

7. NIce sexist rant about HRC staying with her husband

:eyes:

Women are sometimes their own worst enemies.

[ShortnFiery]

8. "Women are sometimes their own worst enemies."

What's sad is that many intelligent and thoughtful women are "being played" by this insincere anti-feminist.

When I was young, my women peers who slept with and/or married our superiors tended to get promoted or fewer additional duties than those of us who "played by the rules."

Therefore, nothing about HRC's life (wearing her husband's rank but insisting that she's a feminist) is truly pro-women's equality, especially with regard to her marriage of convenience. :thumbsdown:

Insincere and disingenuous? You got that right!

You're being played and I DO have disappointment that FAR TOO MANY women are being duped "as a group" with half truths and spin.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

9. It's Always Touching To Have Others Tell Us How To Conduct Our Private Lives

~

[Tess99]

10. A lot better than that racist Gloria Steinem "poor white hillary" drivel in the NY Times

[LostinVA]

11. If you didn't forget a sarcasm smiley, you should be ashamed

Steinem is certainly not a racist, nor was what she wrote "drivel." The woman has fought long and hard for equal rights for women.

[Tess99]

12. Angela Davis fought long and hard for my right. I have zero respect for Steinem

And yes, her editorial was pure racist drivel and certainly not out of character for her.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

13. Could You Please Post The Article And Point Out The Racist Parts?

Thank you in advance...

[Tess99]

14. Read it yourself

The whole thing is "poor pampered white women", the victims of the world BS, typical Steinem. I have zero respect for her or her girl Hillary.

I'm a black woman and see Steinem exactly for what she is. Studied her in college under a true womanist professor who opened my eyes, big time. I don't expect you to understand it, but as a young black woman, I can't get with Gloria. Not at all. And I never will. She's disgusting.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

15. African American Women Bear The Burden Of Sexism And Racism

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