I’m hardly a feminist but I’ve been aghast at the attacks Senator Clinton has been subject to. I’m not sure I can vote for obama come November.
If enough women stand up and don’t vote for Obama, maybe the Democratic Party will recognize that their largest voting bloc isn’t going to just stand by and be ignored any more. This is not just about soccer moms. Every woman was diminished by the treatment of Clinton during this election, and there was no outrage, not even a hint of recognition by those in power. It was made quite clear that racism was unacceptable, even if it was so vague that it had to be explained to people, while overt sexism was an acceptable method of attack. Every time someone dismissed “old school feminists”, I cringed, not because I am part of that group (I’m in my early 40’s), but because I know that I owe my job and my home to those women. They broke down the barriers. I just walked through. But there are barriers yet. I run into them every day. And we need to address this. I’m adding this to the reasons I’m not voting for Obama.
from donna darko
I will concede that the press and plenty of blogger types made explicitly sexist attacks on Hillary Clinton. But do you really think that Barack Obama himself made such attacks? From what I can determine, it would require a heck of a stretch (you'd have to really be looking for it) to say that Obama ran a sexist campaign against Clinton. And if you apply that standard to BOTH candidates (i.e. taking the worst possible spin on something), then Clinton would be far more vulnerable to charges of a racist campaign than Obama a sexist one. I don't choose to interpret Clinton's campaign as racist, any more than I interpret Obama's as sexist. I wish more people agreed with me.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you actually. I feel that Obama has made some sexist comments about Hillary, but whether he knew they were sexist or not.....I agree that aside from random comments the overall tone has not been sexist towards her, but has he done anything, said anything? HAs the Democratic party?
ReplyDeleteI know for me, and for many people who feel this way there are other reasons why we are not going to vote for Obama, and add to that the fact that we feel that the DNC (look at MI and FL and Donna Brazile ffs) has been pushing him onto us through the entire process. They wanted him and they wanted us to go away.
They want us to do what we have always done (well not me, but they have no way of knowing that), vote for them because they're better then the Republicans. But this time it's too much and women are noticing and they are pissed. All that misogyny, sometimes coming from the Obama camp and NOT ONE WORD from the Democrats, not one. I just read something at Taylor Marsh that says it well:
Oh, and about principle, Eagan is wrong. It's all about principle. Clinton's supporters don't understand why the woman with the big vote total is being pushed out. Brokering a nominee who refuses to count Michigan and Florida is not their idea of democracy from the Democratic Party, which they've supported for decades. Barack Obama stands for everything they've come to loathe this primary season, the sexism, his silence about it, his own complicity in it, the disrespect of Senator Clinton, the list is indelibly marked in each Clinton supporter's brain.