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jack3566Sexism in Politics
Writing for Salon Magazine, Rebecca Traister expressed her frustration with Obama’s over-zealous supporters and their collective contempt for Clinton. Not all of the piece deals with the subtle sexism of the race, but Traister does spend a good portion of the article talking about it. Here’s a cutting:
Kristen Phillips, 28, and a master’s student at the University of New Orleans, said, “Sexism does not have to be 100 percent of what’s going on. It might not even be 80 percent. But give me a break. It’s there. Don’t say that it’s not there.” She went on, “You would hope that people would at least realize that that’s what they’re saying, but they can’t. It’s like they don’t have the vocabulary because they’re so adamantly not acknowledging that that’s going on. They’re busy patting themselves on the back for supporting a black man: Aren’t we cool?”
I think the quote is generally accurate. Sexism is not determining the race, but the fact that Hilary is a woman is effecting the race, and I’d say it has hurt her more than it has helped her. And I know for a fact that a lot of yuppies love the fact that they’re supporting a minority candidate. It makes Obama sexier, whereas Hilary appears tired and boring. This is not to say that I agree with the article, or even that particular section. But I do think Hilary’s candidacy has exposed a sexist streak that I thought we might be beyond.
Filed under: Politics
And race plays a piece in the other direction; the price one pays when one party has so emphasized Identity Politics for so long.
But then again, I’m one of those ‘flyover country’ bigots myself. Can’t the sight of extreme liberals and neo-liberals; semi-conservatives like McCain are hard enough to stomach.
Odd, this morning I was musing on how subtly racist the Clinton campaign has been.
Both the Red and Blue wings of the War Party have played identity politics, just in different ways. Look at how the “Nascar Dads” were waltzed into place by the Red team in 2004. “I rather have a beer with Bush than Kerry” - quite feasible, since it looks like dry drunk Georgie may have gone back to wet that year, just watching his public behavior, but probably not as much fun as they might think. The Red team establishment is composed of people who have no concept of the lives of most Americans. As rich as he is now, even Bill Gates had a time in his life when he had to worry about money, not so our Georgie. The Walker-Bush clan was astoundingly wealthy before they even came to America. Not only has Georgie never had to worry about money, no one in his family has had to worry about money for generations. No wonder he doesn’t understand the impact of his printing-press fiscal policy. I submit that a Nascar Dad in his McMansion subdivision has more in common with a Welfare Mom than with GWBush, which is why the Red team has worked so hard to drive wedge between those two. That’s one piece of it that John Edwards had right.
My, that was an incoherent rant, but no time to edit. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa - I’ll say a coupla-three Hail Marys on the way to work as penance.