A note on the primary...

[pat]

Sometime soon, I will finish my observations about my trip, but I wanted to comment about something someone said to me during the tail end of the Democratic campaign.

I mentioned that I was supporting Obama. She replied that true feminists support Clinton. (This pissed me off, but for a variety of reasons this was not a person I could be snippy with.)

"It is so important to get a woman in the office. It doesn't really matter who. Then after the glass ceiling is broken, *then* you can vote for this woman or that man without reference to gender."

I made non-commital noises, but what I wanted to say is...

Hell, no. I'm from the South, and I know the danger of that approach. You do that and you get anti-ERA, anti-abortion rights Senator Paula Hawkins from Florida (who fortunately was voted out after one term, after a campaign in which, among other things, she implied that Mexican-Americans were less patriotic than Cuban-Americans). You get that State Senator from Kansas who thinks the 19th Amendment should be repealed.

You get Katherine Harris.

Elected officials hold power. Never, ever forget that. This is not a game. Getting the best person -- regardless of gender -- into the office is what matters. Would, all things being equal, I vote for a woman over a man? Of course. But things are not -- and rarely are -- completely equal.

Do I think Clinton falls into the same class as the women mentioned above? No, definitely not. But there are good and sufficient reasons for me to support her opponent, at least by my standards, and I refuse to be a gender-based voter.

It all comes down to who will be the best President. I made my choice, and it's not her.

(Actually, it was John Edwards. Oh well.)

Comments

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

yeah. it totally pissed me off to have a white woman and a black man seriously running for president and to find myself rooting for the old white guy. doh.

[sisterfish125.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Edwards was my candidate too.
I was so disappointed when he withdrew from the race.

I was thrilled to have a woman running, but I just don't know that she's the right woman at the right time.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

I was a Clinton supporter, but I still wanted to take a Clue Bat to anyone who called a female Obama supporter a Gender Traitor.

Idiots.

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

Ditto, though in my case the white guy was Mike Gravel.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I could have written this post (I had more than one of those conversations myself) but you wrote it better. *nods in thorough agreement*

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

I think the time is right -- I just don't think I can support her, and I do not think she would be the best President. There are other women who would have been better candidates than she would have, I think -- starting with Nancy Pelosi.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

Yep... because aren't we all fighting for a chance to be evaluated on our skills and on our abilities, and in this case policies, and not our gender?

That said, I was appalled by the amount of sexism that ran rampant through media coverage of the race. Simply the tendency to refer to Clinton as "Hillary" while they referred to her opponents by their last names showed a lack of respect for her, and made me really unhappy with certain segments of the media. And that was the least of it.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

I can imagine that for women of color the conversation can get even trickier, with people daring to criticize your choices, regardless of whom you support.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

I absolutely agree. And don't think I didn't have a few things to say to certain people.