I'm watching The Daily Show and they're talking about Bloggers and how blogging is much more mainstream etc. Got me thinking that there is so much more than just school that interests me and that I have feelings about, and while this is primarily a blog about going back to school it wouldn't be inappropriate to talk about this Democratic race and what I think about the first viable woman presidential candidate.
I didn't vote for her and I don't like her. This goes against every instinct I have about the concept of a woman in the Oval Office but I can't bring myself to support her bid.
I want there to be a woman president, not just in my lifetime but my grandmother's lifetime. It really struck me when I was watching President Ford's funeral, it was all old white men. I get the old part but it was ALL white men and I don't want my generation's political legacy to be represented by all of that... sameness.
We are a country of diversity and that should be represented in our government. I think our generation and that if my parents' have accomplished this in our elected representatives, but there are things we haven't reached yet, and someone who isn't a white man in the highest office is the biggest 'glass ceiling' in existence.
So why am I not for Hilliary? Her policies, well her policies before she went bat shit crazy pandering for votes, are pretty much in line with what I believe, she'd nominate left leaning judges for the Supreme Court which is very important to me, she's a successful and powerful woman making a viable bid for that ultimate glass ceiling, yet I want nothing to do with it.
There are two factors that when combined with the fact she's a woman prevent me from being able to support her candidacy. First is that she is where she is because of her husband. That offends me as a woman and a feminist, she didn't do this on her own merits but is running on her husband's accomplishments. I'm not saying she couldn't have accomplished everything she has all by herself, but she chose not to and for that reason alone I can't do the 'women power rah rah rah' thing.
The other issue is that she allowed her husband to publically humiliate her and then stayed with him. The only reason that I can fathom that she stayed was so she could run for president someday, and that is wrong. She said to every woman whose husband was unfaithful to them that they should just suck it up and smile. Hell I can't count the number of political wives that have stood next to their husbands in the press conferences as these husbands admit to cheating on them. What the hell??? This is not the way to show that women are equal to men, it shows that these women shut up and take what the man gives them, screw that noise.
There are women politicians whom I respect even if I don't agree with their politics simply because they are accomplishing things that a woman before hadn't. Nancy Pelosi, Condi Rice, Madelin Albright to name the ones in my most recent memory. All of these women have accomplished these very high positions without having to ride their husband's coattails. I wouldn't know Pelosi or Albright's husbands if I ran into them on the street and I don't believe Rice is married.
Now don't misunderstand me, I think a spouse can be a huge pivotal part of someone's success and deserves credit for their contributions. I also think that a spouse of someone successful can be successful in their own right. However Hilliary Clinton runs, in part, on the 'I am a woman look at me' and opes that up for scrutiny, and she doesn't pass mine.
Now, if we didn't have another option that I am completely enamored with I would be supporting Clinton like I did Kerry, lesser of two evils. It is very exciting to be able to vote for someone that I actually WANT to vote for, I've never been in that situation before.
I'm sure I've said this before on this blog, but I've always been a bit jealous of my parent's generation who had JFK, a politician that people were actually excited about. A politician who inspired them and the whole nation to go to the moon! I have finally found that kind of politician in Barack Obama.
The man isn't perfect, hell part of what he's campaign on is the fact he's not a Washington insider, and it shows with some of this 'newbie' mistakes. He's had misteps, as has his wife, and I'm sure there will be more. Oh as an aside I feel the same way Michelle does, it is the first time I've been proud of my country. I've been proud of people in my country before but never of my country as a whole.
Anyway Obama will learn how to express the fact that people in rural areas have turned to things they know they can win politically instead of what would really help them without actually accusing them of clinging to their 'guns and god' like it was a bad thing. Maybe he'll even learn to bowl, who knows, but he's run a fantastic campaign that isn't in debt and has invigorated people who usually don't pay attention to the political process. That alone could become one of his biggest accomplishments if he can make it stick, inspiring a whole generation of people to get involved would be a big accomplishment.
Something specific brought this on tonight. I was watching MSNBC, as I do pretty much every day, and the wonderful Rachel Maddow brought up the spouse issue. It got me thinking and I agree completely. Basically, I want the first woman president to be someone who got their on her own accomplishments and not her husband's.
