I've been reading some of the comments on a recently recommended diary here and I've been left feeling more frustrated than ever about Hillary Clinton's run for presidency. The diary was a lovely entry about how much the person respected and admired Hillary Clinton, and was inspired by her. I'm happy for the diarist, and for any young woman who has been inspired by Clinton, but I don't think, like many of the comments I read, that she's been able to 'blaze a trail' at all....
I think she's been blazed by the process. How tempting is it going to be for any self-respecting woman to put herself out there for the mainstream media to vilify like they did Hillary?
There has been an unrelenting onslaught of sexist, demeaning comments by MAINSTREAM 'anchors' and pundits (see Chris Matthews) and sadly, also by fellow democrats the entire time she's been running. She's been called screechy, she's been called a bitch (while the republican candidate laughed at the remark), and its been repeated countless times on Dailykos, (a ‘democratic’ blog); yes, yes, sometimes the comment is ‘hide-rated’, but its often also recommended. She’s the big, bad ‘incumbent’ but she’s ALWAYS either ‘barely beating’ Obama when she wins states, or she’s ‘being trounced’ by him when she loses states. Yes, she’s been crowned as the imaginary ‘front-runner’ by the media, the narrative plays out so much better if you can create a ‘Goliath’ to take a huge, dramatic fall. But Obama with the huge cheering crowds, mammoth fund-raising, countless endorsements by ‘establishment democrats’ was the underdog?? I guess I had the concept of underdog wrong all these years, I always thought the underdog was the one who got the short end of the stick in things like media coverage, and framing of the story... Huh, go figure....
I read a comment that stated: "no other woman has come as close as Hillary to getting a major party nomination" - that's a good thing, I think? But I ask, could any woman, GET any further? Because it seems to me, that this is as far as anyone this gleefully demonized could or will ever get. But "wait wait WAIT", (I’m sure I’m going to hear): "she gets this kind of disdain because of her political stances!" Oh right. It couldn’t possibly have anything to do with her being a woman, because she and Obama differ so drastically in voting records, and policy proposals right? Her voting record MUST be so CENTER-left versus his, right? Guess again. And no, I’m not going to fill this entry with a flurry of links to her voting record and her policy proposals, because those of you who have so steadfastly decided she’s the devil-incarnate, a race-baiter, or Bush-lite won’t bother to read any of it anyway. Those of you who ARE familiar with her voting record, and her achievements already know exactly where to find such information, and you've probably been more than civil about her anyway.
I wrote this pseudo-rant because I disagree with people who call her attempt 'trail blazing', and that her run has made it easier for women to run in the future. But how could it have been a bad thing- look at all the ‘hoorays’ she’s being given as her consolation prize, despite having lost yet, despite being INCREDIBLY close in delegate numbers and despite showing how LARGE a support base she still has in the remaining states- She’s going to lose, but what a wonderful attempt. Right?
These kinds of comments, these 'nice try' comments are platitudes, platitudes along the same lines as women have been getting for YEARS, a pat on the head, and a "thanks for coming out, champ", while doing nothing to condemn the very reasons that the candidate was destined to FAIL. Obama got no real criticism from the media till they felt Hillary was 'safely stowed away'. She was villified for 'slinging mud' when she asked him to lay out his policy proposals months ago, but now, that he's been all but crowned, these sorts of questions are important for 'vetting' him, and getting him prepared to battle McCain. All the while Hillary was hammered for non-starters "she broke down" (when she had a hint of extra moisture in her eyes), "she's so uninspiring" when she carefully lays out policy in her speeches. "She’s faking it" when she DID show emotion, laughter, (recall the cackle). Deliberate mischaracterizations of her intentions with her past votes (she voted to slaughter Iraqi's, she authorized a war), NOT as she, and John Kerry and John Edwards have repeatedly stated, to give the president some sort of leverage over Saddam Hussein at the time. To have what they intended to be the THREAT of use of force in order to persuade Hussein to let weapons inspectors continue their work. (because lets all conveniently forget that he had tossed weapons inspectors out of his country before and lets forget that he was capable of transgressions like the whole invasion of Kuwait thing). And lets just ignore COMPLETELY Bush's role in this, no, HILLARY was the reason this war happened, it had nothing to do with Bush's deliberate misrepresentation of the intelligence. Nevermind Obama has stated he doesn't know HOW he would have voted that day himself, and lets all just ignore the fact that the British supported the intelligence too. Lets just let Hillary carry that albatross around her neck alone.
While Obama's explanations of his 'controversial votes'/statements are always FINE- "yes we know that's what he voted, but that's not what he meant" -what he meant when he voted AGAINST a cap on the amount of interest credit card companies could charge was REALLY that he thought that cap was too HIGH... so no cap at ALL, was in PROTEST of their audacity... uh, yeah....... etc etc"...
I think the only 'significant' matter from here on out, is that its been firmly re-established that a female candidate will NOT get a fair shake- the coverage of her campaign will be slanted- when she's WINNING states - her opponent will be 'barely losing' when she loses states, her opponent will be TROUNCING her. Hillary couldn't win the media over, but I hope she DOES win this race. I hope that despite all of this, she DOES WIN, because that, would truly be inspiring. For once, to not have to hear, after months and months of arrogant, dismissive attitudes "you’re likeable enough, Hillary", to be victorious DESPITE it all. Hillary Clinton inspires me, the way her campaign has been characterized has not.
crossposted at MyDD