Going Forward

I am willing to sacrifice a little more of the important anonymity that comes from writing under a pseudonym to reveal the remarkable fact that I am a middle aged white man.  I am also Jewish, which qualifies me as a member of a picked on minority group and a lifetime Red Sox fan, which used to be another vehicle for being picked upon and a minority, but is not any longer.

What I am not is a woman, but I talk to many such people, including quite a few who are close to my age.  Many of them, but hardly all, have expressed a very strong feeling that they ought not to vote against Senator Clinton for reasons they sometimes have difficulty explaining or rationalizing, at least to me. This tug, with all of its implications for a glass ceiling which so many of them have bumped against, is real, and understandable and nothing to be questioned, especially for those of us who have decided that our preferred candidate in Barack Obama.

I might note that both my daughter, a thoughtful college senior, and my mother, whose actual age bears no resemblance to the way she acts, talks, thinks and lives, and who has had considerable experience in the glass ceiling department, both prefer Senator Obama as do many other women.  I have a second cousin, about a decade older than me, whose views almost mirror those which I have read here under the name Granny Doc.  (My cousin is a Granny and the daughter of a Doc, but not one herself).

So, mindful of Frank Rich’s admonitions about monoliths, this diary is not intended to sweep the views of all women under one rug.  I can say to those who are uncomfortable about voting against the first woman to seriously contend for the presidency that maybe it would be best if the first woman president was not the wife of a man who was previously elected to the same office.  It remains questionable, for instance, whether Lurleen Wallace’s brief governorship, really a cover for her husband to try to remain in control of the Alabama government beyond the two terms his states permitted any governor to serve, was truly a breakthrough for women.  Nonetheless, this observation is usually met with the kind of look that a truly stupid person gets when say, he is unable to figure out how to open a door, or start a car.

I continue to prefer Senator Obama, and the excitement about and dedication to solving our national problems that he brings to this race and the enthusiasm of so many young people that gives me hope for the future, that her nomination.  I posted my reasons for my vote in the New York primary and I stand by them, and, indeed, they have been re-enforced over the last few days.

I wrote then, however, and still believe, that Senator Clinton is both extremely well qualified to be president and has the chance, if she is elected, to be a great president.  Just as Senator Obama’s election would mean so much about what this country can be and is, at its core, so would Senator Clinton’s in a different way, but something else which would make me proud.  I do not agree, and in fact, am bothered, by the claims that she is a war monger, or a somehow less than honorable representative of the best this country can offer.  Ever since the Vietnam War turned a Wellesley Young Republican into a young woman campaigning for the election of Eugene McCarthy in 1968, she has stood with and for causes important to the well being a progress of our country and its citizens.  Those who call her names, or believe that her nomination represents something wrong with our party or country, ought to measure her contributions to their own before going much further down that road.

There are many things about her and her campaign which bother me.  I have never been that comfortable with her husband, either though I voted for him twice and believe that next to his successor, his presidency qualifies him for Mount Rushmore.  I hope very much that Senator Obama is our party’s nominee.

But if he is not, I will be proud to vote for Senator Clinton in November, not just because of its meaning to so many people, but because of who she is and what she has done and what I believe she can do to lead this country out of this very dark period.