As an Edwards supporter, I am naturally disappointed that he suspended his campaign today. At the same time, I am heartened by people’s determination to continue promoting progressive values in our country – a struggle that was aided by JRE’s campaign and won’t stop now. As the great labor leader Joe Hill said on his deathbed, "Don’t Mourn, Organize."
At the same time, I am puzzled by the automatic shift some JRE supporters are making towards Obama, and ask you to consider three points:
1)Obama freely adopts right-wing talking points – such as that social security is in trouble, and that Ronald Reagan was an admirable president – to win voters. Moreover, he alone of the major democratic candidates promotes a non-universal health care solution. All this might be expedient, but ultimately he is doing the Right’s work for them. It is bad long term politics, and bad faith.
2)Obama’s conciliatory approach is the opposite of John Edwards’. Edwards recognizes that some of our opponents won’t give up their profit and privilege without a fight, and that many are quite willing to hold individuals and even our entire society hostage to their "right" to maximize profits at any cost. In my view you don’t bargain with people like this; you fight them. This doesn’t even count the overtly thuggish and dishonest behavior of modern Republican party (racist/sexist appeals, fake voter fraud scandals, gerrymandering, etc.). If you like the actions of the current conciliatory Democrats in Congress, then Obama might be your candidate. If not, you might consider Clinton.
3)Has any presidential candidate in history been subject to, not just the scrutiny but the abuse that Clinton has? Has any had to walk so thin a tightrope between being thought of as a bitch and a "wimpy" female?
Ordinary women in the business world know how hard this tightrope is to walk; imagine how much harder for Clinton.
I have heard good progressives say of her that they "just don’t like her." That is not a good enough reason for not supporting her, any more than "I would like to have a beer with him" was a good enough reason to vote for Bush. Moreover I would ask anyone having that kind of kneejerk negative reaction to Clinton to ask themselves whether it could be at least partly grounded in sexism. The answer, in such a pervasively sexist culture as ours, is almost certainly yes.
As progressives, we have an obligation to fight sexism.* So I encourage all the reflexively anti-Clinton candidates to take a fresh look at her and at Obama.
Voting for Obama is an honorable choice, but is it the best one? I don’t think so. He is a brilliant speaker, but we need more than words.
UPDATE: I deleted this phrase from the main text (which I had meant to delete before posting: "which I personally believe remains a much more pervasive evil than even racism." People who are saying it's wrong to measure two wrongs against each other are entirely right, and I'm sorry.
Hillary is author of The Lifelong Activist: How to Change the World Without Losing Your Way (Lantern Books, 2006). Read SusanG's review here.