The latest in the disgusting story of longtime racist Geraldine Ferraro:
"Sexism is a bigger problem," Ferraro argued. "It's OK to be sexist in some people's minds. It's not OK to be racist."
Hey, former Congresswoman Ferraro, I've got a message for you from the 21st Century: it's not OK to be sexist OR racist. It's not OK to create a hierarchy of persecution and apply it to Democratic politics. It's not OK to imply, as you've seemed to be implying in recent days, that because women supposedly have it harder, that Hillary Clinton should get an easier path or that it's OK to denigrate Barack Obama's achievements by characterizing them as arising from advantages supposedly afforded to African-Americans.
There's also this reaction from Clinton campaign manager Maggie Williams:
Williams’s statement includes this reaction from Clinton: "I do not agree with that and you know it’s regrettable that any of our supporters on both sides say things that veer off into the personal. We ought to keep this focused on the issues. That’s what this campaign should be about," she said today. Williams goes one step further and suggests that Obama’s campaign is the one breaking the rules. "Sen. Obama’s campaign staff seems to have forgotten his pledge. We have not," Williams said, "And, we reject these false, personal and politically calculated attacks on the eve of a primary."
When John Edwards and the other candidates were still in the race, legitimate questions raised about Hillary Clinton were characterized by her campaign as examples of the male candidates "ganging up" on Clinton, as if she should be measured by different rules because she was a woman. Since these arguments were advanced on behalf of the same person who was claiming that only she was experienced enough and tough enough to be commander in chief, reporters and voters couldn't be convinced to see her as the tender woman under assault from the testosterone-addled brutes. The Clinton campaign eventually abandoned that calumny.
Ferraro is reprising the same tactic, but with a twist. She's fusing the politics of gender bias with a resentment of racial integration that glides imperceptibly past many people but like a dog whistle delivers its message on a frequency that many older white voters hear acutely. It's not legitimate for Barack Obama to question or challenge Hillary Clinton, implies Ferraro, not only because Hillary is a woman and women take too much crap from men, but also—and this is crucial—because Barack Obama is a Black guy, and the elites in their nice homes with their fancy degrees are once again taking something away from "us" that we worked hard to earn and they're giving it away on a silver platter to some young Black guy.
Ferraro is playing a feminist George Wallace. Wallace appealed to insecure whites who felt that their struggles and hard work entitled them to live in all white neighborhoods, and elitist judges shouldn't be able to force them to accept black neighbors and integrated schools. Ferraro is trying to appeal to insecure white women who believe they've put in their time and now they're entitled to get their woman president, and nobody should be allowed to take away their presidency and give it to the Black guy who hasn't earned it.
When Obama rejects racist garbage put forth by a Clintonite, the Clinton campaign attacks Obama for supposedly making the campaign personal and nasty. The tender woman line didn't work by itself. But the tender woman under assault from the Black man, that hadn't yet been tried, so Geraldine Ferraro is giving it a whirl, and Hillary Clinton's response is a tepid "it's regrettable" paired with the false claim that "both sides" are doing it.
We Democrats--with the evident exception of Geraldine Ferraro and possibly some members of the Clinton braintrust--are better than this. We have evolved to the point where a woman and an African American are competing for our Presidential nomination. I'm happy to be supporting the candidate who is likely to stave off a tough challenge from a formidable rival and become our Presidential nominee. Geraldine Ferraro is angry because she believes the woman she supports is entitled to the nomination but her Black rival is not.
I want the person I believe is our best candidate to earn our nomination. Geraldine Ferraro wants the woman to get the nomination instead of the Black guy. Hillary Clinton says Ferraro's comments are regrettable. I think Clinton should declare that the attitudes and beliefs underlying Ferraro's comments are repugnant.
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