That's right - more from Hillary's wild-ass supporters.

Today, I was fortunate enough to click over to my daily publication of choice, The Washington Post, and what do I see on the website's front page but an article delineating the "potential embarrassment" that is the battle between Democrats and "The Hillary Supporters."

Maybe, instead of getting all riled up at work over the language that the media chooses to use in its discussion of anything-related-to-Hillary-Clinton, I should start to accept the cognitive framing that they would like to apply to her and her militant supporters.

Maybe I should be okay with the fact that the media now wants to use Hillary Clinton's candidacy to stir up drama where it doesn't exist - by suggesting that her supporters are refusing to acknowledge that she lost. We are so ARDENT in our support that we didn't cry when she declared her race over, we haven't acknowledged that Barack Obama is the candidate we'll be voting for in the general election - instead, we're all going to Denver carrying posters that say "Hillary for President."

Maybe it's just me feeling particularly FEMALE this morning (using that term to stand in for, you know, bitchy or loud), but who decided that us Hillary supporters are going to cause upheaval at the convention?

Is it just me, or does that sound pretty-fucking-ridiculous? So because I'm a Hillary supporter, I want to go cause ruckus at the Democratic National Convention and show a lack of support for Barack Obama? Because I support Hillary Clinton, I want to go into the convention and "embarrass" the hell out of everyone there by showing signs of disunion?

Am I the only person that thinks that all that would stand to do is make me look like an idiot? But maybe the news would cover me looking like a total idiot! And then, I can be the face of Hillary supporters everywhere - every last one of us.

So just because someone asks me today how I feel about the election, and I tell them that I supported Hillary Clinton first, am I somehow less of a Barack Obama supporter? If I intend to vote for him on election day and question those who do not, then count me amongst his supporters. Do not question it.

And do not suggest that, just because I'm a woman and I supportED Hillary Clinton's campaign for President, that I'm not interested in seeing Barack Obama get elected as our next president.

Goodbye to all that. Disgusted, is how I feel, yet again. Instead of attending the DNC, I think I'll go stand outside CNN offices and write up posters declaring my disgust for the media and how it portrays us unruly, not-helpful, homogeneous Hillary supporters.

Is it so bad to think that Hillary could still be picked as VP?

Call me naive... stupid... interested in a greater good for this country than perhaps the average person can even begin to imagine...

Is it so wrong to think that there still stands a chance that Barack Obama would choose Hillary Clinton as his running mate? Is it so wrong to think that a combination of the two candidates who have turned out more primary-voters than all of history would be a winning one? That two people who were once formidable opponents could run together - because they have actually agreed on the issues all along? They are both liberal candidates? That she strengthens his stance on healthcare?

Is it so wrong to think that having Hillary as a running mate might really encourage Hillary's camp to swing into action for Obama's campaign?

You can call me naive - but you can also call me rather intuitive. I feel like Barack Obama might understand what is in his best interest... and choose Hillary after all.

And if/when he doesn't, I will be at the bar crying into my Blue Moon. But until that time, I'm going with my gut. I think Barack Obama could pick Hillary as his VP.

Maybe it's just the fact that I read this Associated Press article today. Whatevskies.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080620/ap_on_el_pr/obama_clinton

Letter to the Editor

I wrote this response to yesterday's article, Media Charged with Sexism. I think it was a little militant for the NYT, but it made me feel better to write it:

On behalf of Clinton supporters and feminists in this country, I'd like to thank you for speaking our collective minds: cable commentators aren't so subtle with their sexism.

However, it's impossible to not be angered by this piece simultaneously. Should I ignore the very deliberate delay of its publication? Why address the issue now, and not when MSNBC compared Chelsea to a prostitute back in February? In fact, the very political timing of this article undermines its message.

It's convenient to address this issue now, at the end of Clinton's campaign. You got your male candidate, mass media. Congratulations.

Yet acknowledging sexist tactics after the fact will not garner my vote, Chairman Dean. I haven't been baking pies and making babies for the past eighteen months, I've been stewing silently while watching cable commentators spew sexism. Don't patronize me.

Hindsight's 20-20

The New York Times published this article today (6/13/08) on the sexist commentary surrounding Hillary's campaign. Isn't it convenient to point this out AFTER her campaign is over? Haven't we been saying this all along?

It's difficult to not be annoyed, and yet agree at the same time. Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews, Wolf Blitzer... you should be ashamed of yourselves. Hopefully your daughters weren't watching.

The Speech.

Here's the video (you may just see some of us on there as well!):



And an excerpt (on Hillary's campaign as a woman):

To those who are disappointed that we couldn’t go all the way – especially the young people who put so much into this campaign – it would break my heart if, in falling short of my goal, I in any way discouraged any of you from pursuing yours. Always aim high, work hard, and care deeply about what you believe in. When you stumble, keep faith. When you’re knocked down, get right back up. And never listen to anyone who says you can’t or shouldn’t go on.

As we gather here today in this historic magnificent building, the 50th woman to leave this Earth is orbiting overhead. If we can blast 50 women into space, we will someday launch a woman into the White House.

Although we weren’t able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it’s got about 18 million cracks in it. And the light is shining through like never before, filling us all with the hope and the sure knowledge that the path will be a little easier next time. That has always been the history of progress in America.

...

When that day arrives and a woman takes the oath of office as our President, we will all stand taller, proud of the values of our nation, proud that every little girl can dream and that her dreams can come true in America. And all of you will know that because of your passion and hard work you helped pave the way for that day.

In the heat of the moment.

People should not underestimate the scope and impact of this disgrace. If we are supposed to bow down and support Mr. Obama, then he must first explain to me why Hillary should not be his running mate given the following circumstances: Barack Obama finished first as a result of the most unbelievable political trickery: caucuses and super-delegates… Without those stupid caucuses, Barack would have been trounced in the primaries. Hillary Clinton won all the important states and the popular vote. Can you think of a more qualified VP candidate than Hillary?

Hillary is willing to work as a VP for Barack. Explain to me why she does not “deserve” the VP position.

I will vote for the democratic ticket if Hillary is the VP. If not, I will not vote at all. I will never vote for a Republican, and I am outraged by the treatment of Hillary Clinton. I will not be told to suck it up. If they want us Hillary folks to be team players, then they should be team players as well. This is not a one way street. I am entitled to hold a grudge, and I am quite good at it. I am sick of people with money, the ignorance of the US voting public (George W Bush?), and the incompetence of the Democratic Party (primary rules, election strategy, etc.) dictating who our president will be.

This sucks big-time. I want the best candidate. Not sloppy seconds.

- The Couch Critics, Washington, DC

I've always been inpsired by the early feminist movement...

I've always been inspired by the early feminist movement; it was something that I wished I could have been part of. I was jealous of my mother's generation, my professors', of clear battles to be fought. I heard their complaints that they felt abandoned by my generation, the generation of "i'm not a feminist, but", the girls who were too busy with their lives, their self-made lives, the lives they felt they owed no one but themselves for. I saw that guiltless attitude around me for the gift it was, but I always felt that responsibility. I feel oddly abandoned once again, now, but by that generation, the one that I thought had steeled me. My mother and my godmother are slowly distancing themselves from Hillary, and I feel betrayed. I feel surprised at this betrayal, and shocked by the depth of my hurt. I feel, somehow, that they aren't living up to their end of the bargain. They promised me role models, and they have been. But in this action I feel that they are saying to me that there is an end. That maybe life has been hard. That maybe they feel a little wore down. That maybe there is this new energy out there, this man and all that that entails, and I can recognize that small surrender because I've felt it before, felt its pull. But what my mother meant to me today when she told me she had switched sides was that it had been silly, to think that she could get away with it. That Hillary could get away with it. That I could get away with it.

- Alix E., Boston, MA

Call and Response

Call: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/03/24/ST2008032400084.html

Response: I am an angry feminist. It's a recent development in my feminism, until a couple of months ago, I'd likely claim that I was a plain old, garden-variety feminist. But my buttons have been pushed, and I'm angry.

I'm angered by last week's post article A Vote of Allegiance, which painted us white feminists (although, I've never heard of anyone draw racial distinctions until then) as opponents of the black community. Alice Thomas, Howard University Law Professor, is quoted as saying, "To take a position opposite Barack is to take a position opposite my family and our community." Our community: the black one. Meaning that I, as a Hillary supporter, am implicitly racist.

Despite my low-paying job and my youth, which both may likely disqualify me from having a valued opinion in the public eye, I refuse to sit idly by and dignify her statements. It's seemingly luxurious, and ludicrious, for her to point fingers at us Hillary supporters, and cast us as enemies in the broader discourse. And I'm angered that she'd question my support of the black community. I've been, and remain, an ardent, lifelong supporter of the "community"—much moreso than the average joe caucasian on the Barack Obama bandwagon.

I'm angry at those who dismiss my support of Hillary Clinton and call me a whiner (case in point, Professor Arica Coleman: "I wish people would stick to the issues, and the ultra-feminists would stop crying wolf because their girl is not winning.") I'm angry that I am supposed to deny my gender, something fundamental to my being and self-understanding, but support African American identification with Barack as a black man (which, I do support in case you are wondering).

I'm angry that women like Coleman call Hillary supporters Ultra Feminists, to paint us as left wing man hating nutcases. We've managed to shake the term feminazi, mostly because people don't want to appear insensitive to the plight of holocaust victims and their families, not because they don't actually view us feminists as angry and militant. Last time I checked, feminism isn't like gender, there's no spectrum: you're either on board, or your not.

I'm angry that my friends, strong college-educated, independent women have been silenced and discouraged by the public response to Hillary Clinton.

- Tina P., Washington, DC

Two Haikus

hillary clinton
a total inspiration
bitch? still the new black

barack obama
not as strong as hillary
i'll still vote for you

-Katie S., Washington, DC

One old, long journal entry - for a little inspiration.

March 6, 2008
9:45 PM

On this night, I am giving myself permission to be something other than my usual sarcastic, laid-back self. Well, on paper anyway.

This evening, my friend Allie took me to a reading by her favorite author, Anne Lamott. I have been to a number of genuinely interesting readings over the past couple of weeks, courtesy of my sister and her Pen Faulkner program-planning career, so I figured I'd test this one out. Allie has told me about Lamott’s books many times before: they are non-fiction bestsellers, centered upon self-reflection and discovery of faith. She is a feminist, left-wing, born-again Christian. Her reading was, in short, spectacular. Her voice was steady, slightly raspy, soothing, and her personal anecdotes on President Bush were, in fact, very funny. Not exactly what I had expected walking into Olsson’s Books.

Yet it was Lamott’s statement on anger – a burgeoning need for women to allow ourselves to have and express our anger over the current political climate – that really struck a chord. Not only do I feel angry about the comments that surround Hillary Clinton’s candidacy; I am a bit hurt. I’m not sure that I’ve allowed myself to really feel that way until now.

There are people from all walks of life who are willing to say fairly off-putting things about Hillary. They mask true feelings by suggesting that she is an uninteresting candidate; that she is a simple “Mrs. Bill Clinton” who cannot bring together individuals previously uninvolved in the political game. Have you spoken to the caretaker of a 79 year old bed-ridden woman, who asks how to obtain an absentee ballot for her patient to cast a vote for the first time in 20 years? I did so yesterday – she wanted to vote for Hillary.

Tomorrow, in honor of Anne Lamott I will fight the feeling that I get to suppress my anger when someone gags at the thought that “illegal aliens” might obtain a more permanent place in our society, or exclaims that fat people need to get their act together. I will allow myself to be angry at negative comments about Hillary's fashion-sense, and at the thoughts that anything accomplished by a woman will always be gender-marked as “Best Women’s Literature, Art, Athlete," etc. How about, “Best Literature, PERIOD.”

Because perhaps things are as I fear - that a large portion of this country is afraid that a woman might become the best at anything other than winning brownie-bake-offs and WNBA championships. After all, these competitions are deemed important for women alone.

I am not suggesting that having our first, black presidential candidate wouldn’t be a major, welcome milestone – it would. But living in this country should be better. We should be better. We should treat each other better, and understand where to draw the line between sarcasm... and shitty comments about women.