#53: Don't like sexism? Don't vote for McCain.

If you don't feel like reading this post, then watch this short video of John McCain supporters talking about "how to beat the bitch" (back when they thought Hillary would be the Democratic candidate). This is your basic Republican idea of funny, so please keep in mind who the real enemy is. Ha ha. Ha. Ha . . . ha

There's no doubt Hillary, like all women with a personality, has been dogged by sexism. That was clear when she was first lady, and instead of being an utter cipher like Laura Bush, she actually tried to make a difference. However, I think in their disappointment many of her followers have failed to acknowledge some things:

1. She is a politician, and she has behaved like one--like every male politician out there (for example, just like an old white dude, she voted for this war: whoo hoo for equal rights!). She has thereby caused many people to violently disagree with her. She didn't want to stay home and bake cookies, and I applaud her for that. But if you are a politician, many people are inevitably going to dislike you. Disliking Hillary is not in and of itself sexism. That's just the nature of the game. I am a white, middle-aged female. I once had an "ERA Yes" sticker on my bumper. And I didn't vote for Hillary because I despised her for voting for this war and, furthermore, I resented her for running in the first place, given the fact that millions of Americans despise her so. It's not that she didn't have the "right" to run--it's that she so wanted to be the big cheese that she was willing to risk yet another Democratic loss in order to achieve her personal dream. It doesn't matter that the hatred of her was "unfair." Of course much of it was unfair. But who the hell ever gave people the impression that politics was fair? I'm sick of whining about unfairness. I'd like to win.
2. Although there was inevitably some sexism in the Obama camp--because, like racism, sexism cannot be avoided, since like dioxin it is in our water--the foaming-at-the-mouth sexism and the unexamined lazy sexism aimed at Hillary came less from Democrats than from the media and from derogatory right-wingers. With some exceptions (like whoever thought up the "Bro's Not Ho's" theme--way to not get a black man elected, asshole), Obama people were not the enemy. Yes, his calling the female journalist "Sweetie" was bullshit; he's too educated and too young to get away with that. But the scary sexists are in the other camp, and they are the people who derided Hillary from the get-go and labeled her a murderer and a lesbian and a "bitch" (see the John McCain video link above). And these people are going to win again in November if Hillary followers don't recover from their resentment ASAP.
3. If you really, truly hate sexism, then reflect on your reactions to Michelle Obama when the media and the right-wingers start chowing down on her in the coming weeks and months. I've already heard one female call her a bitch already. This was a young liberal woman.
4. Finally, I don't think you get to be a feminist and a racist--at least to the extent that we can prevent such things in ourselves, having, again, imbibed the sexism and racism in our plastic American baby bottles. We won't go into some of the racist insinuations that came out of the Hillary camp in its last desperate days, but suffice it to say that those, too, will pale in the coming weeks, as we get to see just how ugly American politics can be with a black man running for president alongside his black, female wife. Get ready, people.