The Mad Rants of an Unconventional Soccer Mom

I look forward to the day that I vote for the first woman President of the United States, but it won’t be this November. I know a lot of Hillary’s most stalwart female supporters feel that their candidate is a victim of misogyny. I don’t believe so. Sure there are some idiots out there that don’t believe a woman should be president, but there are also many idiots who don’t believe there should ever be a black president. The fact is that this is a truly historic time. We have the first viable woman candidate and the first viable African American candidate. Unfortunately that means that one long oppressed voice has to end up being disappointed.

But to think that Hillary’s downfall was that she is a woman is wrong in my opinion. Up until February she was believed to be the presumptive nominee. Her average lead in national polls was 20% over Barack. Did all of the sudden an epidemic of sexism infect the country? I don’t think so. Hillary’s downfall was her own making. She didn’t read the political climate correctly. This is a change election, and yet she decided to align herself with the establishment and also on the wrong side of the ideological divide. I was more then disappointed that she chose to use divisive tactics and to make herself a comparatively conservative candidate when all indications were that people are tired of Rovian politics. Her votes on the AUMF and Kyl-Lierberman were absolutely egregious and unforgivable. And I never in my life thought I would hear a democratic candidate so flippantly talk about obliterating a nation.

So Hillary being a woman has nothing to do with why she fell behind. I think if a white man were running the exact same way against Barack that he would lose, as well.

I hope that feminist groups like Emily’s List realize this soon before it is too late. I know they are deeply disappointed, but this call to boycott Barack is reckless and has the potential to severely damage the women’s rights movement for generations. Is tying yourself to Hillary’s failed candidacy really worth it? How does working to destroy Barack’s chances in the general get you anything? Do you really want to risk a McCain presidency? Is he not the man who said just last week that he would not support equal pay for women? Is he not the man that said he would install Supreme Court judges in the tradition of Scalia? Are you really that spiteful that you would risk young girls having to resort to back alley abortions rather then supporting another progressive candidate? How sad is that?

Barack has a stellar record of defending woman’s right. Yet you would rather deny the Presidency to this man - this man who was raised by an extraordinary, progressive woman and also married one - just because Hillary is not the nominee. All this talk of voting for McCain is foolishness if what your true goal is to promote women’s rights. The only thing that should really matter is that a president is elected that would be a champion of women. Please think about this. Why would you cut your nose off to spite your face?