Thursday, March 13, 2008

Barack removed the race card from the deck - but is the sex card still in there?

. . . . Can't say anything about race because it is too subtle to be handled without misunderstanding in a political campaign. So no more race talk. Can we remove sex as well? Obama supporters say that Hillary is where she is because she married Bill.

. . . . Blacks and whites who are for Obama like him because they like him. Hillary people should not call them Obamabots because that implies they have no "reason." Ferraro in the Clinton camp was insensitive to what is perceived as racism: racism, like sexual harrassment, is defined by the person who is harrassed.
. . . . Race remains a topic that our country does not face well or comfortably. Whether by design or with deft use of the Ferraro commentary, Obama has removed the race card from the deck. It cannot be played. When people are told they vote according to their demographic, it seems to drain the passion, integrity, and intelligence for the vote, which is why it is offensive.

. . . . But can we talk about sex? With Spitzer and now Client #6 from England in the news, how can we not see the trickle down effect sexism in nearly everything we do? Some Obama supporters hath wrought Hillary into little more than a Republican wife. And when Obama people say Hillary attracts women 60 and over it feels, to me, dismissive. Half the human race is going to be women 60 and over. Have they no wisdom? We all vote for a person we like because we like him. Or her.
. . . . Dang! See? The man, of any race, sits, even gramatically, in the priviledged position. Otherwise, women enter the picture and mess everything up with this "his or her" pronoun switch. Can we say anything about that? When Geraldine says, "It's the guys sticking together," it is an anti-sexist comment construed into a racist comment. Pundits have not the time to analyze it for anything other than a morsel for the anti-Hillary cauldron, which is part of a bigger, nearly invisible cauldron called sexism.
. . . . Clinton literally slept beside a great U.S. President for eight years. He didn't tell her everything about the sex parts of his day job, but for sure he shared with her, his political pal since college, the intimate details of how a person wrestles with being the most powerful figurehead on earth. It's quite a fly on the wall she has been, and more. Take 10 min to watch her in Ireland; you decide for yourself if her effort was only decorative. If it was, it was decoration that made me cry.
. . . . .She is a woman strong enough in the big ring. He is a man intelligent and powerful enough to there too. Can we learn to talk about race and sex and age, since they are still issues, with intelligence and sensitivity and respect for all so that we can let these remarkable people be judged on the basis of his ... or her ... vision for tomorrow based on their experience of yesterday.
. . . . Move on. There is stuff to talk about to forge the Democratic argument against McCain. Obama has been too busy trying to act like Clinton is McCain. Hillary has been too busy giving her stump speech instead of turning this debate into the debate to come with McCain. Barack knows Hillary is not a racist. Hillary knows that Barack has run a brilliant campaign.
. . . . Move on. Stop talking about the campaigns. Focus less on TV and Radio Show and Celebrity opinion. Talk about the issues. Forge, together, the argument against McCain and the Republicans.
Stop talking about who could forge the better argument against war and destruction and forge it.

No comments: