Comments on: Those Fickle [White] Women

By: bekabot

bekabot — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 18:43:57 +0000

This just goes to show ya, and what it just goes to show ya is the extent to which pundits and pundettes and wannabe-pundits and wannabe-pundettes get all discombobulated when those mindless lemmings of voters fail to behave precisely the way the playground monitors of the media have predicted they will. You can see this kind of thinking Hirshman's column as clearly as day. She thinks that blacks will vote for blacks and that males will vote for males, and when the polls show that that's probably what will happen she pats herself on the back with a self-congratulatory sigh. But she also thinks that women will vote for a woman, and when evidence shows up to the effect that maybe she's wrong (o heaven forbid) she stamps her little foot and pouts and throws the onus of her miscalculation all over its objects. It's not, you see, that Linda Hirshman is destitute of godlike divinatory powers, it's that women are fickle and therefore unpredictable. Chicks will do anything; everybody knows that. It's not Hirshman's fault that her class-divide theory didn't pan out. It's not, it's not. (Stamp, pout.)

By: trishka

trishka — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:20:38 +0000

well, i’m educated and middle-class, so i guess that makes my support for obama acceptable in some way. however, it doesn’t occur to hirshman that maybe some women voters want things like paid family leave and health insurance and so on, and understand that in order to get these things they’re going to have to choose the democratic candidate that stands the best shot at winning the general election.

clinton may have a better platform on paper, but mccain’s platform? not so much.

By: lizvelrene

lizvelrene — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 13:56:56 +0000

I’m getting really sick of this shit. I voted for Obama, but it was not a simple choice for me. I looked over their platforms and went back and forth several times.

But apparently, my vote somehow indicates that I am both stupid and fickle. It couldn’t possibly be an informed decision, it must be a misfire of my weak girly brain.

Thanks again, Washington Post! Fuck you too.

By: Jill

Jill — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 04:51:06 +0000

Digby has a great post about how the media has been slinging misogynist shit at Clinton, and how if she goes, they’re just going to re-tool a bit and tear down Obama.

Word.

By: zuzu

zuzu — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 04:45:19 +0000

Since when was Hillary Clinton from a wealthy and powerful family? She was comfortably middle-class, but we're not talking Bush levels of wealth. Barack Obama is from an educated, middle-class background as well. Michelle Obama, however, is the daughter of a city employee, though she became successful as an attorney and served on the board of a Wal-Mart supplier. So, basically, the "humble beginnings" schtick is kind of a wash, and neither candidate has their spouse beat on that score. Digby has a great post about how the media has been slinging misogynist shit at Clinton, and how if she goes, they're just going to re-tool a bit and tear down Obama.

By: Betsy

Betsy — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 04:32:24 +0000

I also love that, even granting the premise that we all vote on the basis of identity politics, she thinks that we can/should only vote our own identities. So that, as a white woman, I couldn’t possibly think that having the first black president could be just as important for the country as having the first woman president.

By: Betsy

Betsy — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 04:29:22 +0000

Re: the bit about Obama and class:

The irony is, and correct me if I’m wrong, that he and Michelle may have a fancy mansion now, but unlike Clinton, he didn’t COME from a wealthy and powerful family. He didn’t start from nearly the same position of privilege.

By: Kenda

Kenda — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 01:39:58 +0000

um, did she not hear about the clintons loaning their campaign $5mill? they’ve got a little bit of money too.

By: La Lubu

La Lubu — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 01:35:30 +0000

Ahh shit. Only the “or” was supposed to be bolded. sorry!

By: La Lubu

La Lubu — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 01:34:23 +0000

Wait. She said “fair sex?” “Fair sex?!!!!” I’m not fair, I’m above-average to excellent, fuckyouverymuch! (that’s not how she meant it!) Oh, well, I’m olive, not fair. (that’s not how she meant it, either) Well, how did she mean it? Pedestals? Intellectual lightweights? fickle, hmmm? I second Lauren—Hirschman drives me up the fucking wall.

Paid family leave? Please. First, you have to have a job. Then, FMLA actually has to be followed. My “choice” by the Department of Labor was my job or having my insurance paid. When I asked if it would be legal to hire me back for one day, then lay me off, the DoL answer was “yes”. Some choice, huh? Before Hirschman calls out Ellen Bravo, maybe she oughta flip through a few pages of her latest book, “Taking on the Big Boys”, where she specifically addresses the gaps in family leave.

NAFTA. GATT. CAFTA. WTO. G-8. Those are fighting words in my neck of the midwest. If there is any one issue that drives more working-class midwestern votes toward Obama and away from Clinton, it is the neoliberal trade policies championed by the Clinton administration. So, every time Hillary talks about her “experience”, it is translated back here as jobs–good paying, family-supporting, union jobs— leaving the country.