I'm a woman, I'm a mom, I follow politics and government perhaps a bit obsesively. Further, I'm a church-going "hard-working-white-person", which apparently makes what I think of vital importance when determing whether this country is more racist, or more sexist.
I find it depressing that this is the big deal in the "electability" fights (more on that later), but for what it's worth, here's my Sunday Op-Ed response.
I'm a mama for Obama, am sick of this primary, and am saddened that the campaign is making me tire of the Clintons, of whom I have long been a fan.
My dream candidate for Obama's VP is Jim Webb: hard working, serious, brave, tested, and all of the electability points you could want: Southerner, former Secretary of the Navy, former Republican, son serving in Iraq, and he could really work up a steam in upcoming debates demanding to know why Senator McCain doesn't support the new GI bill, which Webb authored.
All of that having been said: this editorial appeared in the NY Times today:
OVER the last few months, the contest between Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination has been compared to the bitter feud between Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Frederick Douglass, two of the most famous progressive reformers of the 19th century.
I have a real fondness for Elizabeth Cady Stanton. In fact, I have often referred to her as one of my personal goddesses. Of the Stanton-Anthony partnership, Susan B got the profile on our money, and her name is flies to the front of the brain if you recall the fight for women's suffrage. She was tireless and single minded, a devout quaker (although we Unitarians like to pretend she's ours, because she attended a Unitarian church, she was, in fact, a Quaker), no time for marriage or children or simple pleasures. She traveled, she spoke, she railed and she rallied, often humorless and even testy (Ida B. Wells-Barnett remarked that after her marriage, when Anthony referred to he as "Mrs Barnett", she nearly spat the words from her mouth).
Elizabeth stayed at home. She raised her children, she wrote Susan's speeches and much of the tracts and copy for their campaign. She organized, she kept house, she suffered bouts of depression. When they wrote to each other, Annthony would address her letters to "Dear Mrs. Stanton". Elizabeth's were typically adressed to, "My dearest Susan". She was often truly radical.
And back then, moderation counseled that the suffragists should be patient. Let black men have the vote. The women's turn was next. This cracked the abolitionist/women's suffrage alliance, and fractured all of the coalitions who had been working together. And, as the editorial points out, that compromise very probably wasted the momentum for reform, and progress stopped, and the nation regressed in various ways.
So here's what I'm saying this morning. Although I've of late been rooting for an Obama-Webb ticket, I also said, back on not-so-super-Tuesday, that I was thrilled that the Democrats had two really strong candidates, and that either of them were fit to hold the office. And while I still don't know that Hillary and Barack are all that well matched, we could do worse than to put two such dedicated and talented people in the White House at once, shattering two historic barriers in a single moment.
And Webb would make a fine Sec Def, anyway.
No comments:
Post a Comment