Thursday Reads: #WeWontBeErased
Posted: January 28, 2016 Filed under: morning reads, U.S. Politics 68 Comments
Good Morning!!
This is going to be a truly consequential election. Electing a woman to the presidency of the U.S. is going to be more difficult and more radical than electing a African American man in 2008 was. Some day America will elect an African American woman as president. How long with that take?
This is how change happens–very very slowly. In the beginning of this country only white men who were landowners could vote. It took until the mid-19th century for most states to allow universal white male suffrage. In 1870, African American men won the right to vote, but most states found ways to keep them from exercising that right. It wasn’t until August 18, 1920 that the 19th Amendment was ratified and women finally could vote in the U.S.
So it’s not surprising that an African American man was the first to break the white male hold on the presidency. If we really want to have a woman president in 2016, we are going to have to speak up loudly and demand it! And finally, more women are doing that. On Tuesday I wrote about how supporters of Hillary Clinton were able to get Twitter to remove the misogynistic hashtag #WordsThatDontDescribeHillaryClinton from its list of trending topics.
Yesterday female and male supporters of Hillary took it a step further after being inspired by a brilliant post by Joan Walsh at The Nation despite the magazine’s endorsement of Bernie Sanders. I know many or most of you have already read the piece, but I still want to quote from it today. Why I’m Supporting Hillary Clinton, With Joy and Without Apologies. I’ve come to feel passion for Clinton herself, and for the movement that supports her.
Walsh begins by admitting she was hesitant to “come out of the closet” as a Clinton supporter because she is a journalist, but she spontaneously did so while talking to a woman in France who asked her if Americans–especially American women–were really ready to vote for a woman for president. She had turned down the opportunity to write a response to The Nation’s endorsement of Sanders, but while watching Monday’s CNN Democratic Town Hall, she changed her mind.
The town hall itself was great; Clinton, Sanders, and Martin O’Malley all looked admirable and presidential, in contrast to their awful Republican rivals. Democrats have a lot to be excited about this year.
But one moment got me particularly excited, and not in a good way. It came when a young white man—entitled, pleased with himself, barely shaving yet—broke the news to Clinton that his generation is with Bernie Sanders. “I just don’t see the same enthusiasm from younger people for you. In fact, I’ve heard from quite a few people my age that they think you’re dishonest. But I’d like to hear from you on why you feel the enthusiasm isn’t there.”
That Catch-22 question–sort of analogous to asking a man “when did you stop beating your wife?” enraged Walsh, as it likely did millions of women.
“I’d like to hear from you on why you feel the enthusiasm isn’t there.” I’m not sure I can unpack all the condescension in that question. I heard a disturbing echo of the infamous 2008 New Hampshire debate moment when a moderator asked Clinton: “What can you say to the voters of New Hampshire on this stage tonight, who see a resume and like it, but are hesitating on the likability issue?” Yes, the “likability” issue. I found myself thinking: Not again. Why the hell does she have to put up with this again?
My problem wasn’t merely with the insulting personal tone of the question. It was also the way the young man anointed himself the voice of his generation, and declared it the Sanders generation. Now, I know Bernie is leading among millennials by a lot right now in the polls. Nonetheless, millions of millennials, including millions of young women, are supporting Hillary Clinton. And my daughter, as Nation readers know, is one of them. I find it increasingly galling to see her and her friends erased in this debate.
That’s it. We are continually erased. Women are more than 50% of the U.S. population, but the issues that are important to us are casually dismissed by many (most?) male politicians, including Bernie Sanders. Sanders turns every discussion of racism or sexism back to his core issue of income inequality, seeming to deny that people of color and women are held back not just by economic factors, but also by bigotry and prejudice based on skin color and gender.
When I’ve disclosed that my daughter works for Clinton—in The Nation, on MSNBC, and on social media—we’ve both come in for trolling so vile it’s made me not merely defensive of her. It’s forced me to recognize how little society respects the passion of the many young women—and men—who are putting their souls into electing the first female president. It’s one thing to note that Sanders is winning among millennials; that’s true. It’s another to impugn the competence and dignity of the literally millions of millennials who support Clinton. Social-media trolls have had several fascinating and stunningly sexist reactions to the news of my daughter’s position. Obviously, she can’t be competent; I must have gotten her the job (in fact, she got it through a high-school friend who worked for Clinton and recommended her.) Obviously, she can’t think for herself; I must have indoctrinated her to support Clinton over Sanders. Or the flip side: Obviously, I have no integrity, and I support Clinton over Sanders only because my daughter is on her payroll.
This article by Joan Walsh is huge. She is a well respected, influential writer who frequently appears on T.V. and who is highly visible on social media. Yesterday her article made a big impact on Twitter. Hundreds of women thanked her for speaking up and describing what so many women had been thinking and feeling when that entitled young man insulted one of the most admired and respected women in the world.
Then Peter Daou suggested a hashtag, #WeWontBeErased that hundreds of people used. It even got on the trending list for awhile.
This is so true. We have been erased again and again in my lifetime. We were erased in school when we were told that girls couldn’t participate in sports, that we couldn’t do math or science, that we couldn’t grow up to have “serious” careers. No. We should be housewives and mothers period. And if we were really so desperate as to want a paying job, we were told we could be teachers, nurses, or secretaries–certainly not lawyers or doctors or university professors.
We were erased during the political struggles of the 1960s and ’70s when we demanded our rights, when we wanted rape to be prosecuted as a serious crime, when we demanded that child abuse and incest be seen and punished, when we wanted equal pay for equal work. Our years of work for an Equal Right Amendment were also erased.
We were erased in the 1980s when the fight against AIDS and the struggle for gay rights took precedence over our silly demands for equality with men. We were erased in the 1990s when the Senate ignored Anita Hill’s claims of sexual harassment and put her abuser on the Supreme Court. We were erased in recent decades as right wing Republicans (and even some Democrats) passed laws that restricted reproductive choices and voted against laws to protect women from gender-based violence.
When will it end? The election of a woman president could be a beginning of the end. To the “progessives” who think the election of an African American man was transformational, to those who argue that electing a 74-year-old man who identifies as a socialist would be a “transformational moment”: electing a woman as President of the U.S. would be even more “transformational.” It would be radical.
Maybe I’ll be mocked for saying this–as Hillary was mocked in 1993 for her speech in Austin and for her vision of “love and kindness.” I don’t care. I’m excited and enthusiastic at the prospect of electing a woman to the presidency. Not only that, I’m exited and enthusiastic about Hillary Clinton as that person we will elect.
I wholeheartedly agree with Joan Walsh:
I appreciated Sanders supporter Kathy Geier’s acknowledgment here in The Nation that her candidate once again came off as tone-deaf on an issue of gender. Yet Geier seconded Sanders’s assertion that these two groups fighting for reproductive justice deserve to be termed “establishment”—and therefore unfavorably compared to the upstart, grassroots, and genuinely radical groups that back Sanders.
I just don’t see it that way. I think there are few issues as radical as advancing the reproductive autonomy of women. And I think it’s hard to be truly establishment when dangerous men are shooting up your clinics, and the Republican Congress is persistently voting to strip you of your funding. Yes, Planned Parenthood and NARAL have worked hard to become respected political players in the last 30 years, because the women they represent need political clout, not just services. But I’m old enough to remember when feminists were told that our issues—“cultural” issues like abortion and contraception—were costing Democrats elections, so couldn’t we pipe down for a little while? Now we’re the establishment?
Just like my lefty friends who praise Sanders for loudly promoting the single-payer solution to healthcare because it’s important to raise the issue’s standing and profile, I praise Clinton for making repeal of the Hyde Amendment, which bars Medicaid from paying for abortion for poor women, a major public campaign issue. I acknowledge Sanders has voted the right way, and I’m grateful for it. But Clinton is leading on it, the same way she brought up the vile Planned Parenthood video hoax in the very first Democratic debate. That leadership matters to me.
Dorothy Rodham and Hillary Clinton
And this:
Finally, I’m struck by the insistence among Sanders supporters that Democrats who support Clinton—and right now, we are still the majority—are doing so joylessly, like party automatons.
Because our enthusiasms and excitement don’t count–see how it works? Our words, our thoughts, our wishes, our dreams, our goals are erased because we are just silly women. Well, I won’t be silent. I’m sick and tired of being told there is no enthusiasm for Hillary Clinton’s candidacy. I’m enthusiastic about her and so are millions of other women and men. If Hillary is elected, we’ll face more of this garbage, but we have to get her elected if we want real change and a real voice in government for women.
Please post your thoughts and any links you want to share in the comment thread. We’ll have a live blog later for tonight’s GOP debate.
peej
Carissa
ecocatwoman
mablue2
Mama Lopez
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Bravo, BB!! This is an inspiring and fabulous post – thank you so much for writing it!!
Thank you. I really appreciate that.
This is one of your best posts ever, BB. While reading it, I got teary-eyed and even more determined to see Hillary elected. It is truly inspiring.
Hillary in 2016! For all of us!
Thank you, Beata. That means a lot to me!
Brava, and the reality that BB points to is based on years and years of being “denied”, and “accepted”.
I don’t know at what point we are fucking going to make it, but I am in a hurry, and I am encouraged that we can once and for all get this right. And we damn well know that the minute she steps into the White House, all hell is going to break loose.
oops……and not accepted.
Thank you BB. Thank you, fire it up.
Hugs to you, Fannie.
Great post.
Further good news –
Gloria Steinem To Join Hillary for New Hampshire Organizing Events
http://nhlabornews.com/2016/01/51058/
That’s great news!
BB, this heartfelt and passionate post is one of your best by far! Bravo for saying what most of us have been thinking and putting into words far better then I ever could.
And bravo as well to Joan Walsh for stepping up to the plate and detailing what most of us have known for a long time.
Hillary Rodham Clinton all the way!
Thank you so much, Pat. Your opinion means a lot to me.
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Melissa McEwan responds to Susan Sarandon’s minimization of gender issues in Iowa with Bernie:
Another well-written piece by McEwan.
I think it’s safe to say Susan Sarandon does not understand the lives of the vast majority of women in this country. Neither does Sanders’ supporter Katrina vanden Heuvel who was born into privilege ( her grandfather was Jules Stein, the founder of MCA Records ) and has never faced a moment of economic insecurity in her entire life.
Vox:
Study: Bernie Sanders’s single-payer plan is almost twice as expensive as he says
http://www.vox.com/2016/1/28/10858644/bernie-sanders-kenneth-thorpe-single-payer
Exactly. Great post BB!
Thanks, Dak.
Here’s an explanation of what I said about “transformational moments” toward the end of this post. Greg Sargent wrote about Bernie’s candidacy being more transformational than Hillary’s after Obama’s implied endorsement of Clinton.
As a young “progressive” man, Sargent can’t comprehend that electing a woman POTUS would be a “transformational moment” for this country and the world.
Sargent also can’t understand why the majority of Democrats view Hillary Clinton as the candidate who will bring more change to this country.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/01/27/heres-why-hillary-clinton-is-hugging-the-obama-agenda/
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Great post, BB, really great.
Thanks so much, Sweet Sue.
Yeah, this is a terrific post! It helped clarify a few things for me. The use of Kerry’s word “transformation” has bothered me since 2007, when I think it became a sort of dog whistle for Obots. It needs to be owned and developed.
Thanks!
Sargent gets it all wrong, in his eagerness to come up with reasons to validate his enthusiasm for Sanders. The way to achieve important change in this country is to elect more Democrats to statewide offices, so that they can help to reapportion the districts away from the gerrymandered stranglehold that the Republicans have engineered. The Republicans control every aspect of government, except the Presidency, and they can effectively neutralize the Executive Branch with their right-wing Supreme Court, and right-wing Congress.
Putting aside Hillary’s great abilities and intelligence for a moment, and just concentrating on Sargent’s terrain, Sanders cannot, will not, create a revolution. No one in this country ever has, in that way. FDR did more than anyone in modern times, but he led a country which was a third out of work, and desperate; and the Republicans were actually scared as well. This tea party group is bellicose, intransigent, and veritably insane. And if you don’t beat and marginalize them, you get nowhere, despite any lofty rhetoric. Sanders’ “revolution” would be about as effective as McGovern’s. I don’t know anything about Sargent’s background, but if he actually thinks that Sanders is going to somehow bring tens of millions of new voters to the polls, and somehow win massive downticket majorities for Democrats, he is seriously deluded. What Sanders would bring is an even greater Republican majority, and the abyss. Hillary would do what Obama could or would not; she would potentially repair the Democratic Party on the state level. And her candidacy needs to be supported across gender, age, race or other lines.
Very well said, William. I fear most young voters who support Sanders understand none of this. They have never even heard of George McGovern.
Thank you, Beata. For those who might not know or recall, McGovern had the idea that every American should be given some kind of annual amount of $10,000, to keep people above the poverty line. That was a very nice idea, and I would support it at least in theory But of course. McGovern was mocked as a would-be Socialist and radical, even though he was neither, and was a American war hero. And he got about 34% of the national vote, and I think won MA and DC only. Sanders actually is a self-identified Socialist. Sanders; “revolution” is a political version of Pickett’s Charge, and it unfortunately woudl have similar consequences in a national election.
Agreed.
Whatever became of the Elizabeth Warren endorsement?
She is remaining neutral.
Disappointing.
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Big problem there for Bernie.
Oops
… Just posted that link with another doozy
Great.
WTH, he steals her documents, he trashes her and compares her to Cheney, says women’s issues are part of the establishment, and now they are using more nasty bullshit. They are not being honest, and he’s not effective……..all he is creating is more UPTIGHTNESS.
Not just that, I am reading that he stole the AARP logo without their permission, during his bulk mailing.
http://states.aarp.org/aarp-statement-in-response-to-sanders-mailing/
He did and also the logo from the League of Conservation Voters which has endorsed Hillary.
http://www.newsweek.com/sanders-complaints-iowa-nevada-420806
Joe Conason: Most Of The “Most Valuable Progressives” Named By ‘The Nation’ Have Endorsed…Hillary?
http://www.nationalmemo.com/most-of-the-most-valuable-progressives-named-by-the-nation-have-endorsed-hillary/
The Keene (NH) Sentinel endorses Hillary Clinton.
http://www.sentinelsource.com/opinion/editorial/we-endorse-hillary-clinton-for-the-democratic-nomination-for-president/article_0cb615a1-4582-53cd-8914-9ef4aee2ef9a.html
Hi everyone! BB thank you for the wonderful post and all the positive things you are finding on Twitter and in the news. I have limited time and skillz to do that kind of research! It is so nice to have a place to come and hear positive things about Clinton and avoid the Bern Effect. I also read Melissa McEwan every day and truly appreciate her insights.
And finally thanks to Joan Walsh – I will now forgive her for supporting Obama in 2008. lol
Thanks for reading my post. Joan says she supported Hillary in 2008 too.
More icky news from dudebro land: https://www.ralstonreports.com/blog/sanders-workers-are-masquerading-culinary-members-campaign-inside-hotels
And if you want to really get pissed off go see Paglia’s take on how Hillary has a brand of feminism that hates me and finds women victims because she has daddy issues. Won’t link to salon because blech!
Posted above–head of the union is very p.o.’d
That Salon would publish that Paglia horror is very telling.
Salon and Huffpo need to reign in the dudebros.
WaPo Editorial Board says Bernie is not a truth-teller!
Bernie Sanders’s fiction-filled campaign
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bernie-sanderss-fiction-filled-campaign/2016/01/27/cd1b2866-c478-11e5-9693-933a4d31bcc8_story.html
Ha, BB. You beat me to it!
The Washington Post op-ed in its entirety:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bernie-sanderss-fiction-filled-campaign/2016/01/27/cd1b2866-c478-11e5-9693-933a4d31bcc8_story.html
Trump is putting out tiny 15 second videos, the last one 5 hours ago, and it has over 53,000 viewers. He is entirely on message as to what he will do and entirely without substance. My right sided friends LOVED it. He WILL make us the greatest military power and destroy ISIS. He WILL end our 18 trillion dollar debt. (Never mind that 55% of our budget goes to the military.) He WILL help students.
Really, I think its a good time to start using Daesh as the proper term. Not only will they reportedly hate it:
http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/why-isis-will-hate-it-if-we-start-calling-them-daesh–bkC822p_zl
The use of Daesh distinguishes us from the Republicans. Also it removes any inadvertent? reference to the goddess ISIS. Maybe that seems silly, but this war is not being waged by a woman; they are its victims. Every time I hear it I have to compartmentalize my head out of 70’s historical archaeology into the modern abomination of annihalation.
excellent post. thank you. I’m Berned Out. It’s nice to come to a place where I feel I’m among friends. All of my friends have left me for the dark side – the Sander’s pit of quicksand. I wanted to comment on the Joan Walsh post but one needs to be a subscriber in order to comment. I once subscribed, but that was many years ago.
Hi Ms. Becky. Welcome!
Hell yeah bb!!!!!!!! Your accounting of the number of times we have been erased made me tear up. You are so right and got me fired up!
Thanks. I got so worked up when I was writing the post that I had to try to cool down afterwards.
Thanks for the great post BB.
BTW…..I’m going to be out of pocket for a while. Having surgery next Tuesday. Hope to be back online by the end of next week or maybe the following week. Give em’ Hell Skydancers. GO HILLARY!!!
Take good care, mend well.
Good luck, mouse. Hope all goes well and you heal quickly. I’ll keep you in my thoughts.
We will think good thoughts for you to heal quickly.
We’ll really miss you, Mouse. I hope all goes well. I’ll be thinking of you.
Mouse, best wishes. Be well soon, dear friend. We look forward to your return! xoxo
All the best for a speedy recovery, Mouse! Take good care of yourself!
Love to you Mouse. Take care babe.
Thank you all for the well wishes. I’ll be back soon, I think! 🙂 I’ll be thinking about you all next Monday night during the Iowa returns. Wish I could join you for the celebration! Yes, I’m that confident. Peace & Love to you my friends……Mouse
I fucking love this post. It is brilliant.
Wow. Thanks, JJ!
One of your very best posts, BB! Clear, reasoned, passionate. Strong and inspiring, as is Hillary.
Sorry I’m so late again catching up.