Women have just experienced the ultimate betrayal. Senator Kennedy’s endorsement of Hillary Clinton’s opponent in the Democratic presidential primary campaign has really hit women hard. Women have forgiven Kennedy, stuck up for him, stood by him, hushed the fact that he was late in his support of Title IX, the ERA, the Family Leave and Medical Act to name a few. Women have buried their anger that his support for the compromises in No Child Left Behind and the Medicare bogus drug benefit brought us the passage of these flawed bills. We have thanked him for his ardent support of many civil rights bills, BUT women are always waiting in the wings.
“And now the greatest betrayal! We are repaid with his abandonment! He’s picked the new guy over us. He’s joined the list of progressive white men who can’t or won’t handle the prospect of a woman president who is Hillary Clinton (they will of course say they support a woman president, just not “this” one). ‘They’ are Howard Dean and Jim Dean (Yup! That’s Howard’s brother) who run DFA (that’s the group and list from the Dean campaign that we women helped start and grow). They are Alternet, Progressive Democrats of America, democrats.com, Kucinich lovers and all the other groups that take women’s money, say they’ll do feminist and women’s rights issues one of these days, and conveniently forget to mention women and children when they talk about poverty or human needs or America’s future or whatever.
“This latest move by Kennedy, is so telling about the status of and respect for women’s rights, women’s voices, women’s equality, women’s authority and our ability – indeed, our obligation - to promote and earn and deserve and elect, unabashedly, a President that is the first woman after centuries of men who ‘know what’s best for us.
This election is getting quite interesting as the political becomes personal.
3 comments:
Did you see Kim Gandy's response? She is the president of the organization, and her response is not nearly as inflammatory. In fact, her response speaks to what it means to be a feminist--giving women the opportunity to choose. Check it out at http://www.now.org/press/01-08/01-28.html.
M-
Thanks for the link. I had not yet read the national response. I does a very good job exemplifying the rhetoric of choice...
I wonder what took place between the national audience and the NY office.
The original post is interesting for the way in which the NYC now forces, well-- at least expresses strongly, the idea that in order to protect the interests of women, there needs to be a synendochic (part for whole) representation between the elected and her constituents. And further, it suggests the "if you are not with us, you are against us mentality."
At the same time, it neglects that idea that women can have other interests.
The last line is quite interesting.
At least the race is interesting. And tomorrow, Florida.
As far as I know their isn't necessarily a lot of communication b/w the national office and the local offices. At least, the local offices don't have to check with the national office before putting out press releases. NOW has endorsed Hillary Clinton, and Kim Gandy has been campaigning for her. I do think, however, that Gandy is of the mind that each person has to make her own choice. If you check out the NOW website I think you'll find that most of her editorials encourage women to do their own research and to decide for themselves.
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