I see from many news sources this week that a lot of Hillary Clinton's most ardent supporters have threatened either to sit out the November election or vote for John McCain rather than support Barack Obama's bid for the presidency. They are miffed at what they perceive as misogyny directed against Hillary (and by extension, them) by Obama and his campaign staffers.
Let me preface my comments by saying I am in those women's demographic group: 50-somethings who've felt the sting of discrimination against women very personally and directly in their own lives. I was not eligible to apply to the US Air Force Academy once I became a high school graduate--women were not accepted until a few years later. My sports participation predated Title IX, so there was no funding or support even though we were official University of Nebraska representatives (yes, it was bowling. So what? I was good. I was the only one who made it to the All-Star team from NU one year.) Nearing the end of my undergraduate career, I was not eligible to apply for Rhodes or Fulbright Scholarships because they were not given to women. I was subjected to a lot of "women are in law school to get their M-R-S degrees" comments and behavior while in law school (as were all the women in my class). Never mind that I and several other women were graduated in the top 10--not top 10 percent, top 10--of our class. While married, I was expected to subordinate my career to my husband's, but then when he wanted out of our marriage, he said he didn't have to provide me any financial support because it was my choice to follow him all over the Earth. Never mind that I was already physically disabled at that point.
But back to the topic at hand: these Clinton supporters need to get their priorities straight. Obama wasn't my first choice, either . . . but he's a damn sight better than getting a third-Dubya-term-by-proxy by voting for John McCain. John McCain, who says he's for governmental fiscal responsibility, but who has lived off government money all his life; John McCain, who says he is for family values, but who ditched his first wife, the mother of his children, for a rich, blond trophy wife; John McCain, who says he has supported every effort to find out what really went wrong leading up to, during, and after Hurricane Katrina, but who in fact, as his public record shows, has voted AGAINST every single piece of legislation relating to same as being "too expensive;" John McCain, who says he's a maverick and an independent thinker, but whose voting record demonstrates he's a clone of Dubya and a toady of the Radical Right.
Ladies, untwist your knickers! Take a slightly longer view, and use your brains, not your emotions. When the choice is between Obama and McCain, Obama is the only plausible option. Otherwise, you're "burning down the village in order to save it." If you insist on your Pyrrhic victory, you'll have done nothing but prove right all the men who disparage you for being unstable, emotional, whiny idiots who don't deserve to exercise the power of the vote or otherwise express your political opinions.
Politics is tough. There are winners and losers every time. If you take it personally, you guarantee that you'll lose, because you're letting your emotions cloud your judgment. Maybe Abagail Adams was too polite when she reminded her husband John to "remember the ladies" as he helped establish the government of the United States . . . but going too far the other way, and having a very public hissy fit, is no way get a better result now.
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