The Hatred of Feminism
I have never fully understood why Hilary Clinton is passionately hated by so many conservatives. She makes their blood boil. I believe that the origins of this anger stems from her response in 1992 to a question about her legal career in an interview during Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign. She said, “I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession.”(www.nytimes.com). That statement, along with his “two for one” statement suggesting she would play a major role in the administration, sealed her fate as the poster child for radical feminism. The implicit criticism was that she was a cold-hearted, uppity women who hated motherhood.
Who can beat trump?
Fast forward to 2019 and we find of the 25 democratic candidates, 6 are women. Four of the women candidates are senators and two, Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren, are consistently polling among the top 5 candidates.
Many Democrats believe that given Trump’s misogynist ways, a women would be the best candidate to take him on. I contend that we really have not progressed very much since 1992 and voters are more likely to look past Trump’s misogyny than vote for someone they perceive to be a feminist.
As such, in evaluating the candidates, I find that I am mostly assessing their electability rather than their positions. The question for me is “who best can beat Trump? I find myself pondering whether voters would elect a women as president. Historically, we have voted for the candidate that can connect with us– that we think is approachable (i.e. the guy we’d like to have a beer with). Do we ever even consider “having a beer” with a women.?
Harris and Warren
Neither Harris nor Warren are highly personable. Warren comes off slightly high strung. In contrast, Harris is a bit of an enigma but her prosecutorial style is a dominant trait.
For many, Harris’s greatest personal shortcoming will be that she has no children. She has 2 adult step children from her husband’s previous marriage but no biological children. In addition, she dated Willie Brown who, while speaker of the California legislature, appointed her to a medical board (www.washingtonexaminer.com), helping launch her political career. This leaves her open to being painted as an aggressive, ambitious, career-first, feminist who hates motherhood and slept her way to the top.
Warren’s greatest weakness is her intensity. Her focus on policy is at at the expense of personal warmth. She comes off as slightly high-strung which leaves her open to being cast as the hysterical women who sees everything as a life threatening issue. With regard to her personal life, Warren has two children by her first marriage making her less open to attack on that front.
the baggage that comes with being a women
The 2 leading women candidates both have major vulnerabilities that are directly related to their being female. These vulnerabilities are in addition to other weaknesses they may have. As such, I do not think either of them are strong candidates to take on Trump. I think both Warren and Harris could greatly enhance a ticket as the Vice President candidate.