As our election approaches, the left has seen some great divisions expose themselves. I'm confident that these divisions can and will be mended behind what is becoming an increasingly likely Obama/Clinton ticket. However, I think it's important to have a frank talk about these divisions in order to move forward as a unified front. The number of women who supported and continue to support Hilary Clinton has been predictably quite large. Also, the African American vote for Obama has been predictably very strong as well. I myself have found the focus on Candidates' sex, race, and religion to be rather discouraging. I have witnessed several heated debates in which folks have argued and argued, in pondering Clinton and Obama's chances, over whether our country is more sexist or more racist. There's almost always a woman arguing the sexist side and some dude arguing the racist side. Snore! I couldn't find that chicken and egg argument more useless if I tried. Our country is sexist AND racist and instead of engaging in these constant half-cocked demographic analyses of candidates' chances the way "educated" Americans seem to love to we should be debating THE ISSUES and how each candidate stands on those issues. By focusing so much on a candidate's racial, religious, or sexual profile we allow the television's corruption of American politics to win the day and keep us dumb and uninformed little demographic robots. Like little mini Karl Roves. Mini Roves. Don't be a mini Rove! Be an ethical and free-thinking citizen!
So what does any of this have to do with Cindy Sheehan? Well as long as there is good reason to expend and demand female representation in our government - and there is - then why don't we take a look at a couple of important facts first. There already IS female representation in our Government. No it's not what it should be but it's there. Every single woman in congress of about 70 except for one, for example, voted to respond to 9-11 with bombs. That one exception was Barbara Lee and her vote will become much more significant as history is written but that's the topic of another post. There are many other women in congress like Diane Feinstein, Hilary Clinton, and Nansy Pelosi. These women are NOT STOPPING THIS WAR and they are NOT STANDING UP TO CORPORATE AMERICA. They are failing and worse yet they don't even appear to be very committed to these ideas.
Well if we progressives are committed to stopping the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and we really do care about keeping the troops alive then let's get behind a candidate who is really serious about making that happen. You want your anti-war package in the form of a woman? Fine! Her name is Cindy Sheehan. Show that we don't just want ANY woman in Government we want women who actually act on the causes that women care about. She can be San Francisco's representative in the House of Representatives and do just that! What an wonderful development that would be.
Cindy Sheehan has been branded by the mainstream press as an emotional hothead particularly around the brave protest she staged outside of Bush's Texas ranch. It's critical we see through this haze and realize that someone like Cindy will ALWAYS face that kind of treatment by the the corporate press. We must ignore this and listen to what she says and read what she writes. If we find ourselves agreeing with her words and yes with her passion then we are compelled to support her. For those of us who listen to KPFA and people like Amy Goodman on democracynow.org every day, we've heard plenty from Cindy. She's been an outspoken opponent of not only the current U.S. wars but also of the corporate corruption of the Democratic party. Label her an extremist all you want but we're in an extreme situation demanding extreme action. The fact that her words and ethics have come to seem so extreme compared to other candidates' says so much about what's happened to our country's politics over the past 10 years.
Well her headquarters is about 5 blocks from my house here in the Mission district of San Francisco so I for one will be poking my head in and seeing what help they need.
Check out her campaign at http://www.cindyforcongress.org
And remember what DJ Freak says. Don't be a mini Rove!
-DJ Freak
5 comments:
I'm not so sure on the Obama/Clinton thing. I know strategically (not to be mini Rove...but aren't we all mini Rove at times...God knows I am on the freeway some days..) there is a worry. But it just doesn't seem functional.
she added the group i run on myspace yesterday or today or something. i wasnt sure if that was someone wishing she'd run, or if she really was. now i know. and knowing is half the battle.
i read an interesting article that said if Hilary was a man, she would be unstoppable if you look at her credentials w/o attaching her gender. On the flip, this article said that if you extracted his credentials and voting record, if Obama was a black female, he would be laughed off the stage.
Having said that, i prefer Obama for many reasons BUT i do feel that Hilary has been unfairly maligned by the press since day one.
'course, that's not the point of your entry but whatevah, that's what i was thinking about this morning. ;-
I can understand your passion on this issue here Pixie but not so fast!
We DID have Hilary in the form of a man. Her husband! If you don't think so then please find me one issue where the two of them disagreed privately or publicly and no Monica Lewinsky does not count.
Bill Clinton WAS unstoppable. That's the problem.
Very important to pay attention to ACTIONS not talk and not reputations.
Further, Hilary had unbelievably biased and favorable coverage in the final weeks before Obama "clinched" it. She just did. It's undeniable. She had front page coverage on all web sites, mags, and newspapers including super right wing outlets like Fox News. The Bill O'Reilly interview of Clinton, a gesture NOT offered to Obama, was viewed by millions and I feared her slick performance on that show was gonna give her the nomination for sure and STILL Obama came out on top. That's not because he's a man that's because he built a grass-roots coalition of progressive support in a country that is starving for that kind of change. People are tired of the Clintons and they have good reason to be. Getting rid of Bush and all he represents means getting rid of aristocracy and the Clitons are just as bad as the Bushes as far as that goes.
Imagine if Hilary did win in '08 AND '12. We would then have had a period of 28 years under the Presidential control of two families. We're taught that many people died fighting our revolution so that that would NEVER happen.
Find me any press in the 30 days before the Indiana primary that you feel favored Obama. I saw almost zero with the exception of some of the far left press who actually pay attention to issues instead of profiles and personalities. I was beginning to forget he was even running during that period. I thought for sure he was a gonner.
Hilary Clinton is conservative. The fact that she's a woman is totally secondary.
There are many women out there who are totally worthy of support from progressives but HC is NOT one of them. Cindy Sheehan is. That was the point of my blog post.
-djf
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