{"id":1994,"date":"2008-01-21T07:57:34","date_gmt":"2008-01-21T12:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=1994"},"modified":"2008-01-21T07:57:34","modified_gmt":"2008-01-21T12:57:34","slug":"speaking-of-that-tiny-tent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=1994","title":{"rendered":"Speaking Of That Tiny Tent…"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the previous post, I decried the intellectual provincialism of the (usually) female voters who claim their vote will be based on gender first and foremost.<\/p>\n

I have never, ever, met a guy who claimed he’d vote “men first”.\u00a0 I suppose such a guy exists out there; an angry fathers’ rights advocate, a militant gay, someone<\/em> – but if I met such a guy, it’d be a first.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, I’ve known quite <\/em>a few women (and a few men) who claimed – as I noted in my previous post – that a pair of Y chromosomes was basically all they needed to earn their vote (although presumably they’d make exceptions for Michele Bachmann and Mary Kiffmeyer).<\/p>\n

And I knew, in the pit of my gut, that I’d find more on the subject by reading the Twin Cities’ media’s most reliable Tic flak, Lori Sturdevant<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And it goes without saying that the key to the story will be a “Republican who is disaffected by the current state of the party”:<\/p>\n

\n
The story was that one longtime Republican backer of womenwinning (which at the time was called the Minnesota Women’s Campaign Fund) phoned another to announce that she was organizing a Republicans for Choice rally at next September’s GOP national convention in St. Paul. It was the sort of thing the two of them used to love to do 25 or 30 years ago — back when there was something called the GOP Feminist Caucus and when Minnesota’s Republican leadership had not yet alienated or exiled almost all of its backers of legal abortion and the Equal Rights Amendment.<\/p>\n

“Can I count on your support?” Sally Pillsbury asked Marilyn Bryant.<\/p>\n

“I’m sorry,” replied Bryant, “but I’m supporting Hillary.”<\/p><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Naturally, “feminism” in Sturdevant’s world is really only about one topic:<\/div>\n
\n
So is womenwinning. The still officially multipartisan state organization sends money only to candidates who are female, prochoice and viable, and this year found itself able to endorse a candidate for president for the first time.<\/p>\n

Bryant, a womenwinning founder, explained her choice last week: “I’ve seen women move into the professions — business, law, medicine — with great success. But in politics, it’s been a terribly slow process. I’d love to have the opportunity to vote for a woman for president, especially a woman who’s as articulate, smart and qualified as Hillary Clinton is.”<\/p>\n

That longing among female voters — some of them former Republicans like Bryant — is getting much credit for Clinton’s resurgent victory Tuesday.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Let’s take a step back here – partly because reading Sturdevant is so terribly depressing, but mostly because it’ll help unpack the stupidity of Sturdevant’s subjects.<\/p>\n

Ms. Bryant just rattled off a condensed litany of real <\/em>feminism’s genuine triumphs:\u00a0 women are completely integrated into pretty much every facet of American life.\u00a0 Indeed, in many areas, the pendulum has overcorrected; women are almost 2\/3 of our college students today; primary and secondary public education is downright hostile to boys, and it’s having an effect on boys’ attitudes about seeking higher education that will eventually bite this nation in the butt.<\/div>\n

\n
To keep women’s votes coming the way they did in New Hampshire, Clinton has to make sure they see her the way Bryant does: articulate, smart, qualified, and a woman to boot — and not the way her opponents cast her in Iowa: too calculating, cautious, controlling and connected to a certain previous administration.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Articulate, smart, qualified – and let’s not forget a closet banana-republican authoritarian who has it in her to be the female Nixon<\/a>.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
And dont’ worry, Hills – Lori’s got your back; nary a discouraging word will escape her lips – or those of her paper, which will likely be thoroughly in the bag for you as well. But you knew that)<\/div>\n
\n
Clinton emerged from New Hampshire as both the establishment and the feminist candidate. That’s a complex and somewhat contradictory dual identity that no previous major presidential contender has borne. She’s traversing uncharted territory.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
It’s complex and contradictory, perhaps.\u00a0 It’s also fragrant crapola.\u00a0 John Kerry, Algore, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter were nothing if not “establishment” and slavishly adored by the “feminist” establishment.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
And now, the local angle:<\/div>\n
\n
A lot of politically ambitious women are watching her for a lesson in how to do it…Minnesota House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, state Senate Assistant Majority Leader Tarryl Clark and Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner — would have to decide how early and how often to play the gender card if they run for statewide office in 2010 or beyond.<\/p>\n

In the wake of Clinton’s New Hampshire experience, all three played it boldly Wednesday.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

With a big chunk of the tic vote, it’s a safe bet.<\/div>\n
<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the previous post, I decried the intellectual provincialism of the (usually) female voters who claim their vote will be based on gender first and foremost. I have never, ever, met a guy who claimed he’d vote “men first”.\u00a0 I suppose such a guy exists out there; an angry fathers’ rights advocate, a militant gay, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,24,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campaign-08","category-culture-war","category-men-and-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1994\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}