{"id":377,"date":"2003-09-18T08:22:59","date_gmt":"2003-09-18T16:22:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2003\/09\/18\/nows-endorsement-of-moseley-braun\/"},"modified":"2003-09-18T08:22:59","modified_gmt":"2003-09-18T16:22:59","slug":"nows-endorsement-of-moseley-braun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=377","title":{"rendered":"NOW's endorsement of Moseley Braun"},"content":{"rendered":"

So the New York Times <\/i>has editorialized against <\/a>NOW’s decision to endorse <\/a>long-shot candidate Carol Moseley Braun<\/a> for president.<\/p>\n

From the Times’ <\/i>editorial:<\/p>\n

There is a place in the American political system for symbolic candidacies that advance important principles. But it is hard to see a principle that distinguishes Ms. Braun’s candidacy, other than perhaps the right of a tarnished former official to seek the nation’s highest office.<\/div>\n

Is it really that “hard to see” the important principle that the Presidency shouldn’t be a white-men-only club? As Moseley Braun has said, it’s time to rip the “men only” sign off the Oval Office’s door. Since the Times sees the value in symbolic candidates, they should have no problem seeing the symbolic value of a black woman running for the nation’s hightest office.<\/p>\n

Well, maybe it is <\/i>hard to see why ripping that “men only” sign down is an “important principle” – if you’re a member of the exclusive club of white men who has reached the highest ranks at the Times<\/i>.<\/p>\n

There are a number of replies to the Times posted on NOW’s websites. NOWPAC<\/a> has a detailed – and I think sometimes over-the-top – response. Here’s one of the good bits:<\/p>\n

Moseley Braun is polling even with John Edwards among Democratic and leaning Democratic registered voters, and ahead of Graham, Kucinich, Sharpton and Wesley Clark (CNN\/Gallup\/USA Today poll, August 25-26), which puts her in the middle of the pack. She has performed extremely well in the Democratic debates, and brings an important perspective on the issues to the table. But none of this seems to matter to The New York Times. The important question is this: would a man with her experience at the local, state, national and international levels be dismissed so cavalierly by the Times?<\/p>\n

Despite her poll numbers and her outstanding performance in the debates, which has drawn appreciative commentary from many quarters, The New York Times trivialized Carol Moseley Braun’s seriousness as a candidate, NOW’s and NWPC’s endorsement, feminism, and women in general by assuming that the candidacy of an African-American woman cannot be serious. What more does Moseley Braun need to do to be considered just as serious as the male candidates? Oh, that’s right, raise more money, but without the help of women’s organizations.<\/p><\/div>\n

Kim Gandy, the president of NOW, wrote a short response <\/a>which the Times <\/i>printed. What I enjoyed more, though, was the page of responses from other folks<\/a> to the Times<\/i>. This, for example, comes from a letter by Virginia Kallianes of New York:<\/p>\n

Having credible female candidates in any political race ensures that issues will be raised in a serious manner that would never be raised by other candidates. […] The important issues that your editorial plays down\u2014such as pay equity and reproductive choice\u2014as merely “women’s issues” are crucial for all Americans, more so now than ever. Yet without a female candidate in the mix, these issues would likely receive only lip service from an all-male line-up.<\/p>\n

Throughout the history of women’s activism, feminists have been trivialized by the mainstream public. To their credit, feminist political groups ignore this condescension and forge forward. Not surprising, when they support women in political roles, they are damned if they do … and damned if they don’t. When feminist groups endorse a woman candidate, they are criticized: “They are only endorsing her because she is a woman, not on her merits; they can’t be taken seriously.” When they don’t endorse a woman candidate, they are criticized: “How can they endorse a male candidate and not the female candidate? How do they expect voters to take women candidates seriously if the women’s groups themselves don’t endorse woman candidates?”<\/p>\n

American women are tired of the litany: “Sure we would support a women for president, but … it’s not the right time, she’s not the right candidate, it’s not the right race, she’s taking someone else’s opportunity,” and so forth. But, how could a political group still consider itself legitimate and not endorse a candidate who it has supported through prior campaigns and who has a strong record on the issues it espouses! And, if feminist groups are not upfront supporting women candidates, who else will?<\/p><\/div>\n

From Gay Bruhn, president of Illinois NOW:<\/p>\n

Our 1966 charter declares, “The purpose of NOW is to take action to bring women into full participation in the mainstream of American society now, exercising all the privileges and responsibilities thereof in truly equal partnership with men.” We don’t do that by catering to mainstream publications. We do that by altering the course of the mainstream by inserting our presence\u2014women’s presence, women’s perspective\u2014into the course of the waters that would otherwise tumble over us unheeding. We are the rock in the stream, not the smoothly inoffensive pebbles at the bottom, ground down by public opinion\u2014or the opinion of The New York Times.<\/p>\n

In this race, Carol Moseley Braun\u2014black, female, credible, qualified\u2014is another rock in the stream. She deserves our support, we are proud to give it to her, and we will not be moved.<\/p><\/div>\n

And this letter from Irene Weiser of New York:<\/p>\n

Silly? For endorsing a candidate who speaks for our nation’s children who increasingly go to bed hungry, attend ill-equipped schools and lack health insurance? For endorsing a candidate who cares that every year as many women and children die as a result of family violence as were killed in the World Trade Center? For endorsing a candidate who understands the concerns of working women nationwide?<\/p>\n

What’s silly is that the other candidates don’t speak of these issues more often.<\/p>\n

Serious issues. Serious NOW. Silly, sexist, New York Times<\/i>.<\/div>\n

.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So the New York Times has editorialized against NOW’s decision to endorse long-shot candidate Carol Moseley Braun for president. From the Times’ editorial: There is a place in the American political system for symbolic candidacies that advance important principles. But … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections-and-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}