{"id":4517,"date":"2008-06-18T00:20:35","date_gmt":"2008-06-18T07:40:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2008\/06\/18\/no-there-arent-droves-of-female-clinton-voters-supporting-mccain\/"},"modified":"2008-06-18T00:20:35","modified_gmt":"2008-06-18T07:40:23","slug":"no-there-arent-droves-of-female-clinton-voters-supporting-mccain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=4517","title":{"rendered":"No, There Aren't Droves Of Female Clinton Voters Supporting McCain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lots of folks have been linking to this Frank Rich column<\/a>, and rightly so:<\/p>\n

But as we know from our Groundhog Days of 2008, a fictional campaign narrative, once set in the concrete of Beltway bloviation, must be recited incessantly, especially on cable television, no matter what facts stand in the way. Only an earthquake \u2014 the Iowa results, for instance \u2014 could shatter such previously immutable story lines as the Clinton campaign\u2019s invincibility and the innate hostility of white voters to a black candidate.<\/p>\n

Our new bogus narrative rose from the ashes of Mrs. Clinton\u2019s concession to Mr. Obama, amid the raucous debate over what role misogyny played in her defeat. A few female Clinton supporters \u2014 or so they identified themselves \u2014 appeared on YouTube and Fox News to say they were so infuriated by sexism that they would vote for Mr. McCain.<\/p>\n

Now, there\u2019s no question that men played a big role in Mrs. Clinton\u2019s narrow loss, starting with Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Mark Penn. And the evidence of misogyny in the press and elsewhere is irrefutable, even if it was not the determinative factor in the race. But the notion that all female Clinton supporters became \u201cangry white women\u201d once their candidate lost \u2014 to the hysterical extreme where even lifelong Democrats would desert their own party en masse \u2014 is itself a sexist stereotype. That\u2019s why some of the same talking heads and Republican operatives who gleefully insulted Mrs. Clinton are now peddling this fable on such flimsy anecdotal evidence.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That said, lots of feminists — and not only those who supported Clinton in the race — remain<\/a> pissed off<\/a> about the level of misogyny Clinton faced during the race. And rightly so<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And many anti-racist feminists and womanists remain pissed off<\/a> at how many (not all) Clinton-supporting feminists — and Clinton herself<\/a> — minimized or denied racism during the primary race. And rightly so<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We shouldn’t say that we have to heal these divisions before the election. Because, you know, that’s not going to happen<\/em>. These divisions are deeper and more enduring than a single election cycle, and will take more than six months to heal.<\/p>\n

That doesn’t mean that we can’t elect Obama rather than McCain in the meanwhile, of course. But that’s the sideshow, not the main focus. Fighting racism and sexism is important for its own sake, not because there’s an election coming up.<\/p>\n

(Disclosure: In case folks are wondering, I will quite likely be voting for Cynthia McKinney — although I’d vote for Obama if I lived in a swing state.)<\/p>\n

P.S. Check out Michelle Obama Watch<\/a>, if you haven’t already.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lots of folks have been linking to this Frank Rich column, and rightly so: But as we know from our Groundhog Days of 2008, a fictional campaign narrative, once set in the concrete of Beltway bloviation, must be recited incessantly, … 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":[27,31,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections-and-politics","category-feminism-sexism-etc","category-race-racism-and-related-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4517","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=4517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4517\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}