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Apr 6th, 2008 at 9:10 pm by Susie

What Anglachel said.

Posted in Politics As Usual

7 Responses to “Otherness”

on 06 Apr 2008 at 11:24 pm1Chris

Hmm. The deep psychosis of Obamacans. Charming. Nice to know you feel that way.
on 07 Apr 2008 at 12:01 am2Izquierdo

Please stop fighting, youse guys.
on 07 Apr 2008 at 6:03 am3memyself

I believe that fighting name calling and animosity might play just a bit better if it were not attempted with quite so much name calling and animosity.

When an Obama supporter (or feel free to use whatever name indicating “cult member” you prefer to insert here. Please be creative – I’ve heard so many repeated so often they are getting tedious.) points out what appears to us to be racially insensitivity or down right race baiting from within the Clinton campaign, some Clinton supporters get extremely indignant and immediately claim THEY are being directly called racists. I personally see and feel the racism coming from Clinton’s campaign. While I understand that you may disagree, the fact is that I truly perceive her campaign as pushing philosophies that I find morally repugnant.

Clinton supporters seem to overly personalizing attacks on their candidate and her surrogates as attacks on THEM. I have read arguments about alleged sexist language coming from Obama or his campaign that I do not perceive as sexist. My reaction as generally been to read and try to understand the other person perspective, but I do not internalize the attack as meaning I am personally being called a sexist. So why do so many Clinton supporters jump down my throat and act as if I have smeared them if I dare to discuss my true perceptions of Clinton and members of her campaign?

As a 57 YO white woman who has worked for decades in jobs dominated by males, I have fought sexism my entire adult life and I am certainly aware of it in many aspects of day to day living. My response to some reactions of Clinton supporters is anger at what feels to me like a modern version of the vapors that only serves to weak the image of women in our society. Frankly I find it offensive and, yes - sexist. It seems that the stereotypes of women being too weak and sensitive to take on the tough jobs (like president) are just being reinforced. I resent that because I believe it is actually setting feminism back to the point where it could be years before any woman will have a real shot at president again.

Discussing polling and voting demographics does not equate to calling anyone white racists when it is pointed out who tends to support Clinton. The oft repeated discussions of the % of the black population voting for Obama are also not calling anyone a racist. These are facts, age, sex, race, income and education levels are simply demographic factors that pollsters have been collecting for decades. Someone like me, who believes the Clinton campaign is pushing buttons of whites who fear blacks, will naturally feel it is relevant to also discuss why whites with lower education and lower income are more likely to support Clinton, especially the men who are traditionally not exactly feminists themselves. I have seen men who are very much like the men who have most strongly resented having me as a boss over the decades declaring support for Clinton, and I wish to understand the phenomenon. This does not equate to calling any individual Clinton supporter or the whole population of Clinton supporters anything! Get a grip folks, there are racists on both sides, they are real and they are having an effect on voting patterns. Your over reaction to an honest discussion of this fact is counter productive.
on 07 Apr 2008 at 10:18 am4Bob

There are name callers on both sides. There are bigots and sexists on both sides. There are thoroughly loathsome people on both sides.
Can we please get beyond all this and discuss issues?
on 07 Apr 2008 at 1:10 pm5Susie

Actually, Chris, the part I agreed with was the need for Democrats to stop deriding white, working class voters.
on 07 Apr 2008 at 1:55 pm6k

Because working class voters are supposedly the base of the Democratic party. My rowboat isn’t attached to anyone’s yacht, thank you very much. In fact I suspect it’s been attached to one of their anchors.
on 08 Apr 2008 at 12:20 pm7Chris

I agree with that as well. Wholeheartedly. That nut is just wrapped in so much poison.

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Otherness

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