HILLARY SUPPORTERS AND THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN: DON'T DO THIS!

This is breaking my heart.  Why is it that we Democrats are incapable of NOT shooting ourselves in the foot (feet even)?  In my view (and I'm hardly alone in this) this may be the most critical election of my lifetime.  I've written (are you sick of it yet?) about the parallels to 1968 when the refusal of many anti-war voters to show up at the polls and vote for Hubert Humphrey brought us Richard Nixon and a cascade of disaster.  That could and most likely will happen again if we don't all pull ourselves together.

I heard a commentator quote -- I thought Jefferson but can't find the source -- "True democracy means acceptance of defeat by one vote."  Sounds right, doesn't it?  But there is what we wish were true and there is political reality, and the reality this year is that every moment of hesitation by Senator Clinton's supporters puts another barrier between Senator Obama and the White House.  My most-respected friend PunditMom has a very smart analysis of where all this antipathy is coming from.  And there's a survey of much of the conversation in Lisa Stone's summary at BlogHer.

As I write this I think about the suffragists who won us the right to have this fight in the first place just 88 years ago.  What would they think now?  They were willing to stand up to those who asked them to halt their campaign until WWI was over.  Should women have the same singular focus now -- placing their anger ahead of the outcome of this election?  Is the injustice so great that it justifies putting another conservative Republican in the White House?

I think not.  Our sisters will do us a disservice that will last a very long time if they continue to stand in the way of an Obama victory or even just sit on their hands, because that will betray women who are at the bottom of the power pile, raising children alone, struggling for childcare, lacking health insurance, vacation or sick leave and any kind of job security.  Feminists rightly say that "every issue is a women's issue" and that means that every decision in a McCain administration will have a heavy impact on these women, and on the rest of us.

Beyond that, in my view, the perils of an anti-choice administration that will nominate judges like those who overrode violence against women laws in Virginia and frequently support employers over women seeking redress to sexual harassment or other discrimination, an Administration that will carry on the Bush foreign policy and continue to decimate our constitutional rights -- oh - you know the list -- those perils outweigh any grievance. 

So if sisterhood is powerful, let those whose hearts are broken by the Clinton loss recall their sisters who need so much - and consider how little their interests would be served if Barack Obama does not prevail.  On this, Women's Equality Day, let them ease their pain with the knowledge that they will help on "every issue" and therefore every "women's issue" if they can move past the pain of their defeat and see to it that our country itself is not defeated too.

Comments

[Alice]

I'm right there with you in everything you've said here! I'm working on Hubby, and I think it's gonna be okay.

[Cynthia Samuels]

Surprise Liza - I'm not there. Living vicariously (or Tweetariously) through the posts of others. Happy baby day - make sure I'm on the notification email list...

[Liza]

FANTASTIC post, Cindy. As usual.

I wish I was in Denver with you. Except for the part where I get to have a baby in 3 days. :)

[jodifur]

It was so great to meet you last night and live blog the speech at punditmom's.

[Jen]

Thanks for saying it a lot better than I did: Ultimately, we are voting for the issues we care about and not for a person.

Maybe the media is exaggerating the dissent, though, because stirring people up sells. I knew several Clinton voters in the primaries who said they liked both candidates but wanted to have a chance to vote for a woman for president, and planned to be enthusiastic about whichever candidate was chosen. But talking about that doesn't get ratings.

[Rich]

There are other opportunities in a Barack Obama administration. How about Attorney General?

[Trisha]

Its breaking my heart too! I wish there was something I could do to make more of a difference.

[Cynthia Samuels]

David I'm honored to have you here - and honor your son/daughter veteran. I'm glad about the veteran part - so scary for a parent. Thanks for your thoughts....

[W. David Stephenson]

Nice piece: I remember those purists who wouldn't deign to vote for HHH in '68, and look what we got. The thought that people would vote for an anti-choice plutocrat (and, as the father of an Iraq veteran, I can't forgive him for the surge, which, BTW, still hasn't been proven a success)because they loved Hillary is beyond me. Where have they been living for the past 8 years of hell??

[Jill Zimon]

Lovely post - in large part because I can just see and hear you saying this with emotion in your face and body language. :)

[thepoetryman]

A hearty amen to that!