Hillary's Other Albatross: Condescending Liberals

Bill Clinton isn't Hillary's only problem.  A reader at the Daily Dish bristles with the kind of old-fashioned, liberal condescension that turns so many voters off to Hillary.

Obama won't earn my vote until he stands up to his boorish supporters, the boorish "Hillary Haters" of the Right, and the media. ...hostility and disrespect toward the women who, bearing the brunt of massive social change over the last 40 years, stepped up to the plate, accepted new responsibilities, and worked to create new and better conditions and opportunities for their sons and daughters. Obama would not be where he is today without 40 years of commitment from the liberal women, black and white, of Hillary's (and my own) generation. That unique "biography" that you claim as Obama's advantage isn't Obama's alone -- it is his mother's, too, and perhaps most of all.

In other words, Mr. Obama, you're a black man. You're nothing without our virtue.  You thought you could be proud of the way you've lived your life?  You thought you could be proud of your own accomplishments?  Well, Mister, we're here to tell you that you're nothing.  It's all about us.

And you know all that stuff about oppressive sexist values, Mr. Obama?  We reject those values, except when it comes to defending Hillary.  You can't treat her the way you treat the rest of your opponents.  We expect a man to step up to the plate to defend Hillary's honor, because she's a woman and men are supposed to defend a woman's honor.

There's more:

I'd like to see Obama, if he gets the nomination, choose a woman VP... It would also help convince life-long Democratic women, like me, that Obama really is seeking to lead the country past the old politics of "culture war" -- so much of which has always been based in fear of the changing role of women in our society and economy -- rather than just exploiting that fear in new and more subtle ways.

Huh?  Since when does choosing a running mate based on gender represent getting past the old politics of the culture wars?  Obama isn't running on his blackness and it would pollute his message of change if people thought that he chose a running mate based on the old politics of identity.  I'm not saying he should or shouldn't choose a woman as a running mate.  I'm saying that he should not choose a woman (or anyone else for that matter) as an accession to the resentful demands of people clinging to the old politics of identity.  One great positive about Obama is that voters sense that he is above that kind of politics; he's not running on resentment and he isn't laying guilt trips on voters.  That's the kind of change he represents.

Hillary keeps protesting that she is about change because she gets things done in the real world, but that defense misses the mark.  People want a change of attitude in politics.  No matter how much Hillary does in the "real world," if she still represents the old values expressed by Andrew Sullivan's reader, then she is not about the kind of change that voters want.

Comments

[Dennis]

I am so glad to see you say this. I have been waiting for someone in the press, or even on the blogs like Daily Kos, to say this. Thanks.