"Women have just experienced the ultimate betrayal. Senator Kennedy's endorsement of Hillary Clinton's opponent in the Democratic presidential primary campaign has really hit women hard. Women have forgiven Kennedy, stuck up for him, stood by him, hushed the fact that he was late in his support of Title IX, the ERA, the Family Leave and Medical Act to name a few. Women have buried their anger that his support for the compromises in No Child Left Behind and the Medicare bogus drug benefit brought us the passage of these flawed bills. We have thanked him for his ardent support of many civil rights bills, BUT women are always waiting in the wings.
"And now the greatest betrayal! We are repaid with his abandonment! He's picked the new guy over us. He's joined the list of progressive white men who can't or won't handle the prospect of a woman president who is Hillary Clinton (they will of course say they support a woman president, just not "this" one). 'They' are Howard Dean and Jim Dean (Yup! That's Howard's brother) who run DFA (that's the group and list from the Dean campaign that we women helped start and grow). They are Alternet, Progressive Democrats of America, democrats.com, Kucinich lovers and all the other groups that take women's money, say they'll do feminist and women's rights issues one of these days, and conveniently forget to mention women and children when they talk about poverty or human needs or America's future or whatever.
"This latest move by Kennedy, is so telling about the status of and respect for women's rights, women's voices, women's equality, women's authority and our ability - indeed, our obligation - to promote and earn and deserve and elect, unabashedly, a President that is the first woman after centuries of men who 'know what's best for us.'"
Now... I have no idea about the relationship between Teddy Kennedy and NOW so I'll make no comment nor take any position on that. But let's take a look at the rest of it shall we.
This statement reeks of uncontrolled anger (never good in a public setting let alone politics) and desperation (not good in a political setting). "Ultimate betrayal," actually I would think it would be more of an "ultimate betrayal" when women like Oprah and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (rumored to be endorsing Obama after the SOTU) endorse a man then when a "progressive white man" does it.
"Senator Kennedy's endorsement... has really hit women hard." I'm quite certain the Obama campaign is very happy to have NOW adding weight to the endorsement. While opposition camps and pundits usually downplay such endorsements by wondering if they make any difference NOW-NY uses the strongest possible language in describing this as a particularly damaging endorsement. They appear to state that their candidate (Hillary Clinton) is now in deep, deep trouble. Is she? I didn't think so. Now I have to wonder.
"And now the greatest betrayal! We are repaid with his abandonment!" Ouch. "Betrayal?" "Abandonment?" Interesting choice of language in a thoroughly and completely gender based attack. Did all of NOW and all of Hillary Clinton's campaign depend on Teddy Kennedy to support them? Are they lost forever now that their "progressive white man" has abandoned them? Such language plays into stereotypes of the helpless and victimized woman betrayed by her leading man. I can't imagine any way in which this is helpful language in the battle to empower women in America.
"He picked the new guy over us." More victim language. Jilted for the prom by the star quarterback who picked the new girl in town. Ummm... another way to put this might be that Teddy Kennedy followed in the footsteps of his two more famous brothers by throwing his support behind an African-American man thereby advancing the cause of civil and minority rights for all (including majority women by the way). It's not like he picked another old white male here.
And now we get to the good stuff. Here is where the writer loses all self-control.
He's joined the list of progressive white men who can't or won't handle the prospect of a woman president who is Hillary Clinton (they will of course say they support a woman president, just not "this" one)
"the list of progressive white men"... stereotyping, gender bashing, racial divisiveness all packed into 6 words. Progressive white men make up a significant portion of the electorate in Democratic primaries. It is also a demographic that Sen. Clinton's campaign could be doing better with. Attacking a demographic you need and that it is actually possible to convince to vote for your candidate is not a wise move. It would be one thing to lash out at conservative white men that don't think women should have the right to vote let alone hold office but I'm sitting here, an undecided "progressive white man," a few days before my states primary and surrogates for one of the candidates I am considering is attacking me. I am now less inclined to vote for their candidate then I was. I still may vote for her but it sure won't be as a result of their contribution to her campaign. This is not how you support your candidate. When angry, don't write or speak. Your main goal is always to convince voters why they should be voting for your candidate not against them.
"'They' are Howard Dean and Jim Dean (Yup! That's Howard's brother) who run DFA (that's the group and list from the Dean campaign that we women helped start and grow)."
Now this is a particularly brilliant statement. Howard Dean is Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Sen. Clinton's own party. As such, he has not made, nor will he make, any endorsements or statements of support or opposition regarding any Democratic candidate. So, in support of Hillary Clinton, NOW-NY has attacked the leader of Sen. Clinton's party. Not goodness. That is bridge burning at its finest.
"Who run DFA," as stated, Howard Dean runs the Democratic National Committee. By law he is completely disassociated from Democracy for America which is now run by his brother Jim. Neither Jim Dean nor DFA have endorsed a candidate in the primary. Now, as it just so happens, I was involved in the Dean campaign here in New York, was founding President of the Capital District group, Democracy for the Hudson-Mohawk Region, and have been one of the lead organizers for our statewide coalition Democracy for New York. I don't recall NOW-NY showing up at any of our events let alone helping us start and grow. Women most certainly have! My replacement as President of Democracy for the Hudson-Mohawk Region is a woman. Leaders of several of our other largest and most vigorous groups are women and "women's issues" are regularly of chief concern to members of our groups... regardless of gender. It is very alarming to me to be so personally and harshly attacked by a group that I would normally consider an ally in the movement for a more progressive America.
Unfortunately, there is a lesson for NOW-NY to learn here and it is how not to write a press release. Perhaps I am guilty of "knowing what's best for them" in this but I'm fairly certain most every campaign and political organization spokesperson will agree with me that this was an absolutely horrid press release. As I consider NOW an ally I do hope that they will be better at such things in the future. I don't need allies that do more to harm the cause them help.
Now, let's talk about DFA and the Dean brothers for a minute. Why were they mentioned at all? Teddy Kennedy is not associated with DFA. Why were the other groups "Alternet, Progressive Democrats of America, democrats.com, Kucinich lovers," thrown in here as well? Let's use a tommy gun to cut a wide swath across the progressive side of America and attack them all with complete abandon, no actual substance, and no apparent reason. I was about to write "for no apparent reason" but the attack itself contains no apparent reason. All I can surmise is that the writer was not engaging their reasoning faculties when they began typing.
Democracy for America has never been contacted by the Clinton campaign for their support. Sen. Clinton has never called Jim Dean and asked for his support. Howard Dean, as DNC Chair, is completely and appropriately neutral. Sen. Clinton has never reached out to Democracy for New York or Democracy for the Hudson-Mohawk Region for support in either her Senate or Presidential campaigns. To the best of my knowledge she has not reached out to any of the other DFA groups in the state or in other states for our support.
DFA has run a series of pieces this year highlighting the positions of the various Democratic Presidential candidates. They have reached out to the campaigns and offered them the opportunity to speak directly to DFA's members. The Edwards, Dodd, Kucinich, Obama, and Richardson campaigns all took advantage of this generous offer of free outreach to millions of progressive activists, white, black, male and female across the nation. The Clinton campaign did not. In fact, despite numerous attempts by DFA the Clinton campaign has been completely unresponsive.
It is disingenuous at best and deceitful at worst to attack someone for not supporting your candidate when your candidate has not only never asked for that support but has in fact rebuffed every offer of contact and cooperation. A completely inaccurate, random, and unprovoked attack such as this one by a surrogate is no way to gain votes. I can only assume that the Clinton campaign had no knowledge of this and hope that it was nothing more than some inexperienced staffer acting without oversight or authorization in issuing this divisive and counter-productive attack piece.
I am a man and I don't pretend to know what is best for women... except for when my feminist sociologist sister tells me... but I am a political activist with some amount of training and experience and I have a pretty good idea of what is good for a campaign.
With just 8 days to go until all the super-duper Tuesday primaries in a hotly contested campaign with all the marbles in the world at stake...
This wasn't it. |
