MmeGigs
Posts: 706
Joined: 1/26/2008 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: LaTigresse I would dearly love to see gender become a non issue with this election. I imagine that it will be a long, long time before that happens. The sexist crapola this election cycle have been thoroughly depressing. The way the Republicans are dealing with Palin is even more depressing, insisting that because she's a woman she needs a protective bubble. Palin is a politically savvy and ambitious woman, and I guess I can't blame her for seizing on any advantage she can get, but she's kind of going for broke here. If they play this card too often and too hard it will surely undermine her credibility as a leader and could have consequences for women running for office in the future - they may have more trouble getting voters to take them seriously. If the McCain/Palin team loses, she's the perfect scapegoat - her womanly inadequacies (as evidenced by the fact that she needed to be protected) distracted the campaign's energy and made voters nervous about voting for the old dude. Then again, if this "Leave her alone! She's a girl and a MOMMY!" stuff helps get her into office, I have no doubt that she'll make the most of it. She's extremely politically opportunistic and no shrinking violet - she's willing to go up against just about anyone, including her own party, when she feels she's in the right and it's politically advantageous. That's not intended as a criticism - if you're going to be successful in politics these days, that's the way you've got to be. While I don't care for her social conservatism, I think that for her, political pragmatism is an equally driving factor. If Palin is successful, perhaps this "You can't hit girls" strategy will allow women to acheive critical mass in the political arena. A lot of female potential candidates who have been turned off by all the overt and covert woman-bashing will suddenly have a pretty danged powerful way to combat it and just about anything else that their opponent might throw at them, if they're willing to compromise their feminist cred and put on a pouty face or let some big, strong man charge in and defend her honor. Personally, I find that kind of thing pretty distasteful, but these are "ends justify the means" times, I guess. If you've got political ambitions you have to be willing to use every tool in the toolbox.
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