In the wake of Hillary Clinton's concession, I heard a hard-core Clintonite interviewed on the radio, refusing to admit defeat. "When I listen to Obama, I get a good feeling, but where's the experience? How can he do what he says he'll do when he hasn't been in Washington that long? Hillary had the experience, and so does John McCain, and I'll vote for him before I'll vote for Obama."
The mind reels. Yeah, McCain has the experience to get done whatever he wants--which is almost certainly the exact opposite of whatever this self-proclaimed feminist believes in. And as far as Obama's lack of Washington experience--I'm sorry, wasn't Clinton's husband the governor of a relatively small state when he ran for the presidency? Not a lot of face time with world leaders when you're running Arkansas.
There might have been a hint of condescension in this Clintonite's attitude (she described herself as part of the "prized demographic--white and well-educated"), which is ironic since she also tried to claim victimhood, to claim her candidate was somehow defeated by a male power structure . In their desire to set some sort of historical precedent, she and so many Clinton supporters neglected to notice they'd put all their hopes and dreams in an empty vessel, and couldn't even realize the historic moment they so desired may have become irrelevant.
If Clinton had taken the White House, many of her backers might have been surprised by how quickly she turned her back on them. It's her nature. She'll do anything, say anything, go whatever way the wind blows, all to do whatever will gain her short-term popularity. She'll support NAFTA when wealthy donors tell her to, and denounce it when she's stumping for working class votes. She'll support invading Iraq when it's popular, then talk (vaguely) about pulling out when support goes down. It's easy to be all things to all people when you have no core values.
Many of Clinton's most ardent supporters were old-line feminists, who'd come of age politically in the sixties and early seventies, had been on the front lines of the struggled for equality in gender and racial politics. What they seem not to have noticed is that they essentially won the war. The fact that Clinton's bid for the presidency was taken seriously doesn't mean she has shattered the glass ceiling in politics. It means a new generation has taken over, and they don't even see that ceiling.
Consider Barack Obama. It's at least as big a deal that a product of a racially mixed marriage may well become president of a country that, only forty years ago, still considered miscegenation a crime. Yet the majority of Obama's supporters, who generally skew younger than Clinton's, don't consider his racial identity a big deal. Sure, it's part of who he is, and may inform his outlook--but on the whole, they're behind him as a person, not a symbol.
Forty, even twenty years ago, the idea of a woman or African-American even announcing a serious candidacy would have been a big deal. We've moved beyond that now; we haven't shed all our old prejudices by any means, but at least at least recognize them, and have largely learned how to overcome them. In that sense, we're a better nation than we've ever been before. It's no longer necessary to install a hollow opportunist in the White House just to make a point. Hopefully, before November, Clinton's supporters will realize that.
