Sherry Chandler

Via Melissa McEwan, Julia Keller brings the whole demonization of Hillary Clinton back where it belongs. Into literature and the history of western (so-called) culture:

This is not simply sexism or racism. Those prejudices are familiar, if still repugnant, and leaders as strong as Clinton and her opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, have faced them many times. This, though, is something different and more sinister, because it is not just a commentator’s opinion about a person’s fitness or unfitness for public office. It is not about using colorful, vivid language in order to wish that a person might or might not continue a campaign. It is an unprecedented public call—albeit metaphorically, but still violently and persistently—for a person’s death.

In their landmark book of literary criticism “The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination” (1979), Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar were among the first to spotlight this noxious theme, this isolation and ridicule of powerful women by labeling them crazy, hysterical, perverse, monstrous. To challenge male domination—of the world, or just of oneself—was to be risk being marginalized, ostracized, locked away like Rochester’s wife in “Jane Eyre” (1847), the fate that gave the book its title. In real life, behavior that strayed from the polite, demure norm expected of women in the 19th Century was rewarded with psychiatric evaluations and often, imprisonment and death.

…

The notion of a powerful, driven, influential woman as a hideous threat—a threat that can be curtailed only with her death—ripples through literature, from the D.H. Lawrence novel “Sons and Lovers” (1913), with its protagonist’s conviction that he must escape the clutches of his looming, clingy mother if he is ever to realize his destiny, to the 1962 novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” by Ken Kesey, with its way-scary female character: the loathsome, larger-than-life Nurse Ratched. The joyless, hulking harridan who wants to keep her patients drugged and miserable so she can control them. From the Furies in Greek literature onward, the women-as-mythical-monsters theme has shrieked, flapped and lurched its way through the arts.

…

It’s natural to wonder whether Obama approves of the death-haunted images that surround his opponent like a phalanx of vultures. Surely he doesn’t. He is an intelligent, sensitive, enlightened man whose life has been enriched, as he frequently acknowledges, by the presence of strong women, most notably his late mother and his wife. I wish, therefore, that he would publicly condemn the trend of evoking death and destruction when it comes to Clinton. Perhaps, someday, he will.

Meanwhile, the pile of death images continues to rise, like corpses outside Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory door. After Clinton’s victories in recent primaries, the New Yorker’s Elizabeth Kolbert called it a “back-from-the-dead” moment. Walter Shapiro, Washington editor for salon.com, opined last week that Clinton had entered the “death with dignity” phase of her campaign.

Death, death, death. The steady, depressing drumbeat continues. What these commentators seem to seek is not just a proud female’s withdrawal from a political contest—but her outright annihilation. They evoke the nightmarish vision of a commanding woman intent on destruction—thus she must be destroyed before she can launch her evil scheme.

In a thriller by Irish novelist Tana French, “In the Woods” (2007), a detective muses about a psychopath who has outwitted him, “I wanted her not just dead but obliterated from the face of the earth—crushed to unidentifiable pulp, pulverized in a shredder, burned to a handful of toxic ash.” With that attitude, he won’t have to worry if the gumshoe gig ever fails him: He can always apply for a job with MSNBC.

I strongly suggest that you read the whole of this excellent article, because, as Melissa says:

It’s a distinction that is lost on every person who’s accused me of being in the bag for Clinton. Feminism/womanism is a cultural critique first and foremost, and, although Chris Matthews calling Clinton a she-devil piques my political ire in the same way pernicious media misrepresentations of Al Gore did, the way the MSM’s disfavor toward Democratic candidates always does, but that Matthews specifically goes for misogynist attacks against Clinton is not a political concern for me nearly as much as it’s a cultural concern, akin to Jay Leno’s homophobia and sexism and racism, David Letterman’s transphobia, Adam Carolla’s sexism and homophobia and fat hatred and transphobia, Bill Maher’s sexism and rape jokes, and on and on and on. Our media is a giant tool of the kyriarchy, and, while there are certainly exceptions (we’ve spoken before in a great QotD thread about films that opened our minds about something), the MSM is largely little more than a jack-booted thug enforcing the biases that protect existent privilege, and politics is only a tiny part of that.

The Sexism Watch has way more to do with the larger culture than it does to do with the subculture of political discourse. Keller’s piece clarifies beautifully how a critique of the rhetorical cudgels being wielded against Clinton is a cultural issue, not a specifically political one. And thusly, it underlines once again how a failure to address what’s being done to Clinton is not justifiable because she’s not your candidate, or because she voted for the AUMF, or because because because…

Not if you care about women and the means of their subjugation. Not if you’re a progressive.

Meanwhile, Anglachel gives a really nice portrait of the Hillary Clinton her supporters see:

I don’t see the Hillary campaign saying a bad word about the voters, even those who vote for her opponents. I don’t see the campaign explaining away their losses because of some flaw or failing in the voters. Even the group of Obama voters most vociferous and adamant in their objections to her do not get criticized or condemned. To the contrary, she defended MoveOn from politically motivated attacks. She went to Yearly Kos and spoke without rancor or defensiveness to a deeply hostile group.

When she says she is impervious to attacks from the right-wing noise machine, the MSM and political opponents, it shows up in the way she will not be badgered and baited. She can look Richard Scaife in the eye and tell him exactly what she intends to do as President without belligerance and without apology. Their cruelty and crudeness cannot disrupt her calm civility, though she may poke some sly fun at them.

This is not someone who has burned bridges on the Democratic side. In a hard-fought campaign, she has been firm that there will be nothing from her side to prevent resolution and reconciliation within the party. She pulls no punches on issues, but has not stooped to personal attacks of the kind leveled at her by her opponents and even by some party leaders. When somone on her campaign has behaved dishonorably, they are told to leave at once.

Unity is not obedience or falling into line. It is being able to strongly and persuasively present yourself and your objectives and be victorious, but do so in a way that does not demand the humiliation, denegration or destruction of your opponents. It is to treat others as valued colleagues to be won over, not as enemies to be obliterated.

My family votes in Millersburg, a village east of Paris on U.S. 68. Though rural, it can hardly be called Appalachian. This is horse country here. We vote in the building that used to be Millersburg Elementary School before the county closed it for economic reasons. Everything becomes more and more centralized.

Activity around the polling place seemed about normal. The poll workers said they had had a “steady stream” of voters but expected the heaviest vote this evening (southern for late afternoon). The man who was guarding the machine at which I voted was telling me how proud he is of his son, who registered to vote the minute he turned 18.

Couple things I forgot to mention that Clinton talked about last night that I hadn’t heard before. One, she spent quite a bit of time on equal pay for women. And second, she mentioned a considerable tax rebate for those who buy fuel-efficient cars as well as her gas-tax holiday.

Last night I went to a GOTV rally for Hillary Clinton at Transylvania University in Lexington.

Doors were to open at 4:30, but opening was delayed a bit because we got the unexpected added treat of having Bill attend and extra security had to be laid on.

The line started forming at 3:00. By the time the doors opened, it stretched from the Clive Beck Athletic and Recreation Center (aka the school gym) at the corner of 4th and Limestone, all away around the campus’s main circular drive and out onto Limestone as far as I could see toward 3rd Street.

Everybody was friendly and upbeat, chatting, laughing, even when a light drizzle began to fall.

Greg Fischer had people there working the line. Union members were handing out signs and t-shirts. Mail Carriers for Hillary. AFSCME for Hillary.

Three lines of security. We had to leave our umbrellas outside in a big pile on a table. And under the table. Hundreds of umbrellas (and mirabile dictu, I found mine after it was all over). We joked that it was a political rally and umbrella exchange.

All I took with me was a wallet on a string with two compartments and a cell phone pocket. The guard searched that thing so thoroughly even I was beginning to think I might have snuck something in. A metal detector and a wand. But the searches moved quickly and the crowd flowed into the gym in a steady stream for over an hour. I’m not good at estimating crowds but I was told the gym seats about a thousand and then the floor was filled up, too. So maybe 1,500 people, aged 18 to 80. [Update: Washington Post says 2,000.]

Finals begin today at Transylvania, so the students seated to my left were studying while we waited for things to start happening. Local media were set up on risers at the back of the gym. We were in line behind Herald-Leader reporter Ryan Alessi. His report is here. (Rather tellingly, he devotes his first 5 paragraphs to Barack Obama, then gives another 4 to Michelle in Lexington, and spends more time on Bill than on Hillary, but he has some nice details of Bill’s talk.)

This event had been organized on about three days notice by a young man, a student who is heading Transylvania for Hillary. As my companion noted, this was “real grass roots stuff. Just people” come out to see and support an historic candidate. No post mortem here. We were having a big time, practicing politics the old-fashioned way.

The student organizer, in suit and American flag tie, spoke to the crowd. Charles L. Shearer, President of Transylvania, addressed the crowd briefly. A male chorus, about 8 young men, sang an a cappela version of The Star Spangled Banner that nearly moved cynical old me to tears.

After a lull, a sudden flurry of activity. The national media had arrived, slightly rain flecked, carrying huge video cams and laptop cases down the steep gymnasium stairs. Suddenly I noticed the three rows of library tables that got filled with laptops, each with a reporter busily typing away. Except for one blond in a white jacket, these guys were dressed in the sort of national uniform, jeans and t-shirts. But they were different. They were important. Glamor had come to our sleepy little town.

I surprise myself in saying this, but it was true.

Then there were Secret Service men in the crowd. These guys had on suits. They looked dour. They stood still in the milling crowd and watched. Anything that moved. I sat still. [Added: We speculated whether the red buttons we could see on their lapels were flag pins or the latest in mini-tasers.]

I couldn’t have got out anyway. My friend and I, being older women, discussed emergency bathroom procedures to which we might be reduced. These involved the plastic yard-signs we’d been given. We were only half joking.

Former Governor Martha Layne Collins did the warm up speech. She was governor of Kentucky when Bill was governor of Arkansas. Martha Layne is still a beloved figure in Kentucky, one of our most popular former governors. She’s 72 now, but she looks great, and she talked about the barriers she had had to break to become Kentucky’s first and only woman governor.

Five Kentucky governors have endorsed Hillary Clinton, as has Terry McBrayer, a superdelegate.

Then Jerry Lundergan, head of the Kentucky Democratic Party, who told how — when a Republican had won the governorship for the first time in decades and the Kentucky party was broke — both Hillary and Bill donated time to come to the state for fund-raisers that helped put the party back in the money.

Then Bill! Oh the crowd was on its feet yelling and stomping and waving banners. This was Bill Clinton.

We were never quiet after that. We were intensely involved in this event. (Added: My friend tells me Obama said it’s no wonder Kentucky is for Clinton, we’re so close to Arkansas. Maybe he was talking about a spiritual closeness. We sure loved us some Arkansans last night.)

What can I say about Bill Clinton? He looked distinguished, he was charming.
He told us that Hillary has done things to change people’s lives, to make life better for people. He was in his element. He spoke briefly. He can do that in support of his wife.

And finally, Hillary.

She looked radiant and relaxed. She was all smiles. She’s smaller than I’d thought, a neat figure of a woman in a gold pantsuit. When she came bounding up onto the stage and Bill hugged her, she was engulfed by his large masculine physicality but not overshadowed. Supported.

She said they’d traveled to the towns and cities in the four corners of the state and had a lot of fun meeting Kentuckians and I believed her.

She was slightly hoarse. She gave her stump speech, an excellent speech, well-delivered. She has learned to use her voice well. She said the things you’ve heard her say before if you’ve been paying attention. And we gave her our full approval.

Cheers especially for ending George Bush’s war on science, for ending No Child Left Behind, for helping students finance their college education. She asked if any students there were paying over 20% on their college loans, and I was shocked to hear them say they were paying 22% and 25% interest. I paid my $1,500 college loan back at 3%.

Cheers for bringing the troops home and supporting them after they get home.

I’m here to tell you that this is not a defeated woman. Whether she wins this primary or loses it, she’s a woman who has found her power.

And she was an inspiration to at least two old women seated in the bleachers.

[Update: I forgot to add that, as I started home, I switched on the radio to WEKU to the strains of Beethoven's Ninth, which took me rather triumphantly all the way home. I arrived there to the strains of the Ode to Joy. Thought it was a pretty good portent.

Joy, beautiful spark of the gods,
Daughter of Elysium!
We enter, fire-drunk,
Heavenly one, your shrine.
Your magics again bind
What custom has strictly parted.
All people become brothers
Where your gentle wing lingers.]

The polls are open in Kentucky. Our votes matter in this election and that’s important. Bill Clinton said this is a vitally important election.

But they all are vitally important elections.

We have to elect U.S. Senate candidates, state senate candidates, city councilmen, county magistrates…

Agree with me or disagree about the better candidate, but go and exercise your right to vote. It’s what keeps you free.

And let us have joy in our political process, that lets us choose our leader.

Update: Video from the Herald-Leader.