One last little bit of identity politics

One of the problems that I have had with Hillary's candidacy is that there have been a number of accusations of sexism from her supporters, but Hillary herself has done very little to address issues of gender. Obama, of course, gave his great speech on race in Philadelphia.

Which has, unfortunately, left the door open for something like this:

Members of Congress who support Clinton are weighing a joint letter to Senator Barack Obama pressing him to put Clinton on the ticket, a congressional aide confirmed.
Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz of Florida has suggested the letter, which would aim to represent the voices of female members of congress and those from swing states and key demographic groups.
The letter hasn't been drafted yet, though, and as with much of the day's vice presidential buzz, Clinton's supporters seem to be pressing ahead in the absence
of clear direction from the candidate

The first issue there is "absence of clear direction from the candidate." I think Hillary is failing her supporters by not making a decision about dropping out. Get it over with. I don't think it's appropriate to feed false hopes - better to take the medicine, deal with the pain and move on.

Hunter at Daily Kos has a great response. I'm quoting most of the post:

What bothers me -- a lot -- is the identity politics of it. She's worried about the voices of "female members of congress and those from swing states and key demographic groups." Only the women? That's what the Clinton campaign has degraded into, the notion that you don't sufficiently respect those women if you're not willing to give Hillary Clinton, the primary loser, whatever she wants?

Against the first black nominee for the presidency, that's both ironic and profoundly tacky. He is rejecting identity politics, but a small number of prominent Clinton supporters are willing to wallow in it.

I thought the Clinton campaign was just as historic as the Obama campaign, but every time her own supporters reject the premise of perfect equality between the candidates and demand she be treated differently because she is a woman or because her supporters are women, they tarnish both victories.

Clinton has no more right to be Vice President based on her gender than Obama has right to be President based on his race. Those things were -- and this is the historic part -- never the point. They have both become successful through their own actions, their own personal histories, their own inspirational and skilled leadership. This is a day in which both camps should be celebrating the history of their moment, not tossing up whatever last shreds of suspicion and group identity they feel might give them a few more days of momentary advantage.

This issue is not going to go away. Again, I think Hillary has done her supporters a disservice by not addressing this issue. By refusing to take responsibility for her failure, she has opened up opportunities for her supporters to play these kinds of games. My suspicion is that Hillary honestly doesn't know how to address this stuff.

What's unfortunate is that she's missing a historic opportunity. In Obama's great speech in Philly, one of the points that he made is that America has made great progress in redressing racial injustices. He tied his faith in America to that history. He basically said that he trusted white people, and he trusted black people. And that he trusted them to make an effort to understand each other.

Without making a similar speech, Hillary lets her supporters make all kinds of accusations of sexism. I'm sure there has been some sexism in this campaign. But the problems with those charges is that it makes it more difficult to have an honest discussion about the campaign and about feminism. Hillary made some major mistakes that are responsible for her failure, while Obama ran a brilliant campaign. When her supporters charge that she failed because of sexism, they sound like they are refusing to acknowledge the mistakes that she made. Which I think ends up cheapening the cause of feminism, and weakens real accusations of sexism. It sounds like her people are crying wolf rather than accepting reality. The biggest problem is this "absence of clear direction from the candidate." We've heard for months about how tough Hillary is. It's very easy to be tough when things are going your way. The true test of how tough you are is when everything is going against you.