1 Boring Old Man

Misogyny I Won’t Miss
By Marie Cocco

As the Democratic nomination contest slouches toward a close, it’s time to take stock of what I will not miss.

I will not miss seeing advertisements for T-shirts that bear the slogan "Bros before Hos." The shirts depict Barack Obama (the Bro) and Hillary Clinton (the Ho) and are widely sold on the Internet.

I will not miss walking past airport concessions selling the Hillary Nutcracker, a device in which a pantsuit-clad Clinton doll opens her legs to reveal stainless-steel thighs that, well, bust nuts. I won’t miss television and newspaper stories that make light of the novelty item.

I won’t miss episodes like the one in which liberal radio personality Randi Rhodes called Clinton a "big [expletive] whore"…

Most of all, I will not miss the silence.

I will not miss the deafening, depressing silence of Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean or other leading Democrats, who to my knowledge (with the exception of Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland) haven’t publicly uttered a word of outrage at the unrelenting, sex-based hate that has been hurled at a former first lady and two-term senator from New York. Among those holding their tongues are hundreds of Democrats for whom Clinton has campaigned and raised millions of dollars. Don Imus endured more public ire from the political class when he insulted the Rutgers University women’s basketball team.

Would the silence prevail if Obama’s likeness were put on a tap-dancing doll that was sold at airports? Would the media figures who dole out precious face time to these politicians be such pals if they’d compared Obama with a character in a blaxploitation film? And how would crude references to Obama’s sex organs play?

There are many reasons Clinton is losing the nomination contest, some having to do with her strategic mistakes, others with the groundswell for "change." But for all Clinton’s political blemishes, the darker stain that has been exposed is the hatred of women that is accepted as a part of our culture.

But my thoughts about "the silence" have been different from Marie Cocco’s. She’s correct. The Democratic heirarchy has been quiet about the sexism and the racism that’s ridden in the background of this Primary Campaign. It’s there for sure, both things. But it hasn’t been the only silence. There’s a lot more. How about homosexuality? How about Evangelical Christians? How about Stem Cells or Abortion? How about the Military records of the Candidates [not counting McCains obvious heroism in Viet Nam]? But most of all, how about "Liberal" or "Conservative?" It’s been said openly, but compared to all the other "isms" and prejudices, it’s the one that’s been highest on the "hatred" scale on the back burner and the front burner.

I’m a white guy. It’s just the way I came into the world. So, I can’t comment on how the racist and sexist comments either feel or should be interpreted first hand. My opinion would be suspect, even by me. But I’m also a life-long actual Liberal, and it shows. So, I can say something about that side of things, fully aware that it’s a bit different because it’s a choice, not a fact of birth [privately, I claim it’s in my DNA, because that’s how it feels, but I can’t prove it]. And so I can say something about that.

When Bush got elected, I was awed at the Liberal Hatred. By then, I’d left the embracing leftist arms of the University faculty and the world of a charity hospital and was in private practice in Metro Atlanta, part of the community of Physicians and urbanites. It was almost like some people were being generous to talk to someone like me – a Liberal. I found myself being "the Liberal friend" – introduced with "he’s a liberal, but…" It was wierd. And that went on for a while. I heard all the Talking Points on the street, and wondered where they came from. When I retired, I moved to North Georgia. It’s a wonderful place, but there’s no one running in the Democratic Primary in local elections. Like most of Appalachia [eg West Virginia], it’s a white place that has always been Republican. Oh sure, we have Democrats here. But I know almost every one of them. Interestingly, there’s nothing like the "Liberal" hatred here that I encountered in the early Bush years in Atlanta.

Back to "the silence." I’ve been glad that the Democratic heirarchy has been relatively quiet about sexism. I’ve been glad about the matter-of-fact way they’ve dealt with racism. I’ve been tickled pink that they’ve been quiet about liberalism and all the superfluous issues of the last two elections. Barack Obama has done black America proud. Hillary Clinton has been absolutely magnificent as a woman, a democrat, and a candidate. She dipped into the dark side when she got behind and it didn’t work, so she stopped. That’s politics, and she seems to be recovering. I hope that "the silence" that Marie Cocco is talking about is something else. She apparently sees it as a collusion with mysogyny. I see it as respect. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have done fine all by themselves.

I see the Democratic heirarchy as dodging being branded and villified by the Republican attack machine that’s worked so well in the past. Let the Media machine and the dirty trick underground do what they want to do. Let the racists and sexists scream at the top of their lungs. Let the preacher/politicians do their thing [if they’re not afraid to show their faces]. And let people use the words "democrat" or "liberal" like curse words. It’s time for that to stop, but the way to make it stop is to ignore it.

I grew up in a world that was openly racist – the 1950’s South. That kind of hatred wasn’t just on the back burner, it was part of the government, in the State Houses, in the Court Houses, in the Police Departments. It’s still around, but it’s nothing like it was. It may be in the way people vote, or where they buy their houses, but it’s not in the halls of justice. That’s an enormous accomplishment for the southern African Americans, right thinking white southerners, and the American Dream. From my perspective, the time for forced political correctness is passing. It’s time for equality to stand the test in its own right, not by decrying its detractors.