Vote for Me, Cheryl Lindsey Seelhoff, and Support McKinney and Obama? Not a Contradiction
Nov 4th, 2008 by admin
I’ve been pleasantly surprised to hear how many of you have written my name in on your ballot at the polls! THANK YOU! And more of you still can, in my area we have until 8 p.m. this evening. I vow to live up to my supporters’ votes of confidence in the years to come.
You can still vote for me — my platform is here, and the Free Soil Party site is here — and nevertheless support the candidacies of Cynthia McKinney and Barack Obama in all the ways and for all the reasons stated so well in Amee Chew’s essay posted below.
I am all over the place today and have been for months and throughout the campaigns. I am thrilled over the impending election of a black/biracial president and that the First Family will be a black family (I realize I am counting my chickens before they hatch, but I do really believe this will be today’s outcome). Wooooo HOOOO! This is cause for rejoicing and celebration and let it all begin sooner and not later! Then, I am enraged over the way, as women, our issues have been thrown under the bus by Democrats, by Republicans, by Greens, by Libertarians, by Independents, you name it, look under the bus, you will find our issues as women. And, I am shocked and disgusted and horrified over the way as feminist women we have been consistently, repeatedly betrayed by those who have heretofore told us they were our allies or believed they were our allies — leftists, liberals, progressives, Democrats, Greens, men and women. Yes, I’ve always known I couldn’t count on them. No, I wasn’t aware until this election how much they really hate us, and, in the case of women, how much they apparently hate themselves. I am overwhelmed with emotions of love and tenderness watching and listening to sister and brother veterans of the Civil Rights movement in the U.S. responding to Obama’s candidacy. I am flailing with grief and horror over events like the horridly- misogynist-on-every-level burnings-in-effigy of Sarah Palin here in the U.S. and overseas which have passed with barely a mention, oh, ho hum, burn the witch. I am grieving and mourning what amounts to the loss of a sense of community with women I called sisters, and believed to be sisters, who simply could not resist just one more sexist jab, just one more mean-spirited misogynist attack, just one more, for-the-thrill-of-it, pile-on on Hillary Clinton or Sarah Palin, demonstrating to me that really, they do not have any loyalties to women as women, and that therefore, they cannot be trusted. Ever. I’ve watched mystified and pained as radical feminist/lesbian feminist leaders, who have been heroes to me for years now, have attacked thoughtful, committed sister feminists, even attempting to disown them as feminists, based on how they intended to vote! And, of course, I’ve done everything from muse to ponder to rage over the silence of so many who read here about my own candidacy– it’s felt very strange at times to be apparently invisible here on my own blog! I’ve written off for good by far most progressive, leftist and liberal white men. I’m completely done with them. They are, far and away, self-absorbed, selfish, arrogant, egotistical misogynists who would not recognize a feminist or a feminist idea or act if it bit them in their soft, ample asses, so why they fancy themselves to be “pro-feminist” or to “admire” feminist women (as so many say they do! What’s that about?), I’ll never know. And I’ve wrestled, attempting to communicate to my kids, to my feminist colleagues, to my readers and commenters, how entirely conflicted I have been, how broken-into-pieces I’ve felt, as I’ve struggled to understand and fairly evaluate the lives, platforms and politics of the various woman candidates as opposed to Obama. I’ve repeatedly felt frustrated and aggravated when my attempts to intelligently, thoughtfully analyze the candidates’ positions have been read as support for one or another of the candidates (my invisibility again) and therefore betrayal, often with accompanying attacks on me for positions I have never taken and would never take! I don’t get how so many smart feminist women can write such over-the-top, unconnected-to-what’s-real, off-the-wall and wholly out-in-left-field things, but this behavior has been consistent throughout the election.
It’s fair to say there is not a single emotion I have been spared, in spades, during this election. I’m betting it’s the same for most of you who read here.
I will have more to say in time about this election and about the next few years and what they might hold for us as feminist activists. This is what I have for now, overwhelmed with emotion as I find myself today. As we say in radical feminist circles, the journey and the destination are never separate; they are always, ultimately, one and the same. What matters most today is not really who gets elected, but how we respond to who is elected and how the election results ultimately inform our daily lives and shape our beliefs, activism, and, especially, our dreams for women as a people.
Heart
This was a very interesting piece Heart. I actually don’t know why feminists don’t want to support other women no matter what. That’s blogland. But I must say, in terms of all the people around me — neighbors, friends, and some colleagues at work, I have actually seen for the very first time in my life — straight people giving a damn about my existence as a human being.
My neighbors across the street put up a No on 8 sign — (an anti-gay / lesbian marriage proposition in CA), and other straight neighbors put up signs as well. I feel ambivilent about gay marriage as an issue, but I do see the signs as evidence of straight support for real live lesbians in our neighborhood.
I am mystified as to why women got so mad at Hillary Clinton or even Sarah Palin on the blogs, or why I was flooded with anti-Palin hate forwarded emails from women all over the place.
I don’t know why Gloria Steinem and Robin Morgan sold out to the democratic party, rather than stuck up for Gov. Palin, for example. I don’t know why gay men in West Hollywood put up a Sarah Palin epigy handing by a noose in their front yard for Halloween. No connection was made to witch hangings in early 1692 America, or to toxic woman hatred that is the stock and trade of gay male worlds.
But there you have it.
To me, women could run this entire country if they just decided to do it. Why we rangle over each other amazes me, but then again, I do believe self-hatred of women is huge. Women hate themselves, get insanely jealous over the success of other women, when really, any woman who does well, I say GO GO GO!
I believe the medium of the blog reveals the anger that most women cover up all the time in the real world. Something about this Internet allows women to show the depth of the anger they feel, and again, in person, women act quite meek and cowardly when it comes to verbal conflict. As a radical lesbian, I often unnerve straight women by not kow towing to straight women’s social norms or codes of conduct. So there you have it.
Where once it was so simple to agree that women should have better medical care, should get paid more money, should be free, now women simply trash each other when they DO make more money, or do get to be a governor or do become heart surgeons. You’ve got me Heart.
I don’t know what to make of all of this, but I do know that men are never to be trusted, and we are fools for believing liberal men. They are just plain woman hating idiots. Even right wing christian men don’t call women the “b” word on talk radio, but liberal men use that insulting and degrading word for women ALL the time.
Go back to the beginnings of second wave feminism, and the toxic woman hatred that left wing radical men directed at women. Nothing changes with them.
So let’s move on as women, and decide that we are worth it, and we could, if we wanted to found our own city, country or very large town. Then we’d run everything. Nothing is stopping women from doing this.
“And, of course, I’ve done everything from muse to ponder to rage over the silence of so many who read here about my own candidacy– it’s felt very strange at times to be apparently invisible here on my own blog!”
I apologize for that. I went into the booth today still debating on how I was going to vote. I looked for you and the Free Soil party and you were not on my ballot (in MA).
I voted Green. I hope that’s okay. There wasn’t any chance my state was going to go any way but Democratic, regardless. I was torn even over voting Green as I think Nader probably split that vote. I so wanted one 3rd party to get at least 5%. We have to open up this system.
I share your feelings about this race. I’m horrified by the treatment of Clinton and (yes) Palin. I’m extremely worried about all of our daughters’ futures.
Heart,
If you were in Obama’s position now, I have absolutely no doubt I would be feeling the excitement and hope so many others feel.
In sisterhood,
Laur
it was with great honor and love that i wrote your name in, Cheryl! thank you for the opportunity.
You’ve said it all, Heart.
Much love,
K
Hey, you had my vote Heart. Even though I don’t actually have a vote, since I’m an Aussie.
I was so excited when you announced your candidacy. Imagine, a rad fem in the white house. Oh, I can wish and pray.
Ah! My favorite women in the world all in one place! Archeomom8, so, so good to read you here. I’ve been thinking about you for weeks and keep meaning to e-mail! Kort! It’s been a while. THANK YOU for your vote, and allecto, thank you for your vote from Australia, as well! I was looking at the headlines today. The USA Today one, I think, said something like, “Election shatters racial barrier.” Yes, it does, and this brings me to tears every time I think of it. But when? when will the sex barrier be shattered? I feel such elation and such rage and grief all at the same time. Laur, what a beautiful thing to say! One of these days we will have a woman-centered President who makes women’s issues a priority, if not of the U.S., of women’s nation, then. I’m serious. Gayle, at least one of my kids resolved struggles so far as who to vote for by voting for me (writing my name and “Free Soil Party” in) and then donating to the other candidate they were rooting for. Good creative problem-solving skills.
What the heck happened to Ralph Nader, Gayle? He used to be great, now he splits the Greens! But yes to your wanting to do whatever you could do to participate in bringing the two-party system to an end in this country. This is why I voted for Nader in 2004, after never having voted in my whole life (because I have always been an anarchist for forever). And Gayle, thanks for saying you hear me so far as the attacks on women in this race, incuding Palin. Unforgivable, so far as I’m concerned. Inexcusable.
Satsuma, I’m with you so far as right wing men compared with leftist men. I’ll take the right wingers any day, honestly, or that’s how I’m feeling more and more. They are sure enough sexists most of the time, but at least they will not be using sexist hate speech in my presence (and expecting me to join them!), rah-rah-ing porn, prostitution and all manner of subjugation of women and again thinking I should join right in, whooppee, your boot on my neck feels so good. ::::rage:::: Well, right wing men hate on women all the time too in their own many and various ways, but mostly they don’t pretend they are evolved and feminist and pro-feminist and somehow my allies when they are hurting me with every breath they take. I cannot stand the way leftist white men gaslight women like that! We are profeminists, we support women’s issues, and the first time it costs them something, they turn in a moment’s time and sound for all the world like every sexist man that has ever lived has sounded.
Here is an appalling case in point. I came across it looking for something else yesterday. It’s a perfect example of the way men imagine themselves to be pro-woman and “liberal” and progressive when in fact, they are hard core misogynists. The hatred of women — not just Palin — in this guy’s post is horrifying:
http://blog.riseheretic.com/?p=152
The vicious women-hating male author of blog Heart found is an excellent example of left-wing white men’s double speak. He claims he strongly believes in equal rights and equal opportunity for women but then contradicts himself by claiming women are different to men. Ah - answer in a nutshell - reason why women are not human is because they aren’t men. As for the rest of his diatribe - yawn much of the same misogynstic poison constantly being repeated ad naseum. But I do recognise such misogynstic rhetoric is dangerous because increasingly it is ‘normalised and accepted’ particularly here in the UK. Open season has most definitely been declared by men on women living in the UK. Why? Because we supposedly live in a gender neutral country that is why.
Barack Obama has won the presidential election but male power is not held by any one individual man - there are usually a large number of powerful white men busily working behind the scenes ensuring the status quo is maintained and most importantly working to silence any opposition which dares to challenge male supremacy.
At least right-wing white male misogynists do not hide their contempt and hatred for women unlike white male ‘liberals.’ Power is the name of the game and male power will not be removed without a very long and prolonged struggle.
I had to hunt for awhile to find out how Cynthia McKinney fared. Then I understood why I had to hunt. According to this Libertarian site, she got more votes than David Cobb in 2004, barely, about an eighth of a percent. Ralph Nader got about half a percent. Cindy Sheehan got about 17 percent. I had expected all of them to do better than that. Apparently this really was the black man’s hour. The Green Party is all but dead.
I suppose this repudiation of Bush is a good sign, though McCain did better than the recent polls suggested. Democrats have been talking a good game about the changes they intend to bring. At least now they will have no excuses for not bringing about those changes. This will not stop them from blaming Republicans, who after all bequeathed such an awful mess, and still will have some ability to filibuster. I wish I could share in some of the joy, but I just feel sick to my stomach. It did not help for Obama to say in his victory speech: But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree.
Really? I think he means Republicans. I have seen how he listens to challenges from others who disagree with him. A woman like me, his campaign tells me I need to get to know him better. Already the Democratic Leadership Council is warning that Obama must govern from the center, or the gains will quickly be lost.
I also voted for Heart, just wrote your name in.
I’ve felt the same melancholy pain watching Obama break that barrier for black people, and listening to my mixed black & white family talk about how unexpectedly, deeply, affected they are by this event - and sort of burying my own feelings “Oh, yah - that would be nice. I hope I can experience that someday.”
I guess I shouldn’t be quiet about it, but I honestly have no desire to downplay to my family how very important a step this was for America. It wasn’t MY step, as a woman - once again, we’re put on the back burner, we’ll have to wait. But it was a step that caused a lot of joy in my family and so many around me - so we’ll just continue the fight. That’ll be us someday soon.
And politically, it’s still a step away from the hell that the last 8years have been, even setting aside the fact that a black man was elected and whatever social ramifications may develop from that. :) Let’s see if he listens to all the talking heads and goes “right of center.”
I was mourning yesterday. Today I’m getting used to it. Cynthia McKinney came in 6th. The best candidate of my adult lifetime got one tenth of a percent. Men still vote for men.
After the vicous sexism in the campaign, I can not rejoice. His cabinet will be male, with maybe a token woman. The leading woman will have the same old role: first lady.
I’m getting tired of this. I had my own wake-up to sexism within the Nader campaign, and I’m starting to think that not only can we not judge ourselves by the Master’s rules (who wins, who gets the most), we shouldn’t even be playing the game.
I keep looking at all these men, the candidates, the winners, the ‘people’s’ candidates and thinking you talk about freedom, but freedom for whom? If you just want it for yourselves and your brothers - count me out.
Pramiti, thank you! xo
Julia, I so hear you, you are so not alone. The poor results for McKinney are heartbreaking. I can barely stand to hear who the cabinet appointments are going to be. Like Freedom Rider wrote today, looks like we’re going to have another Clinton White House, just what we need. And lord help us if Lawrence Summers, of “women can’t do math” fame, gets an appointment, and you know, I think he will.
Well, I’ll just go get what Freedom Rider wrote:
Face it. There will still be a Clinton in the White House. The people at the top of the establishment pyramid will always be friends. Nothing changes among the power elite. They are the biggest cynics on earth and they don’t believe most of what they tell us. Obama and Bill Clinton will be thick as thieves and triangulation will still be the order of the day. If it weren’t, Emanuel’s name would not be atop the adviser rumor mill.
http://freedomrider.blogspot.com/2008/11/loser-rahm-emanuel-wins-that-was-fast.html
looks like we’re going to have another Clinton White House, just what we need
As I suspected all along, the prog men were fine and dandy with Clinton, just as long as that Clinton wasn’t a woman. I spent enough time over at Kos and some of the other big boy blogs to know they would have fallen all over themselves to help if Bill Clinton was eligible to run again.
Man, was I wrong about Nader vs. McKinney. I thought he’d split her vote. He ran away with it! She came in sixth? Sixth?
Arrgh.
I love you women!
Yeah, Gayle, Nader got way more votes. I remember talking to a super-radical here in town in March, when Cynthia came to campaign. I told him ‘men will not vote for a woman, it terrifies them’ and he thought I was nuts.
The Green Party was very un-organized, at least here in Oregon. I sent countless e-mails and left messages saying ‘I want to get involved - when are you meeting?’ and never got anyhting back, and I tried four different people. Her marketing could have been better.
But if that’s what matters - marketing - than why should we even bother? People are not things you buy in a store.
Heart, I admire that you can also be happy. If the campaign had been fair - meaning without sexism - I would be happy, too.
Now I just feel sick and I truly have nothing to celebrate. Ironically, I was away from computers last week (so I couldn’t read your blog) and was instead reading Dorothy Allison, not Trash but Skin. It was just a book I found in the library, I had never heard of her before.
How’s that for cyberspace collective thought?
There’s one essay about having all of her friends over to help tear down walls in a house Allison and her partner had just bought. The women came with muscles and sledgehammers and got to work. The two men who showed up brought food and sat in the garden!
I think it is a perfect image for our future, if we want to have a future.
If we were going to get the same guys from the Clinton administration, then why didn’t people just support Hilary?
(As an aside, I do think having women who are willing to work for real change for women and for the planet in general in office is more important than placing token women in positions of power).
I think Laur that most women of who achieved greatness would feel highly insulted at being called “toekn women in positions of power.” Amy Domini, the woman who invented socially responsible investing, and helped rid South Africa of Apartheid would be insulted, so would Carli Fiorina, so would Sandra Day O’Connor. O’Conner, by the way, who was written off as a conservative, became one of the fairest justices on the Supreme Court. She inspired hundreds of thousands of women to go into law, and aided hundreds of new women judges.
This whole idea that women are tokens really angers me. I can assure you that my company didn’t hire me as a token out lesbian, they hired me because of my brilliant track record. Most men with all their advantages never made it in my industry.
As women, we need to put as many women in as many jobs as possible, and stop this pussy footing around. I don’t believe in stupid labels like liberal and conservative when it comes to women. We don’t know how well a woman will do until she gets a shot at any job in America.
I do know that as long as men get all these jobs, we won’t see as much long term progress for women. So when women learn to get over their stupid stuff and get women elected, when women stand beside each other instead of running to men all the time, we’ll see this huge shift worldwide.
Women need to be loyal to women. We don’t need party labels, religious affiliations or even past conditions of heterosexual servitude to men to dictate our support of women as women. This election taught me one thing: women know jack about closing the deal, putting women in office or even supporting the progress of women. They know jack, and it’s pretty pathetic.
As a radical lesbian I have consistently and endlessly supported women’s campaigns for high office going all the way back to high school –that’s over 35 years ago now. All those women were straight, and I still supported them. When women get sick of poverty, sick of being kicked around, and sick of having men rule, maybe then we’ll see some real action. This election was pathetic women!!
OK, Ms. Know It All who totally missed the point, then why not Phyllis Schlafly for President? Or more realistically, how about Condoleezza Rice? Would you expect good feminists to support either of them? Do you deny tokenism exists? If not, what do you think its purpose is?
I wanted to add something that should be self-evident, but is perhaps not: Just because Hilary is a Clinton does not necessarily mean she would have appointed the same people from Bill’s administration; indeed, she may have done the opposite in order to draw a distinction between her Presidency and her husband’s.
satsuma, from what I gather, Bush was appointed more POC (and possibly women, though I’m not sure about that one) to his administration than any other President in U.S. history–and where, exactly, has that gotten us?
We need women who are willing to stand up for women in public office as well as in society in general.
A woman may be placed or accepted into a position as a token, but still be twice as qualified as any of the male contenders. They’re not mutually exclusive. *Nor* is it necessarily true that if a woman *is* placed as a token that she is also adequate to whatever the position is.
The word “token” may be used as a pejorative, or in other cases be used accurately, with explanation, as a descriptor.
Once again, language and its use can be a minefield.
I agree with Laur, that women in positions of “power” in the patriarchy does not change the machinery of the patriarchy as such.
I agree, Luar, that Hillary Clinton may have had a different administration than Bill. I think it was grossly sexist to hear the male lefties say electing her was like electing her husband. And I would have preffered her to Obama, because I think she would not touch abortion rights and may have been stronger on gay and lesbian rights. But they are both war candidates and corporate candidates, and I have a hard time supporting someone who’s not going to do much for those who need it most.
That said, I feel so strongly that this (s)election was a huge backlash to feminism. And if we are going to do something for ourselves, we have to make alliances. Meaning find common ground with Democrat feminists, Free Soil feminists, and feminists who don’t vote. While I can’t see myself as part of NOW, I can see working with women to feed and house other women. The food banks are already empty, and I shudder to think about the numbers of hungry and homeless women to come. As if there aren’t already too many.
Mary Sunshine said:
***I agree with Laur, that women in positions of “power” in the patriarchy does not change the machinery of the patriarchy as such.***
We still need to support women in positions of power. Once we reach a certain percentage, say 30% of those in power are women, women will then be able to effect needed changes. Of course women won’t be able to affect things as long as we are only 1 or 2% of those in positions of power.
Hi guys, it’s ME, the misogynistic double speaking left wing anti-feminist you all railed about earlier.
I ask:
- Exactly how and when (and why) was I misogynist? A little vocab refresher is in order…that is hatred of women, correct? I have a mother, my best friend ever is female…I view women with more humanity than many of you Kool-Aid drinking robots probably do.
- Please please please tell me how recognizing true, concrete gender differences discounts or negates fair treatment? You’re a woman, I’m a man…you have ovaries, I have testicles, you’re pumped with estrogen, I’m pumped with testosterone. That is cold biology, cold science, try denying that. These are pertinent biological differences but there is no disputing one fact…we are all human. Sharing the same ancestral lineage, I believe we all deserve a fair shake.
- How in the hell does equating Sarah Palin with a witch make me a bad guy? Have you not noticed there are about 65,000 other female public officials in this country who are radically more capable of being a VP than the Wasilla Witch? If Sarah was Sam, I’d have the same opinion.
Lastly, I want to know what you all think of my thoughts about the extermination of the Warrior Spirit:
http://blog.riseheretic.com/?p=263
Cheers!
neomonkey
I think what many of you don’t get is how powerful it will be cumulatively for women to have as much experience at all levels of government and business as possible. I’m not so concerned with whether they are conservative or liberal. Leftist women often don’t really get this. Somehow, women believe they know how it will all turn out. The prime example is Sandra Day O’Connor. Conservative women are not the rapists, the pornographers or the killers of women.
Men are the rapists, the killers and the pornification factor in America and abroad.
What I saw in this election was simply pathetic. Women dropped that big poltical ball right into the sewer. In failing to deliver, I think liberal women made a mockery of feminism.
We don’t know what women will do overall over a long period of time.
I think one reason conservative women do so well in business and the law, is that they get to work, are smart and don’t let “political correctness” get in the way of doing a job. They also start meetings on time, something radical women never do well. (Just a pet peeve of mine).
Feminists get far too fussy about women. If I were that fussy, I’d say all straight women who had sex with men are eternally contaminated. That would be stupid. Straight women can do anything. I think they are crazy for cooking for and living with the monster oppressors, but hey they do this no matter what I say.
Do women want to run the world or not? Leftwing women and their pickiness will be the death of us.
Satsuma, I laugh as I read your comment because you speak so many truths! I often think that when I move to a more conservative part of the country I’ll actually have a women’s action group to work with. Folks are so picky here in my ‘liberal’ town that very few groups stay together. There is not one women’s groups that I know of.
BTW, I thought this site was for women only. Has something changed?
Neomonkey, if you really cannot see your misogyny, take a look at that piece of tripe. You are aware of the cultural connotations of witch, I imagine? What is the purpose of calling Governor Palin a witch, if not to demonize her? You and millions of other Democrats have had such great fun trashing her, with lies and blatantly sexist language. What do her qualifications have to do with that?
Julia, Heart has a women-only forum, but this blog has never been restricted to women. It might seem that way because it is rare that a man who tries to comment here has anything intelligent to say, so Heart usually spams them, as Heart has explained once in awhile.
Satsuma, for you to imply that issues feminists may have with the Democratic and Republican parties amount to mere pickiness is making a mockery of feminism. You may think these women, who are not really liberal or leftist, do not get your points. That discounts the age-old debate between working with the system and trying to create something radically new and different, like a feminist revolution. The accumulation of experience within the system may eventually allow women to reform the system, but that is an excruciatingly slow way to go about it, and reforming this fundamentally corrupt system will not cut it anyway.
As I told Gloria Feldt yesterday in response to her disagreeing that women need a party of our own,
That is part of the problem I see with working within the system. Hillary Clinton might have ameliorated that problem, but she would not have been able to solve it, because her party would not help her with that, and she knew better than to try to rock the boat that much. She is a loyal Democrat, and what did that get her?
Neomonkey opens mouth and inserts leg.
You’re a sexist, you’re a misogynist, you are an essentialist, and you are no friend to women, sorry to disappoint you, Neo.
Julia, Aletha’s right, I occasionally approve men’s comments here. I have various reasons for doing so, but most of them come down to thinking there might be some benefit to women, for various reasons, in my approving their comments. Don’t worry, though, I have no problem chopping them off at the pockets when I decide to.
neomonkey does indeed belong in the zoo of cluelessness. Wow, it’s weird to read men’s words here. You get so used to a man free comment zone, and women’s free speech without the male interruption that those words come as a shock. Indeed it only reinforces my belief that we need a women’s country with no men at all.
One can dream!