First, I have a student who is there, missing the first week of classes to be in Denver this week, and I am so jealous. I would have traded a lot to be able to say for the rest of my life that “I was there” for what happened during the roll call yesterday. I watched the acclamation unfold with my parents, and two more jaded and Democrat-hating Republicans you are unlikey to ever meet. With the snarky and sarcastic comments flying, with the insnuation that anyone who had an emotional response to such staged bullshit was a fool, I still was moved by the building momentum as New Mexico yielded to Illinois, as Illinois yielded to New York and by Hillary Clinton’s gesture in support of a united Party. So what if it was planned? So what if it was “staged?” So what if it was timed for the precise moment when two thirds of the delegates would have already cast their votes so Nancy Pelosi didn’t have to entertain the “nays?” It was a MOMENT. And everyone there was so obviously affected by that moment, hell, I was affected by it sitting in my mother’s living room watching events while ignoring the liberal bashing in the background. I can’t imagine how it would have been to experience that in a huge room full of like-minded people who all know they are personally witnessing history. So , to put it mildly, that was cool.
But part of the enormity of that for me was the build-up. Each state casting its votes and referencing the number of women and racial minorities holding public office in that state. Hillary Clinton, who almost was the Democratic nominee, who in any other year probably would have been the nominee, making that motion, and Nancy Pelosi moderating the vote. It all sort of made me flash back to my reaction to Michelle Obama’s speech Monday night. Of course I know what year the 19th Amendment was passed, but it really gave me pause to hear her discuss the 80th anniversary of women’s suffrage coming at the same time as the 45th anniversary of Dr. King’s “Dream” speech. I think people of my generation are accustomed to thinking of those events as ancient history, stuff that was resolved before it was our problem. Of course that isn’t the case; none of it is resolved at all. But maybe for such a short time period, we have made more progress than we give credit for? I don’t know. Realizing that both of my grandmothers’ mothers would have been adults of voting age when women won the right to vote, that in my lifetime I have known women who grew up not being full citizens, makes it seem that much more spectacular to me the number of women who took the stage yesterday as Members of Congress.
My thoughts on the progress of racial minorities are different. Yes, it’s substantial progress to have minorities in public office all over the country, and a nominee for President from a major party. But it is just so easy to see how little progress has been made by skimming the paper in the morning (which I mean figuratively because I skim the paper online, like I do most things). As a Nashvillian I’m thinking largely of all the “English first” crap flying around lately, which may very well get its own post in the near future it is so offensive and misleading, but also of the fact that in the same night we can nominate a minority for President, people still get pissed that he kissed Joe Biden’s wife!
Obviously it isn’t an either/or proposition. There is a long way to go before either women or racial minorities are on equal footing with white men (duh, I know). But really , this campaign has been about, and will hopefully continue to be about, how that can be overcome by the individual, and how the individual can then turn around and offer a hand up to those who feel the disadvantage of their race or gender. And that, in my opinion, is how it should be.
Also, I would just like to point out the discussion of “pantsuits” worn by Hillary Clinton as a really good example of the misogyny that still exists in the professional world. A woman’s suit may have a skirt or may have pants. So what? Why is there such a strong expectation that women will choose skirts that we need to rename their suits if they don’t? I, for one, wear suits quite often, and almost always choose pants, mostly because in a courtroom setting I don’t feel very intimidating with a friendly breeze blowing up my suit. It’s okay, though, because my male colleagues all wear pantsuits, and we wouldn’t want to discriminate, would we?
“Also, I would just like to point out the discussion of “pantsuits” worn by Hillary Clinton as a really good example of the misogyny that still exists in the professional world. A woman’s suit may have a skirt or may have pants. So what?…Why is there such a strong expectation that women will choose skirts that we need to rename their suits if they don’t?”
Thank you for pointing that out! THANK YOU! A suit by any other name, is still a suit. Excellent post, I’ll be back for more!
I dislike the tokenizing of the main two democratic candidates, and how they have become figureheads for separate causes, as if they are exclusive. Not that you are doing this, it’s just been sort of stirring in my head recently. It recalls Invisible Man, the discarding of the who in favor of the what, and how both candidates are having to play into those false masks in order to make people more comfortable.
Also, the comment on pantsuits is absolutly correct. You should start referring to guys suits as pantsuits. Flip it on them.