2 posts tagged “gender”
If you watch, listen to, or read the commentaries on the primaries taking place every couple of weeks, the news has drifted into a public battle of race, age, and gender. I have been struck by the amount of news that basically states that Senator Hillary Clinton is winning over middle class, whites (the exact words that the media seems to be comfortable using), older “white” voters and is campaigning to win over women. The other side of the coin is that Senator Barack Obama is winning over African-American voters (in the media known as “black voters”) and new, young voters.
This race may not be what has split the party, but no matter how you think it got there, I think it is safe to say that, the party is split and it is being made obvious to the whole planet.
The last few days of news has brought lots of stories and discussion about the possibility that events of this primary season are negatively affecting the party as a whole. Some say that the events of the last few months are not negatively affecting the party. Again, that may or may not be the case, but the party has a huge negative point at this minute: The party is divided.
I have been befuddled by how comfortable the media has been in reducing the campaigns to the group that seems to vote for the candidates. Now we can all think of Sen. Clinton as the candidate of middleclass “white males” and “older white” voters while Sen. Obama as the candidate of African Americans and new voters. But, in thinking about it, although these facts are uncomfortable, they are true and this is news.
The problem is not the reporting, the problem is that the Democrats are comfortable with this as a whole. It does not matter if the party split yesterday, over this primary season, or ten years ago, it is still split and the gap between the different factions is growing.
The problem has the potential to move from a large crack in the party to a completely broken party in the near future.
If Sen. Obama wins, the middleclass white males will feel disenfranchised and may not be in as much of a hurry to vote for him simply because he is a Democrat.
If Sen. Clinton wins, by the overturning of the popular vote by superdelegates, or by getting the states that Sen. Obama did not campaign in to count, a large part of the African American community will feel cheated by the candidate that represents middleclass, “white” America. Has the party not thought through how overriding the popular vote of the people or including the votes of states that the first African American candidate did not campaign in (in accordance with instructions from the party) would speak to the African American populous.
In polls the voters have made it clear that if their respective candidate did not win, they may vote for a Republican, Independent, or at the least no longer affiliate themselves with the Democrats.
Both middleclass “white” and the “black” voters are major demographics that have been the base of the party for the past few years. One of these groups is likely to be alienated in the next few months. Then what? How about the young voters that are voting for the first time? Alienate them and you have succeeded in alienating the future!
I suppose the party has counted on being to get the two candidates coming together after some sort of solution is reached and running together as presidential and vice-presidential candidates. This would be the case normally, but this current unusually prolonged primary season and the nature of the “firsts” represented in the candidates, has allowed more time for voters to get their heart set on their candidate and to foster more dislike for the opponent.
The end of the party seems to be coming faster than the end of the primaries. If I were a Democrat (and not a complete independent) I would think that this has to stop now, because this one presidency is not worth risking the destruction of the party. As an independent that thinks the party system is broken, I think if the one party explodes in front of the entire planet it will force the government and the country as a whole to look at revamping the party system.
Senator Barack Obama squeezes by in the primary in Guam this weekend. The senator squeezed by with a mere seven votes. In looking at this I see what has been happening all along. There is a lot of press and stress. Then there is anticipation and prediction. In the end, the voters determine the democratic candidates to be equal, yet Sen. Barack Obama comes out just slightly ahead. How does this keep happening to Senator Hillary Clinton. As I sort through the various conversations and interactions I have had throughout the information blitz of this campaign season, I am left wondering what is driving the voers to vote in this race the way they are voting. Is it the true belief that this is the best candidate that the country has to offer? Is it that none of the candidates are truly good prospects for the presidency and we must hurry to pick the least of the evils in the hopes of keeping what is about to happen to a low threshold of pain for the rest of us? Is it to ensure that the unpopular actions of our current president are not repeated? Is it to keep the Democratic race tight and running in the hopes of dividing their party so the Republicans can win easily? Is it simply because a person likes the race of one candidate over another? Is it simply because a person likes the Gender of one candidate over another? Is it not liking the candidate particularly but supporting one party or the other? In my recent comments and in listening to much of what is discussed in the media, I am convinced that many people vote for all of the wrong reasons and that many of the candidates and in reality both of the major parties count on that fact. The truth is that I feel the race is so tight right now because all of the candidates are all so great, it is because all of the candidates are so average. They are not really bad candidates, all three are just average candidates with really average ideas and plans. If my fears are the truth and we are simply settling for the lesser of three evils and hoping to minimize the future damage. I do not yet endorse any of the three candidates and will not a I continue waiting in the hope that there will be a miracle and an awesome and independent candidate will come out of nowhere to represent the hopes of the people will emerge as the sudden superhero of the presidency. If this person does not show up, as it is starting to seem, then I will have to chose one of these candidates and I will have to vote for one of them and that will simply be what I consider a vote for what is perceived as the lesser evil. This choosing the lesser evil has been getting eviler and eviler. I mean the mere idea that I should vote for a person because he or she can bowl or drank some shots with some “average” people, or played basketball, etc. Seriously, what an insult to all of our intelligence. If that does not work, offer to take a few cents our of our gas price and secretly charge us later to cover the billions of dollars lost to lower our gas a few cents and save us a few dollars in the few month period mentioned. In other words, bribe me. Why should we be forced to endure this? Why are more people not insulted? These candidates are not normal, average people. I am not really convinced that a normal, average person should be given leadership of what is arguably the most powerful nation on the planet and it’s people. This is an above average job that will require an above average person. Maybe the race and the polls are so close between all three candidates because they all are just as bad as the others and it barely matters which one wins. My search for the lesser evil has led me to believe in a new concept: “Equal Evil.” This is when one is looking for the lesser evil and finds that no option bring the lesser evil. At this point the evils are all the same. I hope that none of this is true and I have just been thrown off by the various candidates attempts to seem like the average normal person and one of these candidates is actually a very above average individual who is truly capable of running this country.
