The endorsement finally happened today.
From our perspective, and I'm aware that what I'm about to write will evoke winces in Hillary Clinton supporters, it was a "long time coming". It took Clinton "too long" to "wake up to reality" and to "finally accept" what was "obvious to us all a long time ago".
I'm trying to step back and understand now how those thoughts and attitudes contributed to the gulf between Obama's supporters and hers.
I had an odd feeling while listening to the end of Clinton's speech today. The best part, from the 18 million cracks on through her discussions of family and togetherness. Those were definitely the words of a woman. I can't imagine a male political candidate speaking those words and them having that much resonance. And they had power, and they filled me with emotion.
I'm a guy who didn't do more than take a couple of women's studies courses in college. I don't know much about feminism and sexism beyond those classes, beyond listening to and respecting the views of the various amazing women that have been in my life, and beyond doing a fair amount of reading online. I know that sexism and feminism are slippery subjects, and that accusations of sexism can sometimes be used as a bludgeon when it's not appropriate.
But one thing I also know about sexism is that it's insidious, and can sneak in from all sorts of directions. It can sneak in, in between the words we say. Or in the gaps between the words you say, and the agreement of a friend. Often times I have seen diaries or comments here on daily kos, that might be innocuous by themselves... but where the measure of agreement and recommendation seems weird and intense compared to the content.
I feel vaguely embarrassed now of how strong my own words were on the night of Obama's win, the night that Clinton didn't endorse. I saw Clinton's tenacity in the same light as the words I quoted in my first paragraph here. How could she deny Obama his due? How could she be in that much denial?
It hit me more while listening to the speech today. That level of tenacity - which is a word in itself that feels vaguely uncomfortable to me, like some of the almost-patronizing words ascribed to Obama - is, and always has been necessary in the fight for equality of women. Without that, she wouldn't been there to begin with. I also remember a feeling while listening to her speech Tuesday night. I simply couldn't imagine her giving the endorsement that night. Not with how that crowd was acting. It just would have been too much all at once. I couldn't imagine the endorsement going over well that night, not to her supporters. Hillary needed that time - not just for her to "get over it" and "accept reality" (the patronizing excuses I've seen offered up so often recently), but, because she deserved it, and she deserved a much bigger moment in order to steer that huge ship of her campaign.
I think there is just so much that we don't get. In terms of why she had so much support even late in the campaign. Why her supporters were so supportive of Hillary even when it was clear that Obama had the advantage. The fact is, Hillary hits notes - strong, healthy, constructive notes - that just don't register with us. They strike chords that we are just frankly tone-deaf to. And that's our loss. And unless we do work to reach out, apologize, ask questions, and listen, I think that means that our blind spots could do damage to progressive populations that we are politically sworn to defend and champion.
I think we owe it to our friends and allies. Not just to stop and analyze what went wrong for Hillary, but to also stop and question where we went wrong, even as we won in spite of it. I hope that we pledge to reach out from a place of humility. There's an awful lot of healing that has to happen from our side.