Dave Chappelle has a funny joke series on the topic of "keepin' it real" in which he shows how badly things can turn out when you do that. It's hilarious. And it makes me think of two things;
- NPR in the last couple of days featured some guys who started a blog site called "What white people like". Apparently it's been very popular. The weird thing, to me, was that during this whole NPR interview of the site's co-founder, and all the white callers who said how great the site was, no mention or credit was given to the black comedians who have led on this issue. Dave Chappelle has been doing hilarious things on white people for years. He's got the Ted Copple lampoon. He's got "White people like guitar" skit. But no bow to him. That's disappointing.
- The second aspect of "keeping it real" is this: I've made a few observations on dkos recently and it's become pretty clear that people don't like Hillary mostly -- I'd say 90% -- because she is in fact ... gulp ... a female. Now this is not to say that anyone here is consciously sexist. Heaven forbid. But ... keeping it real ... I have to say:
There are several lines of evidence supporting this observation, and I'll give them now.
- Pat Buchanan's claim that Hillary's voice is annoying - that struck a chord. Some folks on dkos admitted that yes, they or people they know are turned off by her voice. Some went so far as to cite cases of her sounding like a mom or an ex-wife. These people were not harsh or cruel, rather they came across as reflective and honest.
- Some criticisms of Hillary tend to focus strongly on inferences about her internal state. People see something in the set of her mouth, and conclude she is "furious" , or "calculating". They are quick to see her as emotionally unstable. In fact, after the first big debate, the media pundits spent some time talking about how she DID NOT break down. They seemed surprised, almost. Dkos is rife with descriptions of her as screaming, bitchy, well you guys know.
- Some criticisms of Hillary are based on her being "divisive". What folks are mostly talking about, here, is not her policies or her behavior. It's the fact that she is not well liked, and so tends to turn off the people she would need to negotiate with or fit in with, or be elected by. Therefore, she is by definition "divisive" even though it's not something under her control. People who are not well liked AREN'T as good at leading and negotiating, as people who are liked.
- Some criticisms of Hillary are based on the fact she was married to Bill Clinton. While some conservatives might see this as positive (at least Bill will be in the wings in case she goes into menopausal shock and tries to push the red button), in the PROGRESSIVE community her connections with Bill are universally negative. First, the only reason she ever got where she is is because of him (although hearing her command of facts, an objective observer might just conclude the opposite: that she might well have been the brains behind Bill). Second, she is forever contaminated by him in all the ways that progressive do not like him. She'll never be free of him.
- Finally, yes, she has a couple of policy slip-ups. The Iraq war resolution in which she voted WITH THE MAJORITY OF DEMOCRATS, and her supposed support of NAFTA (though that is mostly Bill contamination). And one person has mentioned that she didnt' provide the jobs that folks in upstate New York were hoping for. For a political candidate this is a relatively small list of policy failings.
While none of this is strictly speaking, sexism, it's clear that 1-4 would appear on most folks' lists of "pitfalls a female candidate should beware of" Item 1 (the voice) is obvious. Item 2 (internal state) also happens to people of color ("that boy has a bad attitude") and we've seen it in attacks against Michelle Obama. Items 3, being unliked, is far more frequent among women in power than men in power. Plenty of research supports that women are not perceived as holding power legitimately. Hence, their power it resented.
Item 5 is the one item that looks at Hillary purely from the standpoint of her abilities and policies. And frankly, she measures up pretty well on that item. Not perfect, but then who is? And hey don't throw the "1000s dead, how can you ignore that?" bomb at me. It applies to plenty of democrats including Biden and Dodd who voted 'aye'. Also, I hereby state that this is not "snark" nor "troll" so you can save those comments as well.
Rational/logical agrees or disagrees are welcome. Thanks.