New Republic: The Democrats Must Nominate Another Woman for President

[Beet]

As someone who lamented the lack of women in politics for years, I don't think this article is right at all. Yes Trump's misogyny is horrible, and so are many other things about him. The problems are much bigger now than they were just five or ten years ago. Their real sources are becoming clearer and coming into focus. So much has shifted under the feet of people who still think it's 1995.

And I don't mean the revolt against neoliberalism but the erosion of confidence in the United States itself; the country as a physical entity and the values we are founded on, and not just domestically but globally. We have not only lost all the gains of winning the Cold War but are in an even worse position than we were in the 1980s. This is a very dangerous time. Despite the rah-rah over nationalism on the new Right, real patriotism is probably at its weakest moment in living memory. There's a reason why the Soviets never seriously tried to interfere in American politics during the entire Cold War and it's not because you wouldn't have done it before the Age of the Internet, but because they knew that there would be no question-- any hint of such a campaign would have been met with a unianimous united front by both parties. Partisanship would have been set aside by any credible actors as the foreign effort was quashed with impunity.

Political sexism, and other identity politics related problems, traces itself back to the fraying of decency among the people, and this in turn traces back to the same causes that have led to the fraying of patriotism. In part these roots are, frustration with the failings of the political system of which the Democratic party itself sadly played a part, because we have (IMO) lost touch with our Judeo-Christian values on which the country was founded on, because we no longer lift a finger to defend the Enlightenment values upon which this country was also founded, and because we have abused the Internet to hide behind the fact that we no longer have to see each other face to face, to tolerate cruel and abusive behavior. This is where Beet transitions into a crusty old man.

For many years Christianity was a pillar of this country, implicitly if not explicitly; even people who were not religious were influenced by Christian norms of decency and the ensoulment of all people (the Civil Rights movement being the last major prosocial use of these norms). But when the evangelical Christian bulk embraced the intolerant politics of Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, James Dobson, and Roy Moore, they began to divorce themselves from the mainstream society and spawned an entire generation that increasingly rejects them. The founders tried to prevent this by mandating a separation of church and state--what people don't often talk about these days is that this was done as much to protect the church from the state as vice versa--, but what they couldn't prevent was an intersection of church and politics. We are now feeling the negative knock-off effects of this social withdrawal from Christianity on our culture.

[Beet]

I am so sick of expectations being hyped up. Middle America is misogynist, full stop. It will not elect a woman.

[Beet]

I am so sick of expectations being hyped up. Middle America is misogynist, full stop. It will not elect a woman.

Not that I disagree that Middle America is misogynist, but Hillary only lost because of Comey and an archaic outdated electoral college system.

It'll be harder for Democrats to win if they nominate a woman though, for sure. But not impossible.

The electoral college will still be around in 2020 and the Comey Letter, decisive as it was, was ultimately a product of the boys’ club atmosphere of the FBI (that will still be around too). Does anyone believe if the FBI was 88% female that the same resentments would have bubbled up to influence Comey to go public before a leak?

[Beet]

You do realize that shrieking "MUH MISOGYNY" isn't a convincing strategy, right?  President Obama took the high road in 2008 by rarely invoking race and racism into the mix.  Maybe a woman nominee (whoever she may be) should take a similar, wise road.

Hillary hardly mentioned sexism in the 2008 primaries and lost. It's damned if you do, damned if you don't.

[Beet]

The MSM narrative on AA is absurd. They are by far the single most Democratic demographic in the country, and yet if they don't turn out at the same rates as they did for the first black president and vote for one party at the same margins, they somehow "didn't show up." It just reeks of entitlement. Given the shoddy shape that some of the neighborhoods I canvassed in were in - "You guys show up once every four years, and nothing changes," it's amazing any of them even voted.