Whatever a voter’s or Democratic operative’s preference, no one should overlook the historical milestone. In the midst of the most racist presidency in modern history and certainly among the most misogynistic in my lifetime, and at a time when President Trump and his cult are attempting to maintain white supremacy by voter suppression and by clinging to Confederate statues and military base names, the Democratic presidential nominee is considering several African Americans from an all-female field.
By anyone’s definition, Biden’s choice will be an “ambitious” woman. As Rebecca Traister recently wrote for the Cut, “The very act of having made themselves visible or audible to those in power promptly defines women as ambitious, and of course, these women, like every one of the men who have preceded them in American elected office, are ambitious. But as these past weeks remind us sharply, ambition — understood to be inherent to success in men — is still widely understood as an unattractive perversion in women.”
And if the process has been infuriating (it has), dominated by too many White, old men (it has), rife with double standards (it has) and perpetuated the notion that only non-threatening women who soothe male egos can make it to the top (it has), none of this should have been a surprise. We went through more than a year during which columnists mused endlessly as to whether Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) was likable enough while billionaire male contenders and largely unknown male congressmen without distinction were perfectly certain they were qualified for the job. The vice-presidential process simply reminded us that America’s political culture is still treacherous for women.
Whoever the pick is, she will immediately be set upon by every right-wing outfit, talk radio host or pundit in a mad scramble to demean her and prove she is a colossal mistake. Considering that virtually no one is going to base his or her vote on Biden’s pick, this might be a blessing for his camp. Let the Republicans rant and rave; let them obsess. Biden continues to hammer at really the only thing that matters: Trump’s horrendous mishandling of the pandemic, which has resulted in 160,000 deaths and an economy that may only be outdone by the Great Depression as the worst in our history.
Put all that aside. Unless an astounding turnaround in the race occurs, a woman is going to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. There is now an answer to the plaintive question that MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow asked Warren the night she dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination: “If Hillary Clinton can’t win when she gets the nomination, and then you can’t get the nomination, and neither can Kamala Harris and neither can Amy Klobuchar, and neither can Kirsten Gillibrand, I mean, I think part of what’s going on today, is women are the country are like, ‘OK, honestly, if it’s not one going to be any of them, let’s get real.’ Is it just that it can’t be a woman ever?” The answer: Once you have a female vice president, it becomes a whole lot easier.
Read more:
August 11, 2020 at 08:00PM
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/08/11/rotten-process-we-can-appreciate-milestone/
It’s been a rotten process. But we can appreciate the milestone of the first female VP. - The Washington Post
https://news.google.com/search?q=rotten&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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