Blue Collar Muse

Hat tip to Moe Lane at Redstate for pointing me to Michelle Cottle’s convoluted reasoning at The New Republic concerning Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton.

Titled ‘Shattered’, it starts out asking the big question for everyone on the Left, “Can someone please tell me what the hell happened?” Obama supporters want the answer to offer substance to go with the stuff they’ve been shoveling. They know they won but haven’t yet figured out how. An answer would point them in the right direction as the diss Hillary strategy is no longer available. Cottle and the rest of Hillary’s supporters want answers to ward off the next pretender to Hillary’s throne.

I like Cottle’s assessment of the Hillary campaign.

… This presidential election was supposed to be a high-water mark for feminism. Hillary Clinton … wasn’t running as a Woman [or] to prove herself tough enough to hang with the Big Boys: [Her] strategy was to prove that she was tougher than the Big Boys. … Hillary’s candidacy was expected to showcase what it means to be a broad-shouldered, ass-kicking modern woman.

Iowa was where Hillary’s inevitability narrative unraveled, but New Hampshire was where she got the idea that redemption lay in the legions of gals who rallied ’round when the (mostly male) political establishment and punditocracy began salivating at the thought of her imminent demise. … Hillary’s now famous moment of teary-eyed vulnerability fueled their fury. …

And, just like that, the strong, proud, fearless, gender-transcendent Hillary morphed into a disrespected, mistreated victim. Grievance feminism came roaring back with a vengeance. …

… the Democratic National Committee was compelled to insert into its platform this statement: “We believe that standing up for our country means standing up against sexism and all intolerance. Demeaning portrayals of women cheapen our debates, dampen the dreams of our daughters, and deny us the contributions of too many. Responsibility lies with us all.”

Not even the primary’s resolution could end the drama. … the true dead-enders–an overwhelmingly female cohort–grew ever more marginalized and belligerent.  … they were increasingly derided as overly emotional and downright nutty. … the extremism of Hillary dead-enders has played into all those tired stereotypes about women being fuzzy-headed and irrational.

The short version is Hillary talked tough but folded under pressure playing the gender card. Her supposed legendary leadership skills fizzled revealing a woman who couldn’t run a campaign, let alone a nation. The “If you don’t choose Hillary, you’re sexist!” group did garner her a loyal core group but it was unable to deliver the nomination. Democratic “girlie-fication” was so complete, PUMAs forced anti-sexist language into the formal platform. That was the extent of real Democratic support for women.  Hillary was the feminist heroine struck down while on her holy quest.

Enter Sarah Palin. Determined to stick to her non-sexist guns, Cottle goes after Palin, not on the issue of gender, but on the issue of issues.  Well, maybe not so much.

The Palin pick is disheartening on so many levels. For starters, even what little we know about the Alaska governor’s policy views is enough to make a traditional feminist weep. The staunchly conservative Palin not only opposes abortion rights (even in cases of rape or incest), she also supports abstinence-only sex education and takes a strict free-market approach toward health care. …

… Palin is abjectly unqualified to sit one heartbeat away from the presidency. She is less than two years into her first term as governor of a state with a population roughly equivalent to that of Baltimore or Fort Worth. Her minimal experience with national domestic issues is overshadowed only by her total lack of experience, or even apparent interest, in foreign affairs. This … makes the cynical tokenism of Palin’s selection all the more vivid.

Having analyzed Hillary well, Cottle fails to bring the same objectivity to Palin’s evaluation. She seems unable to conceive that choosing a woman of “intelligence, politcal savvy, [and] judgement”; a “smart, ambitious” woman; a “ballsy” woman who also happens to be a “staunchly conservative” woman could be anything other than “cynical tokenism”. Yes, she really did say all those nice things about Sarah Palin before dismissing her just because she’s a woman.

Strong, accomplished women are acceptable only if they’re Democrats.  Drooling GOP neandrathals wouldn’t nominate one until the Left showed them the political value in it.  Palin isn’t the nominee because she’s all the good things Cottle says about her. She’s the nominee because her vagina might attract votes. Palin is just a political whore being pimped by McCain.

At some point, Cottle and the Left must give up the unqualified token woman meme. It’s a non-starter and a bad-ender, too. Go back to championing the right to kill unborn babies, to tax the country into economic oblivion, to enshrine destructive energy policies into environmental utopian fantasies, to cling to 20th century solutions for 21st century problems and the rest of the bunk passing for serious issue debate on the Left. They’ll fare better with traditional losing arguments than with talking down the gender they’d love to praise but can’t just because of ideology.

But, perhaps Cottle is a faux feminist willing to put Party before private parts. Or maybe, deep down, she’s not a real feminist at all. Seeing Hillary implode at the first sign of trouble, perhaps she’s convinced if Hillary couldn’t weather the storm, no woman can. If the Left brings their own storm - going after Sarah with smears, lies and distortions starting with her family and moving to her person, her positions and Party, then doing it all again; belittle her, shame her, wound her enough and she’ll fold. If Hillary couldn’t take it, who is this upstart from the outside to think she can? At the end of the day, she’s just a woman, after all.

Who knows? Cottle may even be right. I don’t believe it, but she sure seems to. What to do, and what to say, however, if she turns out to be wrong? So who is the one advancing the feminist cause? And who is fighting a principled fight for the rights and opportunities of women? It would appear to be John McCain. It sure isn’t Barack Obama. And it’s not Michelle Cottle, either.

Thinking Cottle gets the nod for President of Hillary dead-enders - but what do I know - I only have a penis …

Blue Collar Muse

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Erick Erickson at RedState has an excellent post up this afternoon on one of our Tennessee races. Over in Memphis, TN-9, incumbent, white, Jewish, male, Democrat Steve Cohen has a primary fight on his hands from challenger, black, religious affiliation unknown, female Democrat Nikki Tinker. Tinker barely lost to Cohen in 2006 for Harold Ford Jr.’s seat when Ford ran unsuccessfully for the Senate against Bob Corker for the seat Bill Frist was vacating.

Not content with permitting a Democrat with superb bona fides to occupy the seat, Tinker is running against Cohen again. TN-9, largely Shelby County and Memphis, TN, is predominantly a black community. Unsurprisingly, race has become an issue for the Democratic primary. At least the Democrats are consistent. Even their own white males aren’t good enough to represent black Democrats.

That Cohen would be targeted at all is curious given recent political debate in Tennessee. As I mentioned, his Democratic credentials are impressive. Across the state, for months, there have been Progressives calling for someone to run against other incumbent Democrats like Lincoln Davis (TN-4), Jim Cooper (TN-5) and Bart Gordon (TN-6) because they aren’t Democratic enough. To my knowledge, despite serious objections to the Blue Dog status of these men, no Democrat is challenging them. Blue Dogs they may be but they know the length of their chain. None of these Dems are willing to put their people and their supposed principles above Pelosi and their Party. But they are white and so are the majority of their constituents.

Not so for Cohen and TN-9. He tried to join the Congressional Black Caucus earlier this year. He was denied. Only 3 of the 42 members of that caucus has endorsed his bid to remain the Democratic Congressman from Memphis. I’m reminded of the scene in “The Godfather” where Tessio is being led off to be executed for betraying the Corleones. He looks at Tom Hagen and asks, “Can you get me off the hook? For old time’s sake?” He’s met with a sad shake of the head as Hagen looks away.

Been nice knowing you, Steve. But nothing, not even your apology for slavery, can save you from what’s coming. You know the drill. It’s Democratic politics - rife with personal destruction - at its finest. And it’s about to claim another soul.

And who is talking about it? Obama, the great Uniter of the Races? The Tennessee Democratic Party and its Chair Gray Sasser? ANYBODY on the Left? Nope … just a little ol’ Right of Center blogger from Georgia at RedState. Thanks for keeping us in the loop on this one, Erick!

Blue Collar Muse

SEE ALSO:

Racism in Politics Shows its Ugly Head by Real Debate Wisconsin.

So Only White Guys are Racist When Voting? at Granite Grok

Obama’s and Media’s Silence on Racist Attacks on Tennessee Dem by Warner Todd Huston at NewsBusters.

Nice Wrap Up of Tennessee Blog Views on the Issue at Nashville is Talking.

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By the time I got to RedState a bit ago, I was already neck deep in stories about government, at all levels, simply ignoring rules and laws they don’t like. It seems to be approaching epidemic proportions. It seems to be true regardless of whether or not the government in question is local, state or federal. It is true whether the officials involved are on the Left or on the Right.

In the last few days I’ve reported on Jim Cooper, Democratic Representative from Tennessee, ignoring common sense and the law by illegally obtaining information from a password protected private website. Despite literally confessing to having violated the law during a committee meeting, the Congressman will likely face no criminal charges.

This morning I posted on Eminent Domain abuse by the City of Nashville. Despite the clear language of the 5th Amendment’s Takings Clause, the city is moving to seize a citizen’s property to give to a private developer in the name of public use. Only in government can you so distort the meaning of words.

And when I get to RedState today, I find that the administrator of Atlanta’s airport has no intention of complying with the recent change in Georgia law which permits concealed carry permit holders to be armed in areas previously off limits to them. Hartsfield-Jackson Airport General Manager Ben DeCosta , ” …announced that, even though they are not breaking the law, anyone with a firearm in the areas that the new law allows people to carry will be arrested.”

Laws? We don’t care about your stinking laws!

Only when the people insist on their rights and are willing to go to great lengths to do so, will government be forced back to their proper role of servant to the people. Government as Master is a nightmare scenario playing out on stages across the country. It needs to stop.

Blue

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