New York Times columnist Gail Collins, author also of America’s Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates and Heroines, writes in her op-ed today, “Baked Alaska”,
The idea that women are going to race off to vote for any candidate with the same internal plumbing is both offensive and historically wrong. When the sexes have parted company in modern elections, it’s generally been because women are more likely to be Democrats, and more concerned about protecting the social safety net. …
This year, Hillary Clinton took things to a whole new level. She didn’t run for president as a symbol but as the best-prepared candidate in the Democratic pack. Whether you liked her or not, she convinced the nation that women could be qualified to both run the country and be commander in chief. That was an enormous breakthrough, and Palin’s nomination feels, in comparison, like a step back.
Exactly. Read the entire piece here.
For me, political experience — foreign and domestic — and such things as environmental protection and support of Roe v. Wade, and the lack of lifetime membership in the NRA, trump chromosomes, especially when considering the vice presidential choice of someone who could end up the oldest U.S. President elected. And when that glass ceiling is shattered, I’d prefer it happen without a gun.
(Now if Joe Biden can just restrain himself and not get snarky during the VP debate…)
Filed under: Civics, Current Events
