"There is difference and there is power. And who holds the power decides the meaning of the difference." --June Jordan

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

In which Kate Harding makes ME get all teary-eyed. (You know. Just like Hillary.)

In her latest post at Shapely Prose and Shakesville, the amazing Kate Harding beautifully articulates what I have been feeling ever since Hillary announced her candidacy.
 

"Which brings me to the other reason - quite honestly, the main reason - I've kept quiet about my love for Hillary: it's a terribly unfashionable thing to admit around the liberal blogosphere. She's the most conservative candidate! She sucks up to corporations! We don't vote with our vaginas! It's insulting to assume women will vote for her just because she's a woman! All true, don't get me wrong. And yet, I've still always kind of wanted to vote for her.

"And that's mostly because she's a woman. And so am I.

"As Jeff said, it is indeed identity politics - but it's not necessarily misguided. The sexist shitstorm that's been raging around Hillary for the last week (let alone the last year, the last 15 years) just reinforces what I've felt in my gut all along: electing a woman president would be a radical, transgressive, transformative act, even if she's a relatively conservative candidate. Watching the stunned looks on the pundits' faces last night, hearing all the, "My god! How could we have gotten it so wrong?"s, was like Christmas for me, quite frankly. A good 20 percent of me would like to see Hillary get the nomination solely for the pleasure of watching Tweety lose his goddamned mind. No loftier reason than that."

Word to that.  It was her closing that really made my eyes well up, though (emphasis mine):
 

"I haven't yet decided if I think that's Hillary, out of the top three. But it damn well might be. And if she gets the nomination - whether I vote for her in the primary or not - I can tell you right now, my overemotional, girly ass is going to blub when I cast a vote for the first woman president. Because, even if it's not the thing that matters most to me in this election, you'd better believe it fucking matters.

"It matters like whoa."

 

I'm totally not ashamed to say I'm glad she won in New Hampshire.  It's history in the making.

Also, I think I'm in good company when I say Maureen Dowd should STFU.