I don’t like doing this. I try to avoid meta, but Kos’s diary this morning cuts to the heart of what is a double standard for Hillary and her supporters that is fundamentally wrong and animated by a core of sexism that is unacceptable.
Hillary hasn’t won anything? She’s all-but locked up the nomination in a hotly contested primary. She is the first woman in history to do so. She’s done so despite being outspent, despite a hostile media, despite slander and smears coming at her from the left and the right.
She hasn’t won the White House yet. But this is a major, momentous historical accomplishment. It will already mean a tremendous amount that she will be representing a major political party in the fall.
And why shouldn’t we take any joy in that? I took a great deal of joy in 2008 when Barack Obama defeated Hillary Clinton for the nomination. I take joy now that a candidate who I support and am incredibly inspired by has won. People have poured their hearts and souls into Hillary and their blood, sweat, and tears have payed off.
I get not wanting public expressions of joy that Bernie LOST the nomination. That’s unseemly and unhelpful. But to claim that being happy that a candidate you support has won is somehow “piss(ing) on people” is an attempt, unconscious or otherwise, to silence and erase the voices of millions for whom this race represents an incredible moment of history in our lifetimes. It is the same kind of nonsense that claims that Hillary has less enthusiastic support (despite the polling and voting evidence to the contrary) or that she’s not an inspiring candidate. It is an implication that the people who support Hillary matter less, that our voices shouldn’t be heard, that we shouldn’t celebrate our successes because it might hurt the feelings of people who really matter.
You know what that sounds like to me? People who tell their daughters to let the boy win so you get another date. People who claim women need to learn certain words or phrases or body language to get ahead in business so they don’t come across as “too ambitious” or aggressive. It speaks to a deeply ingrained double standard in our society.
Does anyone here seriously doubt that if the situation were reversed, if Bernie had a near-lock on the nomination and had won a series of decisive victories last night we wouldn’t be seeing celebrations here? Would we be seeing diaries demanding that Sanders supporters be nice to Hillary and deciding exactly what he needs to do in order to win them over?
We’ll never know, but I strongly doubt it.
In the end, Hillary has won something. She’s won something that no other woman has won before her. She’s won something with the backing of a broad, deep, and diverse coalition of support that represents the modern Democratic Party and the future of the country. She’s won running on an explicitly progressive, unapologetically feminist platform that has elevated racial justice and economic fairness in our national conversation.
To reduce her unprecedented accomplishment to nothing much, to openly wonder “who gives a shit” is minimizing and insulting. The Hillary Clinton campaign is a movement. It isn’t a movement that has created “a whole new class of people excited about politics” (I’d dispute that Sanders has, either, but that’s for a different diary), but it IS a movement that has given a voice to people left out of our society- people of color, women, LGBTQ Americans, and the very poor. It is a political movement that will echo throughout history. It is a political movement that will ensure that my daughters barely remember a time before a woman could be President. It is a political movement that recognizes the opportunities and realities in our political system, a political movement dedicated to making real change that has a direct and immediate impact on people’s lives.
Hillary has won something, she’s won a major victory that is unprecedented in American history and you’re damn right I’m joyful about it. I do have compassion for Sanders supporters. I’ve been on the wrong side of primaries and general elections before (though never on the scale of a Presidential race). It sucks to lose, badly. I respect that. Sanders does not deserve ridicule in public spaces. He deserves what Hillary gave last night- our thanks for a well fought race and raising important issues.
That doesn’t mean that Hillary and he supporters shouldn’t celebrate the historic achievement we’ve won together.