Frankly, I wonder what a President Clinton would feel she had to do to prove herself sufficiently warrior-like as the first female president.
The women's movement began with the idea of social transformation that meant to question every element of society. Civil rights activists—in both the Martin Luther King and the Black Power manifestations--- aimed to confront white supremacy in every element of American life.
By the 1980s, both movements had been distorted into “piece of the pie” politics. The rise of the right-wing needed a few “dark faces in high places” and a few women carrying their backlash agenda. George W. Bush has masterfully manipulated aspirations for equality.
But, the grassroots movements got undercut. Activists of color were subjected to extreme State-sponsored violence and incarceration.. Some people of color were allowed to rise and were used as signs of “racial progress” while civil rights gains were assaulted in the courts.. The women's movement got bought off with non-profits and an idea I've long thought of as “corporate feminism”. This boils down to “I can be rule people for profits just as well as any man can—just give me a chance!” Instead of challenging and changing the Corporate take-over of everything, too many women went along with it in the name of “equality”. Hillary Clinton exemplifies the corporate co-option of feminism. It's ridiculous that her feminist defenders—like Steinem—fail to see this.
Listening to one of his crowd-stirring but ambiguous speeches, it's difficult to know what Barack Obama is proposing to actually do. John Edwards is better at making it appear he's in touch with the economic crisis devastating more and more working people while wealthy elites grow more bloated with profit and power. Hillary Clinton promises to go back to the future of her husband's presidency, which should require that the Clinton years finally be assessed with no illusions. When it comes to the candidates we're told we should consider “viable”, as I see it, shallow symbols of race, class and gender are preferred to any real substance. The 2008 campaign so far indicates our democracy has a discouraging prognosis: weakening and on corporate media-saturated life-support.
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