Hope and change I would like to see
When this morning began, I did not know the name of the first female to run as VPOTUS on a major party ticket. Now that the day is over, I know why. The year was 1984, I was two years old, and Geraldine Ferraro was part of a ticket that suffered the most devastating landslide loss in the history of the Democratic party. Mondale-Ferraro managed to pull in a whopping 13 electoral votes, with only the state of Minnesota and the District of Columbia voting for them. That’s right, 49 states said “no thanks” to the offer of a female VPOTUS. No wonder no one ever talks about it.
The earliest election I can remember is Bush v. Dukakis in 1988, when I was six years old, and even those memories are vague. By 1992 I was ten years old and I can remember the three-way contest between Clinton, Perot and Bush quite well. I also remember getting into an argument with a boy my age while riding the bus. I said something like, “It sure would be great to see a woman president” to which he sneered, “There’s never going to be a woman president!” I told him there would too be and he said I was being stupid. I wanted to believe my own words, but in my heart there was a lot of doubt.
As I was perusing today’s news regarding Sarah Palin, a new thought occurred to me: I’m grown up now, and I have a two year-old daughter of my own. It has taken an entire generation for a woman to appear on a major party ticket since Ferraro’s defeat in 1984. What will happen if McCain-Palin is defeated this November? What if it takes another 24 years for a woman to get this far again?
If McCain-Palin is victorious, my daughter will spend her formative years knowing that women in this country can be anything they want, even Vice-President of the United States (and by extension, President). If they are defeated, her first memories will be of yet another double-male team leading the white house. I think it’s nice that the Democrats have someone on their ticket with a mixed ethnic background, but their ticket is still 3/4 white. That does not sound like very much change to me.
I was not a Hillary supporter in the slightest, but I was definitely a supporter of the dream of a female president. I may not have wanted Hillary specifically for my president, but the child in me still would have cheered if she had become the first woman to win the POTUS nomination for a major party. It would have cheered even harder if she had won the election. How I would love to see that ceiling shatter, even if I completely disagree with the positions and practices of the woman who does it.
Already the talk from Obama-supporting feminists is that Palin isn’t the type of woman who fights for the issues women care about, so she isn’t a true pioneer for women’s rights and thus unworthy of the women’s vote. Frankly, it’s one of the most intolerant things I’ve ever heard. Palin’s life story is a living women’s rights tract, even more so than Hillary’s. She rose to her current position all by herself, unaided by the efforts of a political husband or wealthy, established Washington DC family. Furthermore, just because Palin disagrees with liberal feminists on abortion does not make her any less of a crusader for women’s rights. She simply seeks another kind of right: the right to not see unborn children wind up in little bloody pieces in buckets under sanction of the law. Women like Palin are just as passionate about the right to life as her liberal counterparts are about the right to choice. I may vehemently disagree with you on the issue, I may even be disgusted by what you believe, but I’ll never tell you that you’re a traitor to women’s interests because of it.
I know what kind of change I want to see this election, and I’m pleasantly surprised by how hopeful I feel about it. I want my daughter to spend the next four years growing up in a world where she knows she can be anything. I want that boy from the bus 16 years ago to eat crow, and there’s only one ticket that can make that happen. If you want the same for your daughters, support McCain-Palin with your vote this November.
PS – Please forgive the shameless pandering with the picture of my daughter at the top of the post. She’s so cute I just love showing her off!
Categories:
Comments
Hope and change I would like to see — 2 Comments