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In reply to the discussion: I didn't vote for a woman in 2016 [View all]Caliman73
(11,764 posts)Where it gets into the heart of the matter is when you talk about "electability arguments. This is in no way a comment on you LongtimeAZDem. I don't know you at all. The problem is that there are way too many people for whom "electability" only means a White man given a women or person of color with the exact same or better qualifications. You cannot have "electability" arguments without taking into account the effects of 400+ years of sexism and racism which have been institutionalized and have permeated the mentality of almost everyone in the country, including women and people of color who have bought into the idea that women and people of color are just inferior.
The struggle for many people of color and women in this country is that we want to see people in power who represent us, who look like us, and understand our experiences. The Presidency and most of the history of Congress have been representative of the experience of White Christian men. In 240+ years we have had exactly one Black man as President and one woman as Speaker of the House. One of the most qualified women to ever run for office was attacked mercilessly for the affairs of her husband while the idiot who stumbled into the White House was nowhere near as scrutinized for his own well known history of affairs. Hillary carried around the stain of Bill's actions and for Trump it did not matter.
The phrase "who can win" is the operative phrase and is problematic for the reasons I stated above. You have Avenatti talking about "It has to be a White man". You have people talking up Joe Biden (who I like but...) who has not been able to make it out of a primary. We as a nation have to continue to ask ourselves why it is only women and people of color who are routinely scrutinized about their ability to win. It isn't the candidate it is the society that is reflected in those calculations.
I totally agree regarding the blanket statements like "too many penises" and the like. Candidates should not be rejected out of hand based on their gender, in either direction. Those statements are typically out of frustration and likely indicate, poorly, the frustration and sentiment I shared earlier about wanting the candidate to actually represent an experience of a historically marginalized group.
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