General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: When I vote for HRC, here is what I'll be voting for [View all]calimary
(80,699 posts)faced. As the FIRST (fill-in-the-blank-here). In his case, the first Black President. In her case of course, it'd be the first Woman President. The first of anything would be dicey. Human nature at work here - especially the worst of our human nature, VERY MUCH at work here, as we've seen in President Obama's case.
I'd bet that then-President-Elect Barack Obama had more than a few discussions with advisors and his wife and his most trusted friends and everyone in his inner circle about, well, let's call it the "Curse of The Uppity" that he would face if he came out strong and forceful from the beginning. They probably urged him to take a conciliatory approach, an open hand, never a fist.
They probably urged:
Try to meet the opposition halfway - or MORE than halfway.
Don't be too threatening.
You're breaking a mold that's been CENTURIES in the making.
You'll be swimming against a tide that's been CENTURIES in the making.
Even in a best-case scenario, you'll be fought anyway, so you have to take great care, try to outthink and outwit the opposition but gently. And did we remember to say don't be too threatening?
Yes. Don't be too threatening. They're all new at this. They won't know what to do or how to react except negatively to something strange and new and unfamiliar - because someone like YOU in the Oval Office is going to be exceedingly strange and new and unfamiliar. And people react in predictable ways to the strange and new and unfamiliar - usually with distrust and hostility. Especially if you're black.
Hillary would get the same thing. Especially as a woman. MORE unfamiliar territory that would be full of opposition and prejudice and pre-conceived notions dating back to the Dark Ages, hell, even to cave-dweller days, when the woman was merely hit on the head by the man, and dragged back to the cave by her hair. Hillary would have to fight against the assumptions that a woman is weak, a woman can't cut it, she can't be Commander-in-Chief - she'll hand it all over to the Russians/Taiban/ISIS/Fill-in-the-blank-here. Her place is in the White House kitchen or heading up the household staff or something. Women don't belong in the Oval Office except when they're visiting their husbands... OR because they're the cleaning lady making her rounds at the end of the day. All that rot.
It'll be interesting to see it play out if Hillary does prevail. Watching the human nature play out - or maybe it's more appropriate to say the BASER human nature playing out, considering what we've seen so far. I'm wondering if there'll be one of two effects on display:
Will this be seen as a one-two punch against all the damn prejudice out there? ("SHIT, Bessie, first we had to put up with one o' THEM black folks in the White House, and NOW it's some brassy broad in there, we're-going-to-hell-in-a-hand-basket, I-want-MY-America-BACK" blah-blah-blah.) And will they act out?
OR will it be resignation and capitulation as the Bronze-Agers see the tide irreversibly running against them (and the "America" they thought they knew and with which they were so much more comfortable)? Will some of 'em give up? Will they give up and go away, seeing their "cause" is lost?
I kinda suspect we'd see the former rather than the latter. These folks are the ULTIMATE Sore Losermans. As we've seen, they revert to their own inner spoiled brat-child, screaming and thrashing on the floor throwing temper tantrums in the middle of the grocery store because Mommy wouldn't buy them sugar-cereal. They act out like nobody's business. It's really embarrassing. I always feel like I'm watching an erupting class of unruly spoiled-brat kindergarteners in mid-tantrum every time I see a group of 'em.
And then again... just imagine how this "well-disciplined, reasonable, intelligent and thoroughly adult" bunch would react - knowing a SOCIALIST!!!!!!! had been elected to the Oval Office... GEEZ...