Reply #111: I don't see it as jumping the gun. [View All]

[noamnety]

I see it as voicing a concern now, rather than waiting until it's too late to do anything about it. When we object to a piece of proposed or rumored legislation, as activists, we don't wait until it has passed and THEN call our senators to let them know where we stood on it. We try to get our voices heard prior to the decisions being made.

In this case, women (and gays and people of color) are trying to make it very clear that we want equitable representation in our government. And they are expressing some concern because Obama has established a pattern of under-representing women - on his transition advisory board, his agency review team, his key economic advisers, and his named members of his white house staff.

"Appointing Hillary" does not resolve the concern about equitable representation any more than complaints that people of color are underrepresented in the senate are negated by saying "what's your problem, you got a black president now."

If we are saying that women are underrepresented and this is a symptom of institutionalized sexism that needs to be addressed, please do not trivialize and misrepresent that systemic problem as "the womenfolk are pissed hillary hasn't been appointed."