- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
For every woman like Teensy who dares us to say anything that might drive her away from the Democratic Party (and I suspect that this is not posturing on her part - correct, Teensy?), there will be a host more of formerly Democratic women "crossing over" or sitting out. I suspect the majority of them are white, educated, upper middle class, and were ready to break away sooner or later.
And why? That one is a lot harder to substantiate. Many of these folks backed Bill Clinton, who was even younger running for the Presidency, governor of a pretty small-time state (other than corporate HQ of WM - something I have always wondered about), and had a long history of dalliances with women of a certain type. We can say what we will about Obama, but he appears to genuinely be a family man who believes in community organizations and possesses an almost singular drive to bring transformation to table. Race is almost certainly a factor, but I doubt that it is nearly as significant as the MSM would like us to believe.
We are seeing a major realignment in parties, one that began a while ago and is now gaining momentum. For every woman (or man, for that matter) leaving the party, it seems that two more sign on. An issue of potentially massive significance often ignored or glossed over on Salon (I think - feel free to correct me if I am wrong, here) is a wave of younger Evangelical Christians who identify with Obama's faith and message of transformation. Stephen Mansfield's upcoming book about him is only going to further Obama's inroads among this group.
One has to wonder if a flood of progressive evangelicals makes some among the "old guard" nervous. The Democratic party will look very different a year from now than it did a year ago, and I personally feel it is about time (YMMV).
As for the Republicans, this will leave them will little to do but wallow in the past, playing the role of obstructionist to all forms of change following the realignment this fall. They will be on the outside looking for for the first time in more than a generation and some of the old Dems (Lieberman, etc.) will have the distinct displeasure of sharing this dark space with them.
