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• Monday, August 25, 2008 08:45 AM

  Here's the thing Joan

  Like some you mentioned I started out in 2007 thrilled with all the candidates. I was excited. My primary choice order was Clinton/Edwards,Kucinich, Richardson, Dodd........but I always told my friends, any one would have my vote.

  I am a 62 year old woman who has voted democratic all my life. And like many women my age, I have put in my hours walking the walk, going door to door to get democrats elected.

  I never thought I would end up where I am now. ANGRY. I am angry as hell at the democratic party, at the media, at the male dominated blogosphere. I never in all my life thought I would see the level of sexism I saw in this campaign. MSNBC has been blocked on my television because men like Matthews and Olberman were disgusting in their personal bias. I can no long stand to even listen to misogynistic curmudgeon Cafferty. And Rachel Maddow is one of the biggest disappointment of my life.

  But I am an activist and thought maybe I was listening too much, blogging too much. But then I had some lunches with my not so activists friends. And guess what. They feel like I do. ANGRY. These women who did not participate in blogging ever, but are intelligent, informed voters (all college educated with Master's degrees), felt the same thing.

  It was like we were reliving something we all experienced. The more experienced, more time on the job, more organized in her thoughts with details of policy, is passed over by the younger, supposedly "more charistmatic, exciting, good looking" man.

  We have lived it and now we live it again.

  Instead of getting over it, we get angrier and angrier, WHY? Because the attitude of the DNC is "they have no where else to go;" the attitude of some of our own democratic Congressment is sexist (i.e. "bitter knitters); and the attitude of the Obama campaign is that we owe them our vote.

  There has been no reaching out. Instead there is the implication from the Obama campaign: "oh they are just those old white women who are racists anyway; or they're just low information voters."

  As long the democratic party, a party where women have been the worker bees while the men always get the "queen bee" roles, keeps kicking us in the teeth, there is a problem.

  I am going to Denver tomorrow to march in honor of Hillary and in honor of the anniversary of Suffrage. I mentioned it on a blog and some young blogger (unsure of gender) says this: well go, do your Hillary thing and that "feminist thingy anniversary" and get over it. Can you imagine? They call us the low information voters and they think women getting the right to vote was some feminist thingy.

  The democratic leadership has betrayed women and now instead of reaching out with honesty and a desire to unite, they are thumbing their noses at women who are angry and frustrated, not just because of Hillary, but because the democratic party has been playing games with women, and basically telling us "we don't need you because we have the kids now." Until and unless that attitude changes, more than a few of us will be rethinking our commitment to the party.

  —Jjc2008 Read Jjc2008's other letters
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