Guys, please feel free to weigh in too (like I could stop you!), but I’m primarily interested in hearing from the women in this community on the following question: How would you feel if the Democratic Party’s nominee in 2020 is a man?
We all want a qualified candidate. We all want someone who can beat Trump. We want a candidate whose ideas appeal to us, someone capable of taking on the herculean task of undoing the damage wrought by the clown in the White House. Blah blah blah.
But I admit I will be disappointed if the party nominates another dude. As an American woman who isn’t a stupid Republican, I feel like we’ve not only waited long enough, we’ve been screwed out of what we rightfully won.
I didn’t always feel this strongly about breaking the glass ceiling. In 2008, I backed Obama over Clinton – a bit too fiercely at times.
I remember arguing with my mom about it, saying stuff like, “I don’t vote based on genitalia,” which in hindsight strikes me as a snotty rejoinder that is almost as clueless and cringey as when people claim, “I don’t see color.” (The fuck you don’t!) Representation matters, damn it.
Mom patiently explained that after two centuries of men running things, it was important to her to see a qualified woman have a shot at the job. She and Hillary Clinton were about the same age, so generational affinity may have played a role too. But my mom said more than once she really wanted to see a woman elected president in her lifetime. Sadly, she didn’t.
Looking back, I don’t think either of us was wrong in 2008. Clinton would have made a fine president, and Obama was a fine president. After the primary, my mom became a fan and voted for Obama twice.
But a dozen years later, having raised a daughter to adulthood myself, having suffered through the nauseating spectacle of the 2016 campaign and borne the daily degradation of a smirking misogynist in the White House for two-plus years, I understand where my mom was coming from a lot better.
What got me thinking about this was a report I read earlier that said Biden is almost certainly going to run, which would make him and Sanders the instant frontrunners. Now, I like Biden, and I know polls this early don’t mean shit. But when I read the sentence, I thought, “Great. Two old white dudes. Fuck that!”
If Biden wins the nomination, I’ll vote for him, obviously. I’ll vote for Bernie in the general if he’s the nominee, and I can’t stand the cantankerous coot. But in the primary, I get to weigh other factors. Femaleness was a factor for me last time, but it’s an even more so in this primary, and no apologies for that.
It’s not the only factor. I’d gladly vote for a good man like Mayor Pete or Beto over a crackpot woman like Tulsi Gabbard. I want a competent person who generally shares my values in the White House, and I want us to win.
But it’s more important to me than ever to break that glass ceiling, especially after looking at that leering orange pustule in the White House for two years. And since we have several capable women in the race who would make a good president, I want one of them to win, damn it.
So yeah, I’ll be disappointed if the Democratic Party nominates a man. Maybe even bitterly so. Representation matters. I’m not saying it’s our turn. But it kinda is. What do you think?