"The Obama-Era Race Wars Are Ending. Get Ready For the Clinton-Era Gender Wars."

[applegrove]

The Obama-Era Race Wars Are Ending. Get Ready For the Clinton-Era Gender Wars.

BY ISAAC CHOTINER at the New Republic

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117299/hillary-clinton-2016-and-gender-wars

"SNIP....................


I think Rich's argument is entirely correct, and I have made a version of it before. But Rich's quotations call to mind the same dynamic Chait lays out regarding Obama and race: namely, that the attacks on Clinton will be seen as sexist by liberals, which in turn will lead to conservatives feeling falsely accused of sexism. You can count on MSNBC, for example, to turn nearly every attack on Clinton into an attack on Republicans for hating women. (I expect Chris Matthews, who Chait mentions and who once disdained Clinton, to clean up his act and fall into partisan line.) Rich, for example, after noting some quite obvious examples of sexism, quotes Peggy Noonan calling Hillary a "highly credentialed rube." I don't think that rises to the level of anything, other than idiocy. And while many of the comments about Hillary Clinton's clothing were either outwardly sexist or motivated by sexist double-standards (and were thus also sexist), to paraphrase Chait: a comment about how a woman dresses is not by definition sexist. I seem to recall endless chatter about what Al Gore wore, too.

Noonan also compared Clinton to Glenn Close's bunny-hating character in Fatal Attraction, which is pretty obviously sexist. (She followed up by saying that Clinton “doesn’t have to prove she’s a man. She has to prove she’s a woman.” Sexually voracious and asexual both!) But it's hard to imagine Hillary being compared unfavorably to any unlikable female figure in pop culture or American history without people screaming about sexism. (Obama has been compared to Hitler and Stalin.)

There is reason to think, however, that the gender issue (in the context of Clinton) will eventually fade away much more quickly than the racial one (in the context of Obama). For starters, the Clinton campaign was able to gain political traction from sexist attacks last time, and if it does so again, Republicans might rightly start being extra careful. Obama was never able to use racist attacks from Rush Limbaugh and others to his political advantage; he generally shies away from racial politics of any sort. Moreover, half the country is female, and Republicans learned in 2012 (as Rich points out) what happens when you say incredibly stupid things about women. (Women actually make up more than half of the voting public; racist dog whistles are still easier in a country that remains mostly white.)

Still, the differing perceptions are unlikely to vanish entirely (nor, needless to say, is sexism). Chait's paradigm will be relevant, in another context, for longer than we might think.



...................SNIP"

[Nobel_Twaddle_III]

1. Well, at least they understand Hillary is going to win.

[denem]

2. The GOP political model depends on manufacturing "fanatical hatred"

of democratic leaders. It has little to do with the candidates, personality, or policies, and everything to do with keeping their base alarmed and angry, locked in a phoney forever war. Bill, Hillary, Obama and (Warren!), nothing less than nuclear hatred will suffice.

[jwirr]

3. Yes, I think Hillary will have as hard a time with the rw as President Obama does. And I think she

knows it. After all she went through it with Bill.

[applegrove]

4. Only since the 2012 election the GOP now attacks the president on foreign policy. That

used to be unmolested by them.

[jwirr]

5. I often think about that point when I hear them talk. Back then we would have called them

unpatriotic. They still are unpatriotic but now we don't call them on it. I think this is especially true when they make comments the undermine the diplomatic efforts to make peace.

[sofa king]

6. I think it's too late for them.

For the next twenty years, Jon Stewart and his successors will be able to say, "Is the Republican Party sexist? Let's go to the tape...." And there will be a tape, a long and embarrassing tape that is being expanded daily.

So I think that yeah, defenders of Mrs. Clinton will be able to freely run to the sexist well and sometimes get away with it even when sexism wasn't the intent.

That's a vulnerability that the Republicans worked very hard and incessantly to earn. They deserve to have it used against them, and I don't give a damn if it is unfair. In fact, my guess is that the more unfair it is, the better it will work.

[Jamaal510]

7. Alright, finally!

No more racism against Obama. Maybe now, Limbaugh and FOX News will go out of business, and the Republicans in Congress will cooperate with him!

[daybranch]

8. This is like predicting that after the horse runs away, he will run away

gender wars started with the republicans long ago as a way to control women and excite the superiority complexes of insecure men. Anyone that thinks gender wars start because of Hillary have been asleep for many years. I would wonder what would cause someone to say such things now? Are they trying to build sympathy for the poor woman in advance of the election. It is very hard to do that considering she like her husband will enjoy a great deal of support from Wall Streets, Millions from speaking engagements, and some of the most expensive PR campaigns known to man. But then, we need to make her likable , although she may be very much to the right of the American people. Maybe she should do as Warren and Brown did to level the money aspects of the primaries as they did in their election. But then she might lose again, like she did to the people's choice- Obama. C'mon , lets not take that chance again. Lets ignore the built in advantages she has, portray her in a manner deserving our sympathy etc. In this way, the third way can continue to subvert the populist desires of our people. I do not buy the PR campaign that has already been running for months.

[applegrove]

9. The GOP do set up their followers to be 'slighted' by any manifestation

of particular rights on the part of the left or the left's candidate. That way... they their base is played off of every move (defensive and offensive) a Democrat like Hillary makes. It is how psychopaths roll. The Germans who followed Hitler felt aggrieved by the Jews. Sure some people are anti-feminist right now. But that number will increase on the right. You'll see. And that is the point.

[msongs]

10. lotsa democrats will come home with a white candidate. sorry to say, but welcome to

them just the same

[DonCoquixote]

11. a true nightmare scenario

disclaimer, I would never vote for Rubio, or any minority that the GOP put in, period,.

But I do hope that if the GOp tries to use a brown, black yellow or other non white face, that Hillary learned her lesson about using racist dog whistles. Her cred is still damaged from that.