A Hillary loss will NOT set the women's rights movement back 50 years.

[CTLawGuy]

Really. I promise.

Nor will it mean no woman will become president for 50 years.

Conversely,

An Obama loss will not set race relations back 50 years, nor will it bar a black president for 50 years.


This is what occurs to me when I think about what is fueling all the negative emotion around here.... maybe I'm wrong.

[Muttocracy]

1. agreed nt

[galactical]

2. If anything, this primary season makes

the possibility of a female/minority president even more likely in the foreseeable future.

[NanceGreggs]

4. Precisely.

I wish some people would stop acting like this is the "last chance" for either a woman or a minority to be elected.

[stellanoir]

3. When really it's more ageism than racism or sexism that is truly fueling this debate.

[Liberal Gramma]

5. Ya think?

Do you mean against McCain? I think his age is a valid point to consider in a President. We've already had one with Alzheimer's...do we need two?

[splat]

6. Rookie power?

[anonymous171]

17. I agree. You see that in every demographic.

Younger women go for Barack more than older women. Younger Hispanics go for Barack more than older Hispanics.

[Liberal Veteran]

20. But is that ageism or just an affinity for idealism?

In this campaign the Clinton camp just seems to resigned to the status quo where people have to play the game the way it has always been played and wait their turn along the way.

The Obama camp seems to be more idealistic and wanting to shake up the status quo.

[anonymous171]

23. Probably a combination of both.

[dsc]

7. 50 years no

25 years maybe. There is literally no one at all as well positioned as Obama would have been in 4 or 8 years and only 1 who will be as well positioned as he is now anytime soon. Women are slightly better off on paper but in reality there is no other women Senator who has shown any interest at all in the Presidency and the women governors aren't well known. As an elected President, the class which loses this primary will be waiting quite a bit of time in all likelihood.

[Cha]

8. When hilary officially loses and gets off stage..it will actually

help the women's cause.

[splat]

9. Would any woman want to run after seeing how she and her supporters are treated here?

Either way, a large Dem constituency will feel rejected. Not a good spot for the party to have backed itself into.

[HooptieWagon]

12. Uh, what's hurt her campaign

is it's incompetence, her lies and arrogance, her cozying up to RWers like Scaife and Murdoch, her racist statements, threats and hypocrisy inre FL MI and caucuses, and her war-mongering votes.... and discussion here has rightfully expressed disgust with all that and condemmed it. Bad planning on her part, perhaps she shouldn't have triangulated and been the MIC's puppet.
And far more Hillary supporters have been banned from DU for violating board rules and trolling than have Obama supporters, so stop playing the victim card.

[goldcanyonaz]

10. It's going to set us back at least 25 years. The sexism and mysogyny have been disgusting.

[Liberal Veteran]

16. Hillary isn't losing because of sexism and misogyny....

...Hillary is losing because of Hillary.

Her campaign was just lackluster from the start and she made far too many missteps along the way.

[HooptieWagon]

22. It's the lying and racism from the Hillary camp ...

that has set a woman president back 25 years, if that ends up the case. A "feminist" woman running on her husband's record was a poor start, and it's only gone downhill since. Blame Hillary for that. Obama has overcome far greater hurdles to achieve front-runner status - at the beginning he had neither Hillary's name recognition, funding, contacts, and yet has managed his resources well enough to take the leadership role - isn't that who should be president rather than a candidate who took a clear advantage and flushed it down the toilet?

[MichiganVote]

11. If anything this race has shown we've already moved back.

[splat]

14. Young women will eventually figure it out, I hope

[MichiganVote]

27. When it hits their pocketbooks, benefits, ability to rent or own housing,

when they can no longer sue for sexual harassment, when ageism and gender bias return in full force, when they have medical need, want contraceptives, etc. etc.

[AZBlue]

13. Of course not. Anyone who says it will is grasping at pathetic straws.

[EffieBlack]

15. So true - white men have been losing presidential elections for more than 200 years and that

hasn't set THEM back at all.

It is a big mistake to assume that if Clinton or Obama lose the general that somehow it is a reflection on the chances of women or minorities to succeed in this arena. Some people would LOVE for us to think in such a self-defeating way - so that while we're licking our wounds and woeing is me, the status quo can keep right on quoing.

I don't think that either of them would lose in the fall, but if they do, it just means that those individuals lost, not an entire race or gender. And rather than giving up, we should pick ourselves up and keep on moving.

[Liberal Veteran]

18. Thank you so much for articulating that.

I was thinking something along the same lines.

[splat]

21. Ah, but neither a black nor a woman has ever won one

[helderheid]

19. hope you're right! K & R

[mrreowwr_kittty]

24. We will have a woman president fairly soon. But I hate to break this to everyone:

She will not be a Democrat. Our first woman president will be a conservative warhawk in the mold of Margaret Thatcher. I've always felt this and I think you can bank on it.

[stellanoir]

25. Nor will she be a woman masquerading as a male war hawk.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

26. Well she will but she'll have an R by her name. nt