I’ve been reading about the Democratic women running for president for the last couple of weeks and the only conclusion I can draw is that they’re all terribly flawed.
Kirsten Gillibrand used to be conservative and anti gun control before she became a senator and in favor of gun control so — she might not be trustworthy! She’s too white, too blond, too much from NY, and far too likely to harshly criticize men who grope women. (but hell, at least she doesn’t stick a random “j” in her first name).
Kamala Harris didn’t respond to some requests to investigate the police when she was CA AG, was far too cheerful about putting pressure on parents of kids with extensive truancy problems, can’t claim to be African American according to one Twitter-boosted organization and Don Lemon, and according to another male pundit, she needs a working class black guy to defend her (yep, he went there).
Amy Klobuchar is far too moderate, too willing to work across the aisle. She won’t endorse free college and she’s apparently really insulting and harsh with her staff. No more Minnesota Nice™image for her!
Elizabeth Warren used to be a Republican so she, like Gillibrand, might not be trustworthy. She tried to appropriate an American Indian heritage, and then fumbled that fumble. She’s too old and she’s from Massachusetts FGS! And what does she know about foreign policy anyway?
I was feeling depressed about all this until I realized that I hadn’t heard this level of criticism about our male candidates yet. If life is at all fair, they will be subjected to the same type of obsessive criticism that all our female candidates are having to deal with. And then, guess what? We’ll find that every single one of our candidates has some bad stuff, maybe even some awful stuff in their history.
We need to stop thinking that there is a person who is absolutely perfect. We need to stop pretending that any of our candidates is that perfect person. Instead we should be thinking and reading and learning about all our candidates so we can decide which candidate has the best policies, which candidate prioritizes the same things we do, which candidate is best able to communicate those priorities, which candidate has the energy and appeal to win the election. Not only will none of them be perfect, but also, on a few issues, they might be somewhat bad. But if we get a candidate who represents a majority of our views, is a great spokesperson for those views, and is as honest as one can expect from a politician, then we’re doing well.
BTW, this is not all snark. Some of the criticisms I list are absolutely valid and our candidates will need to answer them. But since they all have some type of flaw, I won’t let that rule any of them out. Overall, this is a stellar group of women and any of them would make a wonderful president.
As would many of our male candidates!