Prometheus 6

Regardless of what happens at the convention or in the general election, the effect of Ms. Clinton’s candidacy is that forever after this year, national women politicians in this country will be judged for their presidential possibilities, in the same way national male politicians are. That will begin immediately as soon as the November elections are over.

I am not as certain that Mr. Obama’s candidacy will lead to such an immediate door-opening for African-Americans.

Progressives Face an Embarrassment of Riches
By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 2008-02-08  

I ran into a good friend of mine on Shattuck Avenue on election day, a longtime Berkeley progressive, hurrying to buy some Chinese food so he could get back home and watch the returns on television. He said that John Edwards had been his first choice, but after Edwards dropped out, he had agonized over who to vote for. He liked Barack Obama’s energy and promise of change, he said, but said that Hillary Clinton is closest to his positions on the two issues he cared for the most, nuclear power and universal health care. He said that even on his way to the polls, he was still agonizing over who to choose.

I went away chuckling, feeling that for progressives, the Democratic presidential primaries has come to be something like the story of the man who has had to scuffle to find meal money all year, and suddenly finds himself invited to a cousin’s house for Thanksgiving dinner. Discovered grumbling in his chair, he confesses that he has found himself in distress because he cannot decide on the pumpkin, sweet potato, or mince pie for dessert.

Enjoy the moment, guy. If only all the world’s days were made up of such choices.

This is not to minimize the policy differences between the remaining major Democratic primary contenders, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. There are differences, and for those of our friends around the nation—Ohio and Pennsylvania and thereabouts—whose primaries have not yet occurred, or for those who may be delegates to the Democratic National Convention, they may yet play a role in the process of who the Democrats choose. But I doubt it.

Instead of policy, the choices between Ms. Clinton and Mr. Obama swirl more around identity, and, more particularly, gender and racial identity. For the first time, ever in the history of the nation, the nominee of a major political party will be either a woman or an African-American. For progressives who for years have fought for the elevation and equality of both groups, the question is which one should take precedence.