Prometheus 6

On Politics, Women and Generational Anxiety
By ELEANOR RANDOLPH

DENVER

Eighty-eight years after American women fought their way into the voting booth, some latter-day activists here are having trouble adjusting.

They saw Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as their reward, a final acknowledgement that it was worth all the bras burned and lawsuits filed and marches on an all-male Washington. But Mrs. Clinton failed to win what may be her only shot at the Democratic nomination, and these women are trying to get used to the fact that a new generation is taking center stage here: one represented by Michelle Obama.

You know what?

I think I want to read around the brown feminist blogs to see if there's a reaction to this, Me, my whole understanding of elections is changing as I sit here typing.

I'm beginning to understand that there's nothing but identity politics. I'm recognizing there's a cohort to whom reason is a big enough part of their self-image that it can be sufficient reason to identify with a representative. I am among them, but we are a startlingly small fraction of the population.

People vote for candidates that make them say, yeah, that's what I would do. That's a big reason Obama has such support from young folks...they still believe in reasoned power sharing. It's why he has such support for Black folks...he followed the social rules we Black folks believe in (patience Black progressives, you know I know you're there) and succeeded. That appeals to the white-guilt driven...Obama is the type of person that white people to want Black people to be.

But we still have a significant cohort to whom the definition of patriotism is, "My Country, Right or Wrong," and I have no idea how to reach those folk because even when they know they are wrong they won't admit it. There are people who seem to think it is possible to say "I'll never vote for a Black person" and not be racist. There are Black people who only succeeded by denying white people any purchase on their spirit, as well as those who only succeeded by denying Black people any purchase on their spirit.

I think, for me, elections aren't so much mechanisms for change as they are signs of the times.