In 2008, Hillary Clinton ran on a relatively genderless platform of competence and pragmatism. She was going to be the one ready to step into the chief executive role and pick up the "red phone."
This year I'm not sure what she's trying to do. Bernie Sanders is accurately
hammering her on her flip flops between being a moderate and progressive. You can't be both, although Clinton would like to have that way.
In any case, she's playing the gender card to the hilt this year, including in last night's debate.
Full-on feminist-identity collectivists of course are down with Clinton simply because she's a woman, no matter how desperately the try to say otherwise (see, "
An All-Caps Explosion of Stupid Gender Identity Politics").
But 87 percent of young people were going for Sanders in Iowa, so obviously that leaves a lot of other young women going for the Vermont senator.
Why?
Well, according to Catherine Rampell, at the
Washington Post, it's because of Sanders' socialism, which is "a feature, not a bug" of his campaign. It's also because Sanders is totally authentic. He's like a social media star who tweets "#IWokeUpLikeThis." With his loose fitting suits, mussed up gray hair, and odd Brooklyn accent, it's like he "woke up just like this," and that endears him to young hipsters.
Yeah, he's pretty cool, I gotta admit, but mostly because it's amazing to watch him take on not just the Clinton machine, but the entire Democrat Party mainstream establishment. It's pretty fascinating.
In any case, more at
Memeorandum.
(Oh, the
double-standard is that professional women like Clinton can't get away with the all mussed up look. They've gotta be tight and pretty and all-together all the time. That a old guy like Sanders doesn't is totally sexist, man.)
