Tread Carefully, Patriotic Ladies

On this Wacky, Wonderful Wednesday, which follows Super Tuesday, which closely follows (perhaps we need to do some adjective brainstorming)Super Sunday, it occurs to me that female supporters of Hilary Clinton who believe that all women should support Hilary Clinton should carry and act upon this belief with great care.

There are several reasons for my concern. First and foremost, no demographic distinction - gender, race, religion, sexual preference, etc. - should be THE defining characteristic of a successful political candidate. While I know well that any group may be happy to see one of its own reach new heights, women should no more support Hilary just for being a woman than Blacks should blindly support Obama, Christians Mike Huckabee, or even (and a LOT of people never even consider this one) those who consider themselves Republican or Democrat their respective party's eventual nominee. That's a fantastic way to get awful elected officials (see post from 10/4/07).

I mention women for Hilary today because I have read and heard statements, of late, accusing any woman who would vote for another candidate of being opposed to the cause of feminism. Kind of an "either you're with us or you are against us" message. This characterization is both unfair and unhealthy. Certainly someone who thinks another candidate might make a better leader for our nation is not automatically in favor of limiting the rights or potential of women.

More importantly, the next time anyone who assumes a non-Hilary-supporting female to be anti-feminist critcizes America for something, he of she had better be prepared to called unpatriotic, which is ridiculous, unfair, specifically unpatriotic, and the exact same thing.