That’s the big thing. The older democrats, both white and black, are holding the Dems back. (don’t discount how conservative the Black Church Dems are- that’s a big problem in the South as well, what they demand turns off the younger crowd)
My problem with Pelosi and Hillary is entirely with their politics, not their gender. I’d have no problem supporting other Democratic women, and have. Even moderate ones like Kay Hagan earned my full support.
My idea of how the Democratic party should look like:
opportunistic stances on social issues- don’t campaign on these issues, but whenever you get a chance to make things better, go for it. That said, Sister Souljah the SJWs whenever you can. It plays well.
Strong emphasis on consumer rights and control of extreme capitalism. People may hate Congress, but they hate their cable company and airlines more. Go after those folks, they’re easy targets, and low-information voters love it.
Strong emphasis on democratic rights and anti-corruption: honestly favors the Dems, and low-information voters love it.
Go for Healthcare and UBI as the long-term goals.
Notice also that Elisabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Tammy Duckworth aren’t getting those charisma criticisms, and that’s despite Tammy Duckworth (who I really like and would vote for quickly) actually having a charisma problem. It’s not because they’re women, it’s because they aren’t popular even among Dems.
The Democratic party is composed of women and persons of color. The issues of paramount importance to the party mainstream are civil rights, voter protections, women’s health protections, and especially healthcare.
None worthy of a bullet point, except maybe in passing.
You’re arguing against something i’m not saying. Obviously republicans are going to blast most/all democrats and some of that is likely to be sexist.
I can only speak for myself. For me I would say Elizabeth Warren.
My primary objection is that certain members of the Democratic Establishment labeled everyone who didn’t support Clinton or ran against her as sexists in an attempt to discredit them. This same tactic is being used to defend against opponents of Pelosi as well.
It is a common political attack. You take something bad that everyone can agree on and then falsely link it to an opponent.
And there is also a group that thinks attacking woman about her being a woman is not sexism just because she’s a politician. There are ways not to support a politician or oppose an politician without making it about her being a woman. A fair amount of the attacks on Hillary was, in fact, sexism.
We’re in agreement on this, which is why i never said otherwise anywhere.
However it is also true that false claims of sexism were used to attack democrats who did not support Clinton and are right now being used to do the same with people who do not support Pelosi. Bernie Sanders was even accused of being sexist just for running against Clinton. According to these people, it is not possible to oppose a female Democratic politician without being a sexist, unless that female politician is Elizabeth Warren of course.
To be fair, that was just in response to a question about charisma, not whether she’s someone Dems would want as a leader.
FWIW, when I think charisma, I think D&D. The only Congressional leaders who have at least a smidgen would be Paul Ryan and Chuck Schumer, imho. Hmm, let’s have some fun;
Kamala Harris, I don’t think Warren gets a lot of charisma complaints, no one complains about Tulsi’s charisma (just her policies, which there is plenty to complain about).
Most of the attacks from the left on Hillary and Pelosi aren’t sexism, they’re policy. I was disgusted by the attempts to label legitimate criticism as sexist- this is one reason I’m opposed to identity politics regardless of where on the spectrum it is.
Identity politics on both sides gave us Trump and the potential end of American democracy.
I think that another part of this is that partisanship, rather than sexism, drives much of the attacks… they simply manifest themselves in a sexist form.
There are numerous REPUBLICAN women who do not endure such attacks from the GOP. This makes me think that those attacks are ultimately just rising up out of partisanship.
