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Hillary Clinton

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BooScout

(10,410 posts)
Thu Mar 3, 2016, 08:00 AM Mar 2016

If You read nothing else today...READ THIS! [View all]

http://www.salon.com/2016/03/03/my_gen_x_hillary_problem_i_know_why_we_dont_like_clinton/

[quote][font size="4"]My Gen X Hillary problem: I know why we don’t “like” Clinton[/font]

As a young woman, I idealized Bill but scorned Hillary's supporters; at 43, I see this preference for what it was

As many a news outlet has told us, women over 45 are supporting Hillary, and those under 45 are feeling the Bern. On the dividing line lies Generation X. (Remember us? People used to care about us.) At 43, I fall more or less right into the statistical middle and I’ve acted accordingly. Up until a few weeks ago, I supported Bernie for president, but I felt slightly guilty doing so. The man is passionate, his vision for the future is exciting, and he seems like a super-smart, slightly off-kilter uncle who would liven up Thanksgiving. He’s Bernie! We love Bernie. Also, we’re beyond needing to support a woman simply because she’s a woman. I should vote for the candidate who feels right to me. And that candidate happens to be a man.

Also, I’d never been much of a Hillary fan. She seemed fine: When she first came onto the national stage in 1992, she came across as the type of wife you’d hope someone like Bill Clinton would have. She had her own successful career. She was raising a daughter who was going through the same awkward stage I’d gone through only a few years earlier. She was the type of person I expected to grow up to be – a working mother who wore suits, supported herself financially, and had an equal say in her marriage – why would I expect anything else? My understanding was that the bad old days were behind us (Fleetwood Mac was being played on a continuous loop that year, after all. And at college we were insisting on being called women, not girls! We were marching to take back the night! ) and that I, as a woman, would get to have whatever life I chose for myself.

But even though I had no objections to Hillary, I’d found her fans extremely off-putting. In 1992, as a summer intern with the Clinton campaign’s polling firm, I traveled to New York City for the Democratic convention. I didn’t have a badge to get inside Madison Square Garden, so I spent many hours walking around the perimeter and watching people. And I quickly identified a certain kind of woman at the convention who I actively disliked: the rabid Hillary supporter. These women were covered in buttons that read “Hillary’s husband for President” and “A woman’s place is in the House and the Senate.” (Notably absent from that button: the Oval Office.) They would talk your ear off about how they were voting for Bill because they loved Hillary. But I didn’t get it. They felt like a throwback to another era, as though Hillary was the woman they’d dreamed of during their consciousness-raising sessions, before the vagina mirrors came out.

We were beyond those battles now. People let us wear pants. We could get mortgages without needing our father or husband to sign for them. Help wanted ads in the paper were no longer divided by gender. No one was rejecting us from law school because they already had enough women. I knew that if someone in a meeting asked me to get coffee I’d tell them to get their own damn coffee and feel pretty good doing it. As a college student I hadn’t yet participated in a meeting, but I felt fairly certain that this would be how things would go. I was living in a coed dorm, after all. I’d seen the guy three doors down walk through the hall in his purple underwear. I was a citizen of a brave new post-sexist nation, which was nothing like the eras my mother or grandmother had inhabited.

(more) - Please read the entire article at the link...it's important: http://www.salon.com/2016/03/03/my_gen_x_hillary_problem_i_know_why_we_dont_like_clinton/ [/quote]
48 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Everyone please read the whole article. I suspected the same conclusion as the livetohike Mar 2016 #1
I'm a few years older than the author... BooScout Mar 2016 #2
Me too. Everyone, please read it. The author does a GREAT spooky3 Mar 2016 #7
I'm in your age cohort, and I was primed to internalize all of it Hekate Mar 2016 #38
I almost didn't read it past the first couple of paragraphs.... BooScout Mar 2016 #40
Even as a male Gen X-er Treant Mar 2016 #3
Thank you for posting that excellent article. Trust Buster Mar 2016 #4
Excellent article. K&R. Arkansas Granny Mar 2016 #5
Electing Hillary as President is the true revolution. SecularMotion Mar 2016 #6
Excellent article. Nitram Mar 2016 #8
OK, read the article Ligyron Mar 2016 #9
This message was self-deleted by its author BooScout Mar 2016 #10
Could it be possible that you just ,,,don't BlueMTexpat Mar 2016 #16
Hillary's done enough on her own to cause both men and women to turn away hopeforchange2008 Mar 2016 #23
Many are and will be UtahLib Mar 2016 #28
It sounds like you'd be better off plugging your ears hopeforchange2008 Mar 2016 #31
I suggest you concentrate UtahLib Mar 2016 #32
I realized after posting that this is the Hillary forum hopeforchange2008 Mar 2016 #34
As is doubly true, concerning the many faults of Bernie, in the BS group UtahLib Mar 2016 #36
Exactly, Utah.. and they are now gone from this group. Cha Mar 2016 #48
Glad you finally realized you are in the Hillary Group SharonClark Mar 2016 #41
Don't act like speaking frankly about BS is not forbidden in that group. Cha Mar 2016 #47
Ok, I read it. AirmensMom Mar 2016 #11
One can only hope Zambero Mar 2016 #14
Voting for HRC! I find it inspiring!! Her Sister Mar 2016 #21
This is the Hillary Group SharonClark Mar 2016 #42
That gum-chewing idiot from the town hall pissed me off too GusBob Mar 2016 #12
I knew exactly who she was talking about... BooScout Mar 2016 #13
Totally agree!! Her Sister Mar 2016 #22
Excellent article book_worm Mar 2016 #15
I am Gen X Her Sister Mar 2016 #17
Thank you for posting this, Boo! Cha Mar 2016 #18
Excellent read! mcar Mar 2016 #19
It is time to end the establishment status quo! yallerdawg Mar 2016 #20
I'm a 70 yr old woman and a strong Bernie Sanders supporters. Peace Patriot Mar 2016 #24
Hillary Clinton endorsed by Robert Kagan, founder of PNAC! Peace Patriot Mar 2016 #25
This is the HRC Group. Please take your condemnation of her to GDP, and delete this out of civility. Princess Turandot Mar 2016 #29
And how about THIS woman? Berta Cáceres assassinated today in Honduras. Peace Patriot Mar 2016 #37
This is the Hillary Group SharonClark Mar 2016 #43
This message was self-deleted by its author SharonClark Mar 2016 #44
K & R Iliyah Mar 2016 #26
I was just saying this to obamanut the other day. Starry Messenger Mar 2016 #27
Thank you for the great read. UtahLib Mar 2016 #30
Excellent OP! Spazito Mar 2016 #33
Fantastic article. Hekate Mar 2016 #35
Speaking of women in high places: the 3 SCOTUS women are speaking out strongly... Hekate Mar 2016 #39
So true for so many women SharonClark Mar 2016 #45
An excellent read! n/t Tarheel_Dem Mar 2016 #46
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