Monday, January 29, 2007

Can Hillary count on women or it takes more than sex to get my vote

I realize we've touched on this as a topic before as to both sex and race being hyped as a predominate factor in why a person would vote for a candidate, however, today it was again the topic of discussion over on the Washington Post. Having read the article that was written by Linda Hirshman entitled, "You've Come a Long Way, Maybe" my first instinct was, oh brother, or should I say...oh sister, here we go again...

I disagree with Linda Hirshman that women have not used their power because, "they're not rational political actors -- they don't make firm policy commitments and back the candidates who will move society in the direction they want it to go. Instead, they vote on impulse, and on elusive factors such as personality." As being a factor anymore than it can be said that men vote exactly the same way. Most of the hype in these campaigns boils down to elusive factors as personality for those who have not bothered to do any real research and that is not something that can be laid merely as a female voting trait.

I also have a hard time with this whole gender gap issue, I find if very difficult to believe that an intelligent, informed woman would vote for Hillary only because she's a woman anymmore than I want to believe that an intelligent informed black person would vote for Obama only because he's black. Does sex and race play a small role in the decision? I'm sure it will be a factor but not "the" factor, at least not for the voter who realizes that is more than just about personality or hype. That's not to diss either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, but to point out that they have to do more than be female or black to get votes...or at least that's the way it should be...

It should also be pointed out that the flip side of this issue, deciding to not vote for Hillary because she's a woman or not to vote for Barack because he's black, as the sole motivating reason is equally wrong...

2 comments:

Hooda Thunkit (Dave Zawodny) said...

Qualifications and vision, that's the trick.

However, just today (somewhere) I heard a story saying that most women vote based on glamor, and decide at the last minute; not too sure about that one. . .

Hooda Thunkit (Dave Zawodny) said...

Lisa,

And, please refrain from using Hilary and sex in the same sentence ;-)