Hillary didn't Lose because of Sexism

(this is an older piece from last summer)

This isn't even an issue of which suffers more discrimination, blacks or women - anyway if you want to see real discrimination try black women for the ultimate trump card (or, say, black, gay, handicapped women but really they are, numerically, a less significant demographic).

For me Hillary's failure really began, not from her sex but her own actions. Hillary has demonstrated clearly that she would excuse, cover-up and/or forgive any immoral, unjust and even criminal actions and activities of those in her government. A strong woman doesn't ignore and forgive habitual infidelity from anyone let alone from those whom she is most intimate with. If she would support and ignore her husbands repeated infidelity until he gets caught and then 'stand by him' and forgive him in the face of all reason, how do you think she'd act if members of her government (political party) were committing acts unbecoming or even illegal? We can only guess but based on her record she'd most likely side with the perpetrators, bravely forgiving them and supporting them 'in their hour of need'.

To me all the hoop-lah during this Democratic showdown has been distracting diversions from any real debate. The US has always been ruled by wealthy white men. And neither Hillary nor Obama is substantively divergent from their predecessors. Hillary may be nominally woman and Obama nominally black but both a rich and privileged. Neither is offering serious change. Neither is committed to election reform. Neither is committed to international law. Both are heavily funded by the same corporate interests that also fund the Republicans. Both are right of center politically - put another way, neither is a liberal by any meaningful definition. All the heated discussion about race and sex is to obscure these facts.

Hillary didn't lose because she is a woman any more than Obama won because he is black. They pretty much tied because they aren't either especially dynamic or different.

I want to say, in closing, that both women and blacks are still under valued in North America (socially and politically) and there is still far too much racist and sexist discrimination in play. And we should all be doing everything we can to achieve universal parity among all people. But electing only superficially black or feminine candidate won't make it happen. The only way you get to run for President as leader of either major party is to vote like a rich white man. Period.

That said, I, as a Canadian, am far more ashamed of my own nation's political choices. In our last feeble election every candidate for national leader (excluding Elizabeth May a fringe candidate whose party has never won a parliamentary seat) was a white man with blue eyes. Even the, supposedly, socially 'liberal' New Democratic Party.

I for one won't regain serious faith in our electoral system until an aboriginal woman is a real candidate for PM. And any candidate who does not address election reform cannot be viewed as credible in my eyes. We have fallen far behind most developed nations politically and if we continue on the path we are on we will continue our moral and social decline.