In reaction to Ted Kennedy’s endorsement yesterday of Barack Obama, I made online contributions first thing this morning to four other Presidential campaigns.
Maybe it’s the times. Maybe it’s the New York Times. Maybe it’s the wearying, relentless Hillary bashing that sounds and smells like the misogyny that is so much a part of our culture.
In this morning’s paper, there’s a story about the epidemic of physical harassment of women on the MBTA’s Red Line. “Experts” are now telling women to slap these predators silly, a positive change from my day when women were advised to react to catcalls, groping and even attempted rape with submission. Still, why are these attacks happening at all?
The big financial companies “richly rewarded” the “wiping out” of $200 billion in shareholder value with bonus payouts of an estimated $33.2 billion.
Oprah Winfrey’s enthusiastic endorsement of Obama intersects with both of these. An unimaginably wealthy, powerful Black woman who has experienced the most horrendous kind of sexual abuse decided to publicly support a – man? Psychologists must be having a field day with this. What does Obama represent to her – a protective brother?
The Oprah and Kennedy endorsements trouble me greatly for another reason.
They remind me of a Presidential candidate ago who won the White House 8 years ago because his daddy and his daddy’s friends manipulated the Republican party and ultimately, the Supreme Court, to ensure a victory.
People get rewarded every day for reasons other than performance and merit, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. And it certainly doesn’t mean that I have to vote for them.
Anyone but Obama.