Andrew Sullivan sometimes displays that he's capable of cogent thought devoid of contradiction, for instance when he has decried torture or homophobia. Yet, he remains stubbornly blind to his toxic case of Clinton Derangement Syndrome, which occasionally competes with his annoyingly twerpish bias against Al Gore. More troubling, his anti-Hillary "gender" rhetoric promotes hostility toward and indifference to women.
Two examples... the first one that Sully understands inherently.
Here, he criticizes the WaPo newsroom's "homophobic decision" to closet the sexual orientation of a "fallen American military hero," Major Alan Rogers, a gay intel officer, whose obituary Sully had righteously denounced:
As treasurer of an organization to end the military ban and with countless sources testifying to his sexual orientation, the decision of the Post and NPR to enforce the closet even after his death cannot be expained [sic] except by a view that somehow being gay is shameful or private. . .We already persecute these gay heroes when risking their lives for their country. For the MSM to maintain the shame, stigma and persecution after their death is unnacceptable [sic].
Naturally, as a gay man, Sully can relate to homophobic bigotry and tyranny of the closet. So can I as a lesbian.
However, here, somehow blinkered to the rampant misogyny in our political discourse of which we, awakened travelers, have witnessed against Hillary, he accusingly writes citing from an odorous TNR column that quotes Adam Nagourney:
Clinton plays the gender card:
In a conversation with two Democratic allies, she compared the situation to the "big boys" trying to bully a woman, according to interviews with them.
Only a comatose nitwit would have missed the sexist dynamic that has been publicly enacted during this campaign season. Digby delivered oh-so-good, vintage satire on Hillary playing the gender card:
Hillary goes to her alma mater and says that her education at the women's college prepared her to do battle with the political boys club and the gasbags' eyes roll back in their heads and they start drooling and whining that she's broken the rules.
Well boo fucking hoo. The rules are changing. Get used to it.
Half of this country is female and they've noticed, in case these manly men haven't, that presidential politics is a very exclusive boys club and we don't find it all that odd to mention it.
When Hillary audaciously mentions it, horror! Gasp! Send in the woozy gurney. Swooning he-men and colonized women mimicking them projectile vomit all over Clinton as if they can rid themselves of their damnable, ingrained hatred because that's what it is: hate born of ignorance and disowned fear. Cultured gentry like to think they're expressing disdainful o-pin-ion. They are, after all... civilized. Not screaming Ralph Kramdens. But whatever gift-wrapped rationalization they want to twist around the imp locked up in the tank, it's still insidiously festering prejudice.
The two above Sully examples motivate me to want to unfairly characterize of the first, Sullivan plays the homophobe card. But then I descend to his level of dismissive wankerishness. Perhaps I could call him a reflexive twit and be done with him. But appealing to the "better angels of our nature," a snip from Feministe (with emphasis):
Please keep this in mind when you read critiques of the gender-based slurs and framing and tactics and dismissals of Clinton. Those hurt all of us, as women, and tolerating or excusing them just makes it harder for women to be taken seriously.
Attack her all you want on her positions, on her record, on her tactics — but don’t stand for gender-based attacks on her. They’re not acceptable, no matter what you think of her and no matter who they’re coming from.
I hope--but I won't hold my breath--that Sully self-reflects on how he's part of the problem women face to live freely without fear of discrimination. I would like to think he could relate but one should never underestimate the epidemic of denial that seems to have sapped the introspective gene from our collective DNA.
|