Vengeance Vote
As the Democratic primary drew to a close, emotions ran high. As it became clear that Clinton, once the unassailable front-runner, would not, in fact, win the nomination, many of her supporters felt cheated: cheated out of seeing their favored candidate, but even more heartbreakingly cheated out of the opportunity to see a woman run as one of our two major party’s nominees. Still wound up over the battle—with a wink-and-nod encouragement from Clinton—and wound up over the loss, many vowed to stay home in November, or even to vote for McCain, just to send a message to the Democrats.
Now that two weeks have passed, passions have cooled, and those vindictive Clinton supporters have begun looking around and deciding that Obama might not be so bad after all, and that promising a protest vote might have been a little hasty. That’s about what I expected; Clinton supporters are mostly decent people, with a reasonably resilient connection to reality. Already, pundits’ worries over “Obama’s problem with Clinton supporters” have proven vacuous; the last report I read showed 62% of Clinton backers favoring Obama, up from 40% shortly after June 3, while those supporting McCain have dropped from 52% to 30%, despite McCain’s attempts to woo them over. In weeks to come, those numbers will shift even further.
Inevitably, there will be some embittered hold-outs, the one-issue voters who measure everything by how it reflects on society’s attitude toward women, who decide that pretty well everything is an affront to women, and who can see no further than the latest insult. In the interests of whittling down the impact of these few, blinded by their own bile, I offer a few reminders.
John McCain is remarried. His first wife waited patiently for him as he was imprisoned in Vietnam. He repaid her loyalty by dumping her after a disfiguring car accident, picking up a blond beauty queen and heiress sixteen years his junior. They married under a prenuptial agreement, ensuring he will not inherit her fortune. Perhaps the suspicion underlying this decision was well-founded. After all, he doesn’t show much respect for her, either, publicly or privately: teased about his hair loss, he reddened and replied, “At least I don’t plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt.” At a press conference. His legislative career holds a rock-solid anti-abortion record, ranging from refusing birth control qualifying for insurance to calling for the reversal of Roe v. Wade. He has voted to define embryos as qualifying for SCHIP medical assistance, but voted against SCHIP benefits for actual walking, breathing children in immediate need. He has voted against paid pregnancy leave, laws forbidding gender discrimination in pay rates, and social programs designed to support single working mothers. But hey, he says he always respected Senator Clinton, and hopes that voters will decide that one dubious little assertion equates to respecting women generally. It doesn’t.
If Obama’s nomination was a slap in the face, then what must we consider a vote for John “you cunt” McCain?