By Louise “Lou” Fischer–
Well, last week’s election didn’t go very well … or depending on which side you are on, it went very well. I’m on the angry side again as I find myself writing another column about how a competent and overly-credentialed woman (a professor at Harvard Law, creator of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, popular and successful United States Senator!) lost out to not one but two less successful white men.
Lesbian icon for political junkies, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, said it best in her recent interview with Elizabeth Warren (edited for brevity): “If Hillary Clinton can’t win when she gets the nomination and you [Elizabeth Warren] can’t get the nomination and neither can Kamala Harris or Amy Klobuchar … women around the country feel that if it’s not going to [you or] any of them, can it be any women ever?” She added, “Are we just going to run white men in their late 70s against each other and that’s all we can agree to do? Is this a death knell for the prospects of having a woman president in our lifetime?”
Senator Warren’s answer was, “No, that can’t be right. This cannot be the right answer.” Later on in the interview, she stated that “we’ll know we can have a woman in the White House when we elect a woman to the White House.” OK, but is that going to happen in this century or are we going to have to wait for the Millennial cyborgs of the year 2100 to beam down their extra-planetary holograms and select a female avatar as president?
While Elizabeth Warren was gracious in defeat, women are angry and bereft because, yet again, this is personal. Voters around the country found any excuse they could to select literally anyone else (white men in their 70s with much less impressive résumés) rather than a highly-qualified woman with clearly articulated plans to restore the balance of power in our democracy and fix the damage wrought by the current administration.
The difference between a man and a woman in this race was evident in the pass given to Bernie Sanders on 60 Minutes regarding his response of, “I can’t rattle off every nickel and every dime,” to the question of how he planned to pay for his “Medicare for All” health plan. I have no doubt that Warren directed her policy staff to produce detailed reports with spreadsheets from here to eternity that actually do account for every nickel, dime, and quarter because women candidates face so much more scrutiny and need to not only be more qualified but also much more prepared.
So what message are we sending to the next generation of young girls who are smart and studious—the ones who win the spelling bee, the mathletes who take home the gold medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad (yes, it’s a thing; look it up), the self-proclaimed nerds who relish in the delight of winning awards at the Science Fair, and the ambitious and outspoken girls who excel in Debate Club and Model U.N.? Are we saying it is OK to strive and have big goals, but when you grow up you probably can’t be president because in the past four years you just witnessed two iconic role models who were told they weren’t “electable”?
When is this disconnect going to end and what effect will it continue to have on young women? For every man who says, “Whaddya mean this country is sexist?” I say just ask every woman in this country.
Speaking of “electability,” that’s pure bs; I lost count of how many people said to me, “I want to vote for Warren, but I don’t think she can win.” Well, she could have won if you just f—ing voted for her. Let’s talk about electability in historical perspective and the Democrats’ choices for “safe candidates” in recent elections; just ask George McGovern, Walter Mondale, Mike Dukakis, Al Gore (although he got robbed), and John Kerry how that worked out for them.
So, where do we go from here? The prevailing wisdom points to the need for the two current Democratic candidates, Biden and Sanders, to choose a woman as a running mate, and I hope they do. G-d willing that one of them defeats the current buffoon in the White House. Maybe that woman will have the advantage of vice-presidential incumbency and will go on to win all the marbles. If so, the celebrations by women all over the world will mirror, or even eclipse, the response by Bostonians when the Red Sox finally won the World Series in 2004.
Until then, to borrow a line directly from Senator Warren herself: “The fight goes on and big dreams never die.”
By the Numbers
503,899 – Registered voters in San Francisco
265,722 – Ballots returned (52.73%)
189,255 – Total Democratic ballots cast
72.61% – Percentage of Democrats who vote by mail (absentee ballots)
15,496 – Total Republican ballots cast
80.21% – Percentage of Republicans who vote by mail
11,095 – Votes cast for Donald Trump in San Francisco (Who are these people???? I hope I don’t know any of them.)
28 – States (including District of Columbia) that allow absentee voting by mail without excuse
7 – States (including District of Columbia) that allow permanent absentee voting
4 – States that hold all elections entirely by mail (Oregon, Washington, Colorado, and Hawaii)
7 hours – Amount of time Hervis Rogers waited to cast his ballot at Texas Southern University—one of the nation’s largest historically black universities (Texas does not allow “no excuse” absentee ballots)
Louise (Lou) Fischer is a Former Co-Chair of the Board of Directors for the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club and has served as an appointed and elected Delegate for the State Democratic Party. She is a proud graduate of the Emerge California Women’s Democratic Leadership program, was a San Francisco Commissioner, and has served in leadership positions in multiple nonprofit and community-based organizations.
Published on March 12, 2020
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