Hell Hath No Fury

Hillary Clinton may have played one "gender card" too many.

At  a Clinton presidential campaign rally in New Hampshire, the first Democratic U.S. Secretary of State, Madeline Albright, stumped for the second Democratic U.S. Secretary of State with a withering attack on young women who support Bernie Sanders for President.  She said there was a special place in hell for women who don't support other women. 

Really?  And when they get there, will Martin O'Malley be there to serenade them with his guitar?

As if the comments from Mrs. Albright (pictured above) weren't bad enough, Gloria Steinem, appearing on Bill Maher's talk show, said that young women were flocking to Sanders campaign offices and events to meet boys - because that's where the boys are.  Connie Francis, incidentally, was unavailable for comment.

When I hear remarks like this, I suddenly realize why the Equal Rights Amendment didn't pass.

Mrs. Albright didn't say anything at that Clinton rally that she hadn't said before, and it is certainly true that women ought to help each other, but repeating that remark in a political context and implying that a woman can't be a true feminist if she supports a male presidential candidate over a female one is rather galling.  It implies that women ought to support the female candidate for President on the basis of sex alone, regardless of key policy issues, and there was also the implication that the first female President of the United States can't just be any woman, or even just any Democratic woman - it has to be Hillary or else!  This attitude is elitist, condescending, and downright unfair to women who have minds of their own and decide, after weighing the evidence, that Sanders is the better candidate.

By the way, Mrs. Albright, what's going to happen to black women who supported Obama over Hillary in 2008?  Or non-black women who supported Obama in 2008, for that matter?

My support for Bernie Sanders in the wake of O'Malley's withdrawal has been tacit up to now (more about that later), but these comments from Madeline Albright and Gloria Steinem are getting me more enthusiastic and revved up for Bernie than I've been before.  And these two women have probably done more for Sanders than even Sanders himself - already leading in the New Hampshire polls going into today's primary - could have done to get more people on his side.

And by the way, Ms. Steinem, the boys may have been for Sanders, but the men were for O'Malley. ;-)