So I was reading Fish's op-ed in the NY Times this morning on the hating of Hillary Clinton, Which I have witnessed myself. He makes a decent argument which I won't copy here (shocker). What was of interest was one of the comments in which we find:
2) Persons who have a mild dislike or ambivalence about her will be moved by the momentum of “Hillary hatred” to say the kinds of things I just heard at a dinner with my cousins last week: “Oh, God, anything but HILLARY” and “I can’t stand that woman,” and “the problem with Hillary is that she’s exactly the kind of person who thinks she’s smarter than you.”
This is the problem. It's odd that when considering the president of a country one wouldn't WANT someone who is smarter than you are. Nothing makes me feel better than a leader that is dumber than I am or at least makes me feel that they are dumber than I am.
That is called sarcasm.
Fish notes:
You may dislike her policies (which she has not been reluctant to explain in great detail).
This of course is part of the problem. She can explain policy in detail (whether you agree with it or not). I've been saying for ages that people need to be focused on policy rather than amorphous "change." Which means whatever the listener wants it to mean. It's been one of my issues with the Obama campaign: It's like listening to a sermon. long on abstractions and short on study and detail. In fact if you listen to the Obama commercial currently running in NYC it is very sermon like. It's also very effective in an emotional sense, and I give mad props to the media person who thought that ad up, but it doesn't do details.
The problem here is how can people hate Clinton for being smart? I mean c'mon is this high school? I want the smartest MF in charge (and no, I'm not saying Clinton is the smartest MF in the pack). That's like hating your math teacher because they knew math. Sheeeeeet, I would hope the people running for office are smart, have some serious ideas on policy and can discuss them at length. I'm going to lay it out that this is a part of the "racism" and sexism that is in this society. Women can't be too smart or they are, well, BITCHES. Yeah lets be honest about it, the person quoted by the commentator really wanted to call Hillary a bitch, but probably felt they couldn't say so in "polite company." Yet we know full well that this is what its about. Hillary is a bitch because she's smart, wont act dumb, and will play the same rough game as the boys and some people can't stand it. It is the same issue with blacks. People hate on Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, because they don't like the fact that neither will bend over and kiss white folks asses in order to be liked. They won't go away when asked. They won't act like racism doesn't exist. AND they are articulate men who can hold their own, whether you agree with them or not, in a debate on the issues they are knowledgeable about. While it isn't exactly the same, the anger at Al and Jesse are because they have the gaul to actually make a living while advocating for that which they believe in. This defies the common convention that "loud mouthed" black folk ought to be broke, near broke, or destitute in order to prove just how "real" They are. You see, white society likes their negroes, affable, quiet on racism and working for them. That is why they like Obama. This isn't a knock on Obama per se. As I've written before, I think he knows the game and has decided to play it. Just wait 'till the general election should Obama be the candidate when Republicans go after that church he's been attending. All that "I don't see black people" commentary will be put to the test.
So Clinton in many ways has much in common with Jesse and Al. She like they are defying certain expectations of "her people." There are great deal of men and women out there who think she ought to be in a kitchen somewhere or following behind some man or in some other way re-enforcing their ideas of what proper women ought to be like. So yeah, I've been there and seen all that before.
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