What Women Love

 

Illinois : WPA Federal Art Project, 1936 or 1937. Library of Congress. Collection.

It happened recently, while I was watching an episode of the West Wing, series 2 on DVD. An extremely talented young conservative lawyer was invited by the President, a Democrat, to the White House, after the he had witnessed her skills on a national political TV show. When she was summoned to the White House soon after the show, she was expecting a reprimand for putting one of the President’s staff in the hot seat.

She was shocked to get, instead, an invitation from the ‘opposition’ to work with them–the President being politically ‘color blind’. She went away from the invitational meeting speechless, after being asked to give the offer serious consideration. She had spent the day in the White House, meeting staff, getting a tour, having lunch, even witnessing some decision-making.

Later, at dinner with her Republican comrades, they scoffed at the very idea of such a proposal and asked her to ‘dish the dirt’ on how bad it really was ‘in there’–what her day had been like. She paused, thoughtful, before answering. “Actually, they’re great people,” she answered, “and I’m going to enjoy working with them very much.” The table was silent. She had realized in that moment, what she wanted to do. Needed to do. Felt a call to do: serve her country.

What did I do? I began to weep. Why? I, too, am a woman who loves my country. There are many of us, and yet we are ‘mostly’ not in decision-making positions in our government. Perhaps that’s why, for me, this realization has taken so long. However, after so many years of feeling only angry and critical and embarrassed and ashamed of being a U.S. citizen, even wanting to expatriate–I am realizing that I deeply and truly love my country–and I want so much for–her.

This is why I’m ’all over’ this election, why I want the best person for the job, of President of the United States, who happens to be a woman. For me, this is not a gender vote. We cannot afford to vote for someone simply because they loosely fit into the same category as ourselves. We cannot afford to NOT vote for someone because we do NOT like their ‘category’.

We cannot afford sexism in this election.

We need the best person for the job, because: 

I think our government should/could be in a much better place, taking care of our people, alleviating unnecessary suffering, sharing and collaborating with the rest of our planet’s inhabitants.

Our two-party system is inherently divisive and makes difficult getting anything done in government. To get things done in this system is an art that takes years to learn.

Our people seem not to care about politics. Or maybe, like me, have just felt too hopeless.We don’t spend hours, like the French, in cafes arguing from informed and passionate positions about politics, we’re more likely to ‘ban political talk’ from the dinner table than learn and practice our debating skills.

Our educational system could have something to do with this, in any case, I think it needs to ‘do better’–by shaping adults who are interested in continuing to learn, who know how to think, and who know how our government works (I caught the spark in a social work class last year, thanks to a great professor who saw that we were all glazing over and ignorant when he spoke about government policy).

Our citizens are more likely to choose a candidate based on how s/he looks or dresses than what s/he knows, where s/he stands on the issues–if s/he can do the job, if we vote at all.

All of these factors and more influence whom we choose to be our President.

This past Sunday I attended a presentation, “Why Women Do Not Run for Office,” by a woman from R.I. who teaches at Brown and ran for a state office, unsuccessfully but very enthusiastically. She had some shocking statistics to share about women in government, and voting, and attitudes:

Despite the recent reportage that voting turnout has been “record breaking” during the Primaries so far, the highest turnout was Massachusetts, at 44%. So every time you hear a reported “double the usual turnout”–remember that the usual turnout has been, historically only 10-25%.

A steady 85ish% of State and National Senates, Houses of Representatives, Governors of States and Mayors of major U.S. cities are still men.

There are 82 other countries in the world that have more women in elected government positions than the United States of America.

At the Primary level, the platform issues have, historically, not been high-lighted or compared in choosing a candidate. They do not seem to ‘come out’ until the General Election. Seems a little late to find out, for instance, that your candidate actually has a moral stance against gay marriage because he’s a Christian.

Here’s the thing:

Our government process is public knowledge. You can sit in on a House or Senate session down in D.C. All voting records and every word uttered in House, Senate and Special Hearings is recorded and on-line. You can follow any bill that you’re interesting in through the legislative process and have updates emailed to you whenever that bill is discussed or voted on.

You can also check on our Senator’s voting records, issue stances, etc. (for example, Clinton, McCain and Obama).

Click on the gorgeous dusk photo of the Capitol below to access the U.S. Senate page.

It’s your country, with love, Ms. Spin