In the moments before the power outage last Thursday, I had started a "sum-up" post on the healthcare summit and intended to do some evaluation of Where Things Were and What Might Happen Next. Over the next couple of days, it was a struggle just to find a working outlet and some wi-fi, and the weekend was spent both recuperating from the flu and taking stock of the political scene (to say nothing of watching an hour of... waves - I shit you not - while Hawaii went through Tsunami Terror).
I mention this because, by this morning, when I hoped to bang out the piece before going to the other job, I discovered that my take on the whole healthcare mess is really more complicated, and a "sum-up" was not the place to begin. I went off to work, perplexed; I came home, exhausted.
And then, doing a little site surfing... I came up with a good starting point.
Via the great orange terror, I came upon this brief little post from DougJ at Balloon Juice, which asks a question I find both hilarious and incrdibly misplaced:
Set aside, for a moment - I know, for many of my dearest readers, the blood is already boiling - the needless Hillary Clinton snipes; what fascinates me is this interesting, sort of unquestioned assumption that, because she's a woman, Nancy Pelosi should be thought of in feminist terms, and expected, as a liberal woman, to be a feminist. Neither one is especially true. And what's all the more interesting, really... is that I think Nancy Pelosi has benefited, for some time, from just this sort of blurry understanding of who she is, and how she got to where she is today.One thing I don’t understand is why Pelosi isn’t seen as more of a feminist icon. In 2008, we were treated to months of discussion about Hillary Clinton breaking or failing to break the glass ceiling, how coverage of Hillary was sexist, how this was womankind’s shining moment or worst disaster, and so on. Why isn’t there more discussion of Pelosi in this context? Not only is Nancy Pelosi one of the most powerful people in American politics (I’d put her second, after Obama), she got there the old-fashioned way by winning elections and knee-capping people who crossed her. We’ve never heard anything about her marriage or about how she generated sympathy by crying before a primary.
People in the House are genuinely afraid of Pelosi, to continue along with the whole fear discussion. I know Congressional staffers and they speak her name in whispers (what higher praise can there be?).
Isn’t it kind of big deal that the more powerful legislator of our generation is a woman?
So again, let's step back for a second. How much do you know about Nancy Pelosi, really?
Continue reading "Nancy Pelosi - Feminist? Icon? ... And Other Questions." »
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