GOODY TWO SHOES: If The Election Were Held Today …
By Cynthia Ruccia
Special to The Stiletto Blog
Sen. Barack Obama has worked his magic on this long-time Democratic insider, and turned me against my party – a subject about which I have written several pieces for this blog. I am still incredulous at this turn of events, and am experiencing vertigo.
Thank G-d for the Internet, which enabled me to discover very early on that I am far from being the only Democrat who feels this way. I have united with an incredible band of like-minded people nationwide on this journey – a sort of Magical Mystery Tour, but without the drugs. Every day we face challenges we could have never foreseen just a year ago, when we were throwing our energies into giving George Bush and the Republicans the boot.
I was totally bonded with the Democratic party. And while I joined because of my feminist ideals, I also took up the causes of the rest of the Democratic coalition because we were a team: I embraced issues important to trade unions to keep them strong; I pushed the clean air and water agenda of the environmentalists; I felt a moral imperative to ensure that minorities would have their piece of the pie after our country’s shameful history of slavery, the effects of which continue to this day; I was in the vanguard in supporting GLBT (gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgender) issues even when it was risky to do so.
But that’s not all. I ran for public office three times - the OH House of Representatives in 1998, and Congress in 1996 and 1994 – and even forgave the party when it groomed me for a County Treasurer position over a period of months, only to slot someone else in at the last minute. I also spent 10 years sitting on the Franklin County Democratic Party’s Executive and Central Committees doing whatever needed to be done. After Sen. John Kerry lost OH, I spent three years organizing my county down to the block level so that a Republican could never win here again.
All I asked in return was that when my issues required action, my party would stand up at the appropriate time. Well, I now know it was too much to ask. Feminists, it turns out, just don't matter to the party leaders.
During the primaries the Democratic establishment refused to stand up to sexist attacks on Hillary Clinton, and now they are engaging in sexist attacks on Sarah Palin. Don’t you see the parallel between Obama’s condescending dismissal of his opponent in the NH primary debate (“you're likeable enough, Hillary”) and MO Sen. Claire McCaskill’s derisive kiss-off (she is “very likeable” but “there's much more at stake here than who's likeable”)?
Too many times, I’ve heard Democrats say “We support women - just not that woman!” First, that woman was Hillary, now it’s Sarah.
Honestly, I am embarrassed I ever aligned myself with such people. They are phonies through and through.
I've declared publicly on TV that I’m voting for the McCain-Palin ticket, but if the election were held today and the Republicans win I will examine the ruins of the Democratic Party for any signs of hope that it can be bought back to the center after its drunken bacchanal with Obama, MoveOn.org and George Soros. But if Obama wins I will leave the Democratic party and register as an Independent, just like Joe Lieberman - and just like so many Democrats I have come to know in my travels supporting the McCain-Palin ticket.
My support was given too cheaply to the Democrats. They will have to earn my vote in every single contest from now on.
Editorial Note: Cynthia Ruccia wrote about attending the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, MN, and the Democratic National Convention in Denver, CO, for The Stiletto Blog. She is a co-founder of Women for Fair Politics and of The New Agenda. She has been a Democrat for 40 years. She is also the author of “Wanna Win, a Democratic Guide to Fundraising,” and travels around the country holding fundraising seminars for Democratic candidates, county party chairs and campaign workers. She has been married to Nick Ruccia for 35 years, and they have two sons, Daniel, 25, and Michael, 19.
- funny thing how it is acceptable to vote for a man because he is a veteran or he has spent time in other countries and met with foreign leaders or he has managed a business but a vote based soley on gender draws immediate criticism when the candidate is a woman..
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"...if Obama wins I will leave the Democratic party and register as an Independent, just like Joe Lieberman..."
Buh-bye.
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