IN MY SHOES: It’s My Party And I’ll Vent If I Want To
By Cynthia Ruccia
Special To The Stiletto Blog
On Inauguration Day, I had a luncheon at my house for my new best friends – members of The New Agenda Ohio. In case you don't know about The New Agenda, we're a group of women and men who were disgusted by the sexism throughout the 2008 presidential campaign, and who joined together to create a nonpartisan group devoted to women's rights.
We are an inclusive group, taking the abortion issue off the table, so that we can be a strong voice to support the next woman running for President and other state and local offices. You can learn more – and are welcome to join us - at www.thenewagenda.net.
Getting back to the luncheon, I kept receiving one E-mail after another from very depressed people who were dreading Inauguration Day. We’re all supposed to be very, very happy that Barack Obama was elected. Well, a lot of us weren't feeling happy at all, and the misery was building. So I determined to make this Inauguration Day a great memory on my own terms.
About a dozen of us got together and vented – Big Time! It's funny, but although many of these women hadn't met before, within five minutes they were sharing their deepest, darkest thoughts about why they were unhappy with the Obama campaign, the media and the Democratic Party. We ate a splendid meal – nothing as fancy as the Inaugural Luncheon - but I served tortellini, salad and assorted breads, and for dessert we had had fresh fruit salad and one of the women brought a plate of blondies (light-colored brownies) in honor of Hillary Clinton. We also we went through a few bottles of Francis Ford Coppola Chardonnay (even if he did support Obama!) and had such a great time no one wanted to go back to work.
A couple of The New Agenda members who attended the ceremony in Washington, D.C. kept us informed of the goings on via Twitter – but from a strong feminist perspective that none of the media provided. In fact, we kept the TV off the whole time.
Yes, it turned out to be a memorable day for me. But ironic, too. As a party loyalist, I worked so hard for so many years to put the pieces in place for a Democrat to win in 2008. This being Ohio, a friend and I started organizing our county down to the Block Captain level three years ahead of the election to make sure the state would not go Republican again. Little did I know then that by the time my careful planning had reached fruition, I would have grown so estranged from the Democratic Party that I could not celebrate. I would no more have imagined this twist of fate than if a Martian walked through my door asking for a glass of water. I was a Democrat for life. That is, until the sexism and the hate mail and the death threats and the accusations of racism. All from my fellow Democrats.
I'm ashamed I ever behaved like a rabid partisan – I’m cured now; I’m an independent. Too late, I discovered that blind faith can enslave a person of good intentions. Hannah Arendt wrote very eloquently about this phenomenon in her book, “The Banality of Evil.”
As a The New Agenda Ohio founder, I'm working as a nonpartisan to challenge the two major parties - and independent third parties - to nominate a woman for an open U.S. Senate seat in 2010. I'm setting up meetings with party chairs and the potential women nominees. I haven't been to the Democratic party headquarters, since I resigned my party positions – and they may be surprised to discover that when I start fundraising again, it won't be for them - but we're going to have to do business together to get more women elected.
So I just took a deep breath and marched right in with my head held high. The receptionist asked me whether I would be running for a municipal office this year. I laughed to myself -she obviously didn't realize what a traitor I had become in 2008.
The party chair and I had a long talk. It seems that when I started appearing on national TV campaigning for the McCain-Palin ticket, headquarters had been deluged with phone calls from all over the country demanding my expulsion but the party chair refused, because of all I had done for the party over the years. I’ll admit it: Flattery goes a long way with me, and it felt good to hear those kind words. But I made it clear that I'm focused only on women's rights now, and am furthering my cause in a nonpartisan way – which means that if Democrats nominate women The New Agenda will help get them elected, and if Republicans nominate women we will help get them elected, too.
So: Onward we go. My hope is that once the Obamaniacs come down to earth, they will feel empowered and compassionate enough to give another disempowered group – women - a leg up. Hey, anything's possible!
Editorial Note: Cynthia Ruccia’s last post was a first-person piece, “I Am A Hybrid - And How Cool Is That!” She has also written about attending the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, MN, and the Democratic National Convention in Denver, CO, for this blog. She is a co-founder of Women for Fair Politics and of The New Agenda. Until the 2008 election, she had been a Democrat for 40 years. She has been married to Nick Ruccia for 35 years, and they have two sons, Daniel, 25, and Michael, 19.
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