Kamala, Joe and the Glass Elevator
As it turns out, breaking the glass ceiling had been the wrong strategy all along.
It is dizzying in 2020 to return to the topic of breaking the ultimate glass ceiling by putting a woman in the US White House, in light of the events of the last four years. The last time feminists engaged the topic with vigor, US politics was stable, the office of the presidency having been occupied by three consecutive centrist two-term presidents, the exception being George W. Bush, who was elected as the sitting VP for centrist Ronald Regan. The candidate, Hilary Clinton, a decades-long fixture of the Democratic establishment, had served as Secretary of State and First Lady. Her opponent, Donald Trump, had gone on the record earlier in his career calling Republican voters stupid and celebrating unspeakable chauvinism.
He won. She lost.
Like all feminists, I was heartbroken on the eve of the 2016 elections. To have Hilary Clinton lose to a “pussy-grabber in chief” was more than I could bear. Yet, witnessing the flood of racist and sexist hate unleashed by Trump these last four years, I have to admit, I don’t think that Hilary had the interpersonal savvy to integrate the seismic shifts caused by an Obama presidency. The first black president poked the beast of the racist United States, and those racists hated Clinton with terrifying…
