by Richard Helling

Created on: May 09, 2008

I would first like to state that I have no particular political allegiance and I tend to think presidents and presidential candidates fall somewhere between pond scum and an overflowing septic tank. I'm uncomfortable with any group who spends that much time lying. That being said, I do think the 2008 election offers a glimpse of hope for this country. Not because I like any particular candidate, but because two-thirds of the candidates for president are not old white men. Considering every other presidential election was exclusively old white men I think we can agree that different perspectives can only help our public discourse.

However, one peculiar thing has struck me during this bare-knuckled brawl for the Whitehouse. I'm very surprised at the blatant misogynistic attacks on Hillary Clinton. I have seen her called just about everything imaginable and most of it is unfit to print, but one of the most unimpressive is the Facebook group "Hillary Clinton: Stop running for president and make me a sandwich." Depending on which numbers you believe, they have anywhere from 20,000 to 100,000 "members". It troubles me that in these times so many people would place their names on something so incredibly degrading and outwardly sexist.

Imagine someone calling Obama the N-word and people signing up for it or laughing about it. Al Sharpton and Jessee Jackson would be marching on any group that even thought about supporting an outwardly racist statement made about Obama and rightly so. So why the double standard? Why is it perfectly acceptable and even applauded to make stupid statements like "make me a sandwich", "iron my shirt" or Rush Limbaugh's little gem of "The country isn't ready to look at an old woman." I'll just ignore the irony of Rush Limbaugh calling anyone unattractive and move right to the fundamental question. What the Hell? Why worry about qualifications or experience? You have new ideas about how to help some very serious problems? Not if you're going to look bad while solving those problems. Is it really possible that there are that many total morons living in America? Right. Some answers are self-evident.

I'm not making an argument for Hillary Clinton to become president. I am making the argument that there is some serious underlying woman-hating going on in this country and it at least needs to be examined. It is legitimate to question any presidential candidate's policies, political ties and leadership abilities but not their race or sex.

The fact that a woman and an African-American have a chance at becoming President of The United States is a sign or real progress in this country. It just appears that we still have quite a way to go.

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