Hardly the left

Katha Pollitt, writing in The Nation:

If Hillary gets the nomination, Ralph might pick up the hard-left sexist vote, always a valuable demographic, but if it’s Obama versus McCain?

Why yes, there’s really no conceivable reason to vote against Hillary Clinton other than to express your hard-left sexism.

"Hard left" is the smear phrase of choice for conservatives in this country when talking about, you know, the actual left, and up until now the main people I’d heard using it were 1) Alan Dershowitz and 2) Fox News commentators.  Occasionally in the same segment.  But apparently Pollitt isn’t too concerned about the ideological bedfellows she’s choosing; after all, there are Democrats to elect!

6 thoughts on “Hardly the left”

  1. Yeah, I noticed too that she decided to pick on McCain’s wife: “Besides, McCain’s not so old that he couldn’t get himself a much younger trophy wife, and even if Cindy McCain looks brittle and unhappy and like she hasn’t eaten in a decade, she is always there by his side, a visual reminder of his manly prowess.” I can’t remember Pollitt ever dissing a woman’s looks before, especially an older woman; that’s the sort of thing that she’d usually attack other pundits for doing. Could this be “hard-left sexism” in action? But as you say, there are Democrats to elect!

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  3. Oh, there are people who call themselves the “hard left,” and there’s a strong overlap between that group and the belief that women’s issues are mere “gonadal politics,” as Nader once put it. That’s what Pollitt is criticizing.
    She has a rosier view of the Democrats than I do, but she’s right about quite a few things and many of her criticisms of Nader in that column are true.

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  4. petey: I’m kicking myself for not having said that.
    Serafina: Nader was actually talking about LGBT issues with that line, not women’s issues generally:

    Much to the dismay of many progressive activists, Nader has publicly refused to comment on key issues such as abortion, affirmative action, and immigration. And he appeared to deride gay and lesbian rights when he called the issue of same-sex marriage an example of “gonadal politics.”
    The phrase was meant to be dignified, not dismissive, insists Nader. “Linguistically, it’s a pure phrase that literally means `that which generates,”‘ he says. “It came about when Bill Safire was baiting me, asking my positions on a [host] of sexual issues. I wanted to end the exchange. I thought `gonadal politics’ was a more dignified phrase than `love politics,’ `sexual politics,’ or `personal politics.”‘

    And since then he’s not only apologized for saying it but has taken just the stand on these issues that you’d expect him to. They just haven’t ever been his core issues, but I think he’s opened up his worldview quite a bit since 1996 (I know I was surprised at how informed and nuanced his views were on foreign policy).
    Duncan: Yep, Pollitt’s a relentless hypocrite. Consider that men who criticize Hillary are routinely termed “sexist” or “misogynist”, but women who do it in the same way are merely engaging in “mean-girl snark”.

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  5. This is good:
    If he had wanted to reach a mass audience he could have run in the primaries like Dennis Kucinich–or, for that matter, Ron Paul–and gotten a ton of free airtime and a chance to show directly his superiority over the other candidates.
    Yes, Kucinich got a “ton of free airtime”, didn’t he? And he sure ran rings around those corporate Dems in the debates… oh, wait.
    Never mind.

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  6. John Caruso: Hardly the left

    Katha Pollitt: If Hillary gets the nomination, Ralph might pick up the hard-left sexist vote, always a valuable demographic, but if it’s Obama versus McCain? Why yes, there’s really no conceivable reason to vote against Hillary Clinton othe…

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