General Discussion

We elected a Black man, for God’s sake, despite the firehose of racist sewage aimed at him. Yes, Barack Obama is brilliant — but above all, he is a man.

Hillary Clinton was massively qualified for the job. Just contemplate her resume for a minute. A lot of her law school classmates thought she could be President — not necessarily Bill. The Right Wing clearly saw her as a threat from the get-go — they have been using her as a non-stop punching bag and boogyman ever since Bill ran for governor of Arkansas. They will even after she’s in her grave (may that be decades from now) .

Kamala Harris is not so much a mixed-race woman as she is — a woman. She’s qualified, my God is she qualified, a hundred times more than Trump. She, like Hillary, lost by the narrowest of margins — but a loss is a loss, and we all lost.

I don’t like it. It’s been devastating. I’m pretty old, and there have been times I could just see the goal in sight. I loved Obama, and I thought the fact that we elected him twice was a sign that we as a nation were growing up. Apparently not so much. And as for a woman president — after experiencing Trump and MAGA, I don’t think I’ll get to see that happen. You’ll have to make it happen.

DUers periodically bring up the fact that other countries end up with female leaders. But afaict all or nearly all are in parliamentary systems, which operate differently than our system in crucial ways, coalitions and compromises among them.