A place in Hell.

There is a place in Hell for women who do not help other women. – Madeline Albright

I thought I’d read just about every angle on the Presidential campaign, but apparently I missed this one:

Hillary Clinton Forum

Yes, here at last is that Mysterious Island of Pissed-Off Women that I didn’t think really existed: the liberal female voters so completely consumed with rage at the Democratic failure to nominate Hillary for President that THEY ARE VOTING REPUBLICAN TO SUPPORT SARAH PALIN.

For the first time in my life, I’m truly ashamed of my sister Vaginal-Americans.

Consider some of the hateful anger against Obama and the Democrats spewed on the Hillary Clinton forum when Sarah Palin was chosen (and this is a representative, if not underrepresentative, sampling of the posts there):

Buuuuurn Obama Buuuurn! What a slap in the face. If it’s Palin, I will put blood and sweat into campaigning for that team.

I am THRILLED if this is true. It will make it easier for me to vote McCain (which I would have done anyway). Now I’m excited! It’s not Hillary (she’ll be President in ’12)…. but it’s exciting none the less!

McCain has picked PALIN!!! I am THRILLED! AS for the Dums whining that she doens’t have experience running things–SHE HAS FIVE KIDS!! TRUST ME! SHE KNOWS HOW TO RUN THINGS! GOD BLESS MCCAIN/PALIN!!!

now you know I will be backing my girl. I admire Sarah and I think it is toooo cool that we were born the same year.

Well this lifelong Democrat is most certainly advocating a Republican vote!!!!

A woman VP is VERY exciting and it makes me advocate a Republican vote even more since Obama refused to allow the Democratic party, especially the women, the opportunity to make this history!!! Obama’s actions should be taken as absolute proof that he is a woman hater. Never did come to terms with all those unresolved abandonment issues.

Talk about cutting the baby in half and then throwing it out with the bathwater. Here’s a group of women so furious that they are willing to sell out all of their own – and their preferred candidate’s – hard-fought visions and ideals in order to vote for someone with the right working parts between her legs. How is supporting a woman who does not support women “supporting women”? If the cognitive dissonance doesn’t cause your brain to implode, the irony is enough to knock you senseless. As my father would say, “Grow up.” These comments – “my girl Sarah”? – sound like jilted vengeful prom dates, not adult women with their faculties intact.

Before anyone claws my eyes out, let me say that I have some solid feminist credentials. Went to a women’s college, marched a whole lot, read (and can still quote) Mary Daly. I still have my 20-something year old T-shirt from my college’s 100th anniversary celebration that proudly proclaimed us “100 years of castrating bitches.” I understand disenfranchised and disaffected and just plain dissed.

Believe me, I would love nothing more than to see Senator Clinton or another intelligent, educated, competent woman elected into office. But not just any woman, and certainly not an ultra-conservative right-wing Republican woman who will set women’s rights back at least 50 years if, say, she has the chance to appoint a Supreme Court justice.

Send me straight to Hell now, but how is changing your vote from Hillary to Sarah any different than saying that I am randomly interchangeable with Jhumpa Lahiri, Pulitzer-prize winning Indian woman writer? That would be offensive (at least to Ms. Lahiri) and, I think most would agree, racist.

Similarly, it’s not ONLY offensive, it’s just plain sexist to claim that any white woman politician, let alone a right-wing Republican, can be substituted for Hillary Clinton with equal effect. That’s right, you crossover Hillary voters. YOU. ARE. SEXIST.

I’m going to hazard a guess that most of these women are white, because otherwise, they would understand that identity stems from many sources. I’m a working woman, but I’m also a minority. Throw in Alaskan, environmentalist, pro-choice, liberal, and you have an amalgam of issues, all of which are important and complex and intertwined. I’m not going to vote to support a crazy old ultra-conservative and his nutty sidekick just because she’s female, any more than I’m going to vote for a jerk like Dinesh D’Souza just because he’s Indian.

There’s still a lot of people out there who subscribe to the notion that women are too emotional to think rationally in a time of crisis. Sadly, some women really are.