Women I Can Believe In

No matter how you look at it, it’s been a rough election cycle for women, despite all those cracks in the glass ceiling.

First, we had the historic–and historically messy–candidacy of Hillary Clinton. It’s no secret that I wasn’t exactly a fan of Hill’s during the primary season (and it’s no secret to the point that I can’t link to just one post in which I was railing against her).  While her campaign was historic, I frequently found her tactics disgusting. I don’t have daughters, but I have young female cousins and I frequently work with bright young women. And Hillary Clinton is no longer the role model I would choose for them based on her do-anything, say-anything campaign.

But despite my anger, Hillary redeemed herself to me (at least to some extent) with her speech at the Democratic National Convention. Even if it was all bullshit, even if her heart was breaking, her plea to her supporters–”Was it only about me?”–was wonderful (even if it was delivered in an orange pantsuit. Yikes!). When it truly mattered, Hillary put the Democratic Party–and, given what’s at stake in this election, the country–first, and for that, she’s earned back at least a little of the admiration I had for her during her husband’s administration and her terms in the Senate.

The Republicans, not to be outdone, have also given women a historic candidate in Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin. But as far as I’m concerned, the history ends at the fact that Palin has the requisite lady parts. Now, in my opinion, her candidacy is just historically bad. I don’t think I’ve ever so viscerally disagreed with another human being, from her social and economic policies right down to the way she wears her hair.

And then she opened her mouth.

Palin’s speech at the Republican National Convention made Hillary Clinton’s worst moments on the campaign trail look like an argument for her cannonization. The Pitbull with Lipstick Who Looks Like Peggy Hill But Sounds Like Judy Tenuda gave one of the most mean-spirited, hateful–not to mention, completely devoid of any substantive policy–speeches I’ve ever seen (And a close second would be the speech Rudy Guiliani gave immediately before Palin’s, but as I lived in the New York in the waning days of his administration, I already knew what a mean, opportunistic prick he was. And besides, we’re talking about the women here.). I was particularly appalled at how both Palin and Guiliani gleefully slammed the role of the “community organizer,” Palin going so far as to say that community organizers don’t have any “real responsibility.” Well, here’s some information for you, Sarah (and Rudy, who, as the former mayor of New York, which is composed of thousands of small communities, should really know better than to make fun of the work that these people do)–guess where community organizers do most of their work? Churches. That’s right–churches, you self-righteous, Evangelical, holier-than-thou crazy woman. But I’m guessing that someone who embraces the nickname “Sarah Barracuda” probably isn’t too concerned with the least among us unless we’re sending them to do “God’s will” in Iraq or trying “reprogram” them if they’re gay.

So when you’ve been let down by Hillary and Sarah scares the living hell out of you, what’s a politically-inclined girl to do?

Well, I’ll tell you which women I can currently get behind in this election–Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart.

In case you haven’t been paying attention, the McCain campaign has been using the Heart song “Barracuda” as Sarah Palin’s theme song. And even after the Wilson sisters asked them to stop using the song, they went ahead and used it again during the last night of the convention, prompting the sisters to release this statement (and note how they point out the irony in the Republicans using the song–which doesn’t exactly have the most positive message–to promote their girl). 

So kudos to the Wilson sisters for doing what the media apparently isn’t ready to do–stand up to the McCain campaign. Thanks to Ann and Nancy for showing me that there are still some females out there I can believe in. Hell–in light of the farce that this election season has become all around, let’s just go all in–Ann and Nancy Wilson ‘08, Independent Party candidates (And I just arbitrarily put Ann before Nancy–I’ll let them work out the order of the ticket for themselves). Women unite!

And considering that Nancy is married to Cameron Crowe, at least we know the convention videos will be interesting.