The Lonely Life of a Hillary Clinton Supporter

Yesterday, I as out shopping. A white woman in her 50s with maroon spiky/dirty hair glared at me as I walked from the Baby Gap to the parking lot. She yelled "FUCK Hilary. Fuck her". And then said to me "Yeah, keep walking, keep walking". Un-real. All because I had a little "Hillary Clinton" button next to the peace sign on my coat. I wanted to say "Hey, the 80s just called and want their hairdo back".

But that's the lot for we Hillary supporters. I didn't start out one -- I was was very pro John Edwards. I felt his "two Americas" resonated with what I felt was a big problem in this country. And I thought he could win. But he dropped out before my primary, so I chose Hilary. And I was leaning that way from a while because I was getting pretty disgusted by the rampant sexism, lookism, ageism that I felt Clinton was subject to, unlike the other candidates.

More and more, I agreed with my 73 year old mom, one of only two girls at her college in a city in India. She told me she was supporting Hilary (and I should too) because these men have tried to bring her down for two decades and she's never let them. I felt my mom was speaking for herself and that she admired Hilary's grit.

My high-school age daughter was also a Hillary supporter because as she said "The boys at school talk about how they'd never vote for a chick. It makes me so mad!". Believe me, it makes me mad, too.

And then I read Gloria Steinem's piece about how Barack Obama would be judged differently were he a different gender. And it's true. People would look askance at a woman with young children and a husband who worked as a lawyer running for president. Because that's not what society thinks woman should do. Women should be attractive, thin, support their men, raise their children and then disappear....

I'm not disappearing and I don't think Hillary is either. I voted for Hillary because she seems to care about healthcare and poor children. Not many politicians today do. Is she perfect? No. But none of us are -- we just don't have all our mistakes failures broadcast on cable TV and litigated by Ken Starr.