One of the major narratives surround Hillary's run for the White House is that some women like Hillary and others don't. While this story at least gets a bunch of supposed feminists to weigh in on her gender and her "feminism," it doesn't manage to find one that will actually weigh in on things like not kicking Bill to the curb, her actual positions on so-called feminist issues or anything like that, let alone one who says she's not voting for Hillary. They probably should have talked to us last week! But I have been mulling over Hillary for a good long while, and I consider myself a feminist, so my thoughts on her are after the jump.
As a Senator, Hillary has surrounded herself with at least as many Kool-Aid drinking staff at George Bush. They are notoriously difficult to talk to or get in touch with, they aren't always helpful when constituents come to town, and they're more than happy to call you when you have something they want and then never return a phone call when you're looking for some information. From my perspective, this doesn't bode well for her being a significantly different style of President than GWB — just a different set of politics in the same kind of President. Good policy doesn't come from an echo chamber of sycophants, as many people have pointed out in the last (almost) 7 years.
Furthermore, I think she's squishy on the issues. I know as well as anyone that politicians are all about triangulation and she's made an art of it. But, personally, I would rather disagree with a politician on an issue because it is a matter of conscience for them (and thus know that they have an actual conscience) than to have someone who tells me they'll just do whatever the polls say most people want. I am far more comfortable with someone with a conscience making decisions than I am entrusting my government to people with nothing more than great political minds.
Finally, and this comes from a place of deep pain, I am concerned that Hillary could end up being the feminist equivalent of a shande far di goyim, in a way that I don't feel that Barack Obama would be to the African-American community. I think that Hillary has the capacity to be a decent President (although, not a great one) and an equal capacity to be the President that a generation of people point to and says "that's why" the next time a woman runs. I personally think that, for all Obama's flaws as a candidate, he just doesn't have the capacity to fuck things up for other candidates of color down the line as Hillary does for women.
Plus, I don't vote for female candidates just to vote for a woman.