“A few months ago, I imagined the top tier looking very different,” a feminist operative told Annie Parnes of the Hill recently, expressing concern about the Democratic presidential field … “Especially after the 2018 midterms wins and the ‘Me Too.’”
Hillary Clinton had cracked the first, minor, glass ceiling when she was nominated for president by a national party, but she cracked her head open on the big one above it. After this came a series of disappointments and let-downs — beginnings that failed to be followed up on, and breakthroughs that failed to take place.
Who dreamed the Women’s March, an in-your-face slam at Trump to jump start the resistance, would have no successors?
Who ever thought that the Democrats’ win in the House in the midterm elections in 2018 would turn to a nightmare in 2019, when the young, vibrant, diverse, and engaged feminists who stormed into Congress turned out to be socialists and anti-Semites, dividing their party and giving Donald Trump plenty of ammo to hurl at his foes?
And who knew the polls — the first taken since the campaigns began — would have such unsettling news? Feminists had believed on and after Black Tuesday that Trump’s win was some sort of a glitch in the gears of the system — that the public would sooner or later return to its senses, realize the the reign of the old, white, and male would have to be over, and happily vote for the change.
Imagine their shock when the polls did come in, only to show that the white, old, and male lead all comers.
The leaders — Vermont senator and socialist Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden — are older than Trump by seven and five years respectively. The polls show Sanders and Biden splitting about 49% of the vote between them, leaving the young and the restless far behind. Add up the ages of Nancy Pelosi, Donald Trump, and Mitch McConnell and you have a gerontocracy. Add in the Supreme Court and it makes the problem much worse.
Then again, what if this is just what the public desires? And suppose what the public desires is Trump? In the Washington Post, Dan Balz and Matt Vizer discussed this frightening prospect in comparing the president to one of his rivals: “Sanders, like Trump, is scrappy and combative, and his ardent, vocal following is intent on antagonizing his rivals,” they write. “His huge grassroots fundraising operation will keep him fueled indefinitely. That has spawned fears by some opponents that, like Trump in 2016, he could win primaries with a relatively small plurality in a crowded field.”
But if Trump shares his aggression and crankiness with Sanders, he shares something different with Biden, a “hands-on” approach to many women he doesn’t even know. Biden’s approach might be said to be “creepy,” whereas Trump’s seems to be more like “gross.”
This idea of a president as a cranky old man with a roving hands problem should be more than enough to creep out the whole country. For the feminists, who have had enough grief already, this comes as perhaps the worst news of all.
